The point still needs to be made, since there are _still_ people who honestly believe that weight loss is achieved by some mechanism other than consuming less c

The point still needs to be made, since there are _still_ people who honestly believe that weight loss is achieved by some mechanism other than consuming less calories than is expended. They still think there is some other form of "magic" involved. So to digress the discussion onto behaviours, etc. is a distraction from the fundamental fact that needs to be hammered home until it becomes ingrained. At that point we can work on the behaviours required to achieve that end. Otherwise you have what you have now, people changing behaviours and trying to eat healthy, or exercise more, thinking that those behaviours are the magic secret to weight loss. It is not, and you can lose weight eating McDonalds and sitting at your desk all day if the amount of calories in the McDonalds you're eating is low enough. It's not healthy, but healthy/not healthy has nothing to do with calorie restriction and consequently weight loss.