The problem is that weight is an issue of behavior change much like drug addiction or depression, so you need to measure success of a treatment by doing outcome

The problem is that weight is an issue of behavior change much like drug addiction or depression, so you need to measure success of a treatment by doing outcome studies over the long-term. For losing weight, these outcomes are shockingly poor for almost every approach. That's why people are looking for a silver bullet; the lead bullets are proving to be anything but effective for actually addressing the problem of overweight people.