Genetics: Do we have no choice but to play the hand we're dealt? Tall and short, dark and light, freckled and tanned, we come in many packages with innumerable features, most of them determined by our genetics before we ever draw breath. Very few of these traits can we control, and we just have to play the hand we're dealt. But when people are earnestly trying to lose weight and failing again and again, many ultimately get the sneaking suspicion that they really are playing against a stacked deck. They may be right.