I’ve also read that gene expression diverges in twins over time—so if a lot of the difference in body composition is about gene expression, there might be a few pairs of twins where, just by chance, either the willpower or the fat storage changes kick in earlier or more strongly.
“Willpower” is not just one thing—there are people who can’t stick to diets who show a lot of will power in other parts of their lives, and vice versa.
As a young teen I played basketball with a pair of identical twins. One was fairly slight, the other rather stocky and an inch or two taller. Not sure why.
maybe they weren’t identical twins. Unless they did a genetic test they wouldn’t know for sure. I read something once that said that a significant number of same-sex fraternal twins are misidentified as identical.
When you look at the ultrasound, fraternal twins have separate placentas while identical twins share a placenta. This is already visible at 7 weeks of pregnancy. The difference is very important to care during the pregnancy as identical twins have more risky pregnancies due to more possible complications so I would be very surprised if the obgyn does not notice this.
After more research into twins I found I was wrong. Actually, it is more complicated than I thought and placentas are not so straightforward, so the anonymous poster can be right.
That is very interesting. I hadn’t thought yet that the way we identify twins right now is just by looking at them (“they look pretty much the same, they must be identical”).
I’ve also read that gene expression diverges in twins over time—so if a lot of the difference in body composition is about gene expression, there might be a few pairs of twins where, just by chance, either the willpower or the fat storage changes kick in earlier or more strongly.
“Willpower” is not just one thing—there are people who can’t stick to diets who show a lot of will power in other parts of their lives, and vice versa.
As a young teen I played basketball with a pair of identical twins. One was fairly slight, the other rather stocky and an inch or two taller. Not sure why.
maybe they weren’t identical twins. Unless they did a genetic test they wouldn’t know for sure. I read something once that said that a significant number of same-sex fraternal twins are misidentified as identical.
When you look at the ultrasound, fraternal twins have separate placentas while identical twins share a placenta. This is already visible at 7 weeks of pregnancy. The difference is very important to care during the pregnancy as identical twins have more risky pregnancies due to more possible complications so I would be very surprised if the obgyn does not notice this.
After more research into twins I found I was wrong. Actually, it is more complicated than I thought and placentas are not so straightforward, so the anonymous poster can be right.
That is very interesting. I hadn’t thought yet that the way we identify twins right now is just by looking at them (“they look pretty much the same, they must be identical”).