Why 'Eat Less, Move More' Doesn't Work for Most People

If you listen to the media, and to many doctors, the answer to why people are overweight is simple: they eat too much. People are overweight because they eat more food than their body needs. It's a simple equation of energy in versus energy out. That's what we're told. If only it were that simple.

People who are overweight know that they are overweight. If things were as simple as just eating less, then the problem would be solved overnight. But there are so many other factors involved that it becomes utterly redundant as a way of understanding obesity, because it doesn't account for all the multitude of factors that impact whether someone will be overweight or not.

The 'calories in, calories out' model, whilst technically correct from a physics standpoint, fails to account for the complex biological, psychological, and social factors that influence eating behaviour. It's like saying that bankruptcy is simply a matter of spending more than you earn. Technically true, but it ignores all the circumstances, decisions, and systems that led to that financial situation.

It's clear from the millions of people who struggle to lose weight and keep it off that things are more complicated than that. It's not helped by the overwhelming number of fad diets, all of which promise the same thing: simple, painless weight loss. Whilst some of them might work in the short term, they inevitably fail eventually. People regain their weight because the fundamental issues haven't been addressed.

Obesity is usually a symptom of something else: it is fuelled by underlying issues relating to people's sense of self, their mood, their need to feel comforted or rewarded, their culture and social life, sense of shame and guilt, worth and happiness. Obesity might appear to be something physical, but it has its roots in psychology and how we feel. What's happening in your mind is being played out in your body, and the food you eat.

Many people have learned to use food as a way of regulating or managing their emotions. In these cases, no amount of dieting is going to solve this underlying problem, and indeed, people are bound to fail at their diet eventually as they will need to return to using food at some point to deal with difficulties in their life.

This understanding fundamentally changes how we should approach weight management. The information about calories and nutrition was never the missing piece. It's the emotional and psychological framework that needs to change. This is precisely why GLP-1 medications can be so valuable: they quieten the noise around food long enough for people to finally address these deeper issues. For the first time, many people have the mental space to understand and change their relationship with food, rather than simply fighting against their appetite.