Perhaps your weight problem has nothing to do with a lack of willpower.

A new study suggests that if you are overweight, you may be deficient in the hormone orexin, a substance produced in the brain that prevents weight gain through its involvement with the production of fat-burning brown fat, reports My Health News Daily.

The research, published this week in the journal Cell Metabolism, found that mice deficient in the hormone gained more weight than mice that didn't lack orexin, even though they ate the same high-fat diet.

"Without orexin, mice are permanently programmed to be obese,” study researcher Devanjan Sikder, an assistant professor in Sanford-Burnham Research Institute, in Lake Nona, Fla., tells My Health News Daily. “With it, brown fat is activated and they burn more calories."

Researchers suggest that supplementing orexin may help people shed pounds, but more study needs to be done.

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