Your #2 point is false. Most diet/exercise programs appear to "work" in the short run, but fail in the long term. Very few people who diet haven't gained the we

Your #2 point is false. Most diet/exercise programs appear to "work" in the short run, but fail in the long term. Very few people who diet haven't gained the weight back and then some within 3 years. The sad truth is that we don't yet have any GOOD advice to give overweight people who want to not be overweight. Telling them to diet to lose weight is, in practice, terrible advice. The headline is fine if you keep in mind that the subject of the study is only one of a number of mechanisms by which people could be not at fault for their weight gain. There's things like the "fat virus" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infectobesity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infectobesity). There are epigenetic factors - we're just learning that how well your grandparents ate can affect your health. There might well be chemical or medical factors too - overuse of antibiotics changing the bacterial load is a common suggestion.