it's one of those it's complicated answers. For example preventing the initial weight gain is mostly in one's control but once already overweight it's closer to

it's one of those it's complicated answers. For example preventing the initial weight gain is mostly in one's control but once already overweight it's closer to doing physical therapy for an injury. The hormonal and Neurochemical sensors/pathways are out of sync (insulin resistance, high inflamation, leptin resistance to name a few), and in mice models those changes never go away even after having lost the weight, so I don't want to go so far as say that being fat causes brain damage, but there are negative changes that come from having ever been overweight. We are finding out more about this every year, less than 10 years ago we discovered that fat cells produce hormones and aren't just storage containers, since then we have found about 5 other hormones of which some act as neurotransmitters that are also produced by fat cells, which would have been unbelievable pre 2010. Most weight loss has more to do with hormone triggering than calories, but the main way to trigger those hormones is in fact diet and exercise, but it begs the questions; what kinds of diets and what kinds of exercise and what other things can affect this (things like time of day, fasted state, timing of exercise to eating, macro nutrients etc). Also most people who are overweight or who overeat it's hard to tell how much is due to something like poverty and how much is due to poor emotional regulation, as it's been shown those are higher leading causes of obesity than merely overreating or being lazy.