Having lost and gained weight multiple times, it can be a psychological hell when it seems both the body and the mind are doing everything they can to fight against your discipline and planning and keep you where you are instead.
And that isn't counting the effects of other parts of your body like your gut microbiome.
In my personal endeavors I've found that the amount of self-discipline something requires is inversely proportional to how motivated I am to achieve the end result. If I'm being required or forced by an external circumstance, I end up needing enormous amounts of self-discipline. But if I really want it (as in, if I'm internally motivated) then all I need to do is resist the occasional temptation to veer off the path, so to speak.
Trust me when I say I want to lose weight but have started to succeed multiple times only to eventually fail in my internal battle of will
Trust me, it's too soon to say what you're saying. Source: lost >150lbs and kept it off for the past decade.
Can you see that perhaps your level of commitment is not possible for some people? Some people simply lack the willpower to do this.
It absolutely is. And I say this as someone who, after 25 years smoking, I stopped one day. I wasn't even really wanting or trying to quit. I just... stopped.
I consider myself incredibly fortunate at the complex, unlikely, and non-transferable, set of conditions that made this happen to me. Despite my success, or precisely because of my success, I am the least valid person to help a smoker quit.
Ah, I see, you have the highest possible qualifications in the medical field!
> instead of giving them a strong motivation to resolve the underlying cause.
OK, so, please explain, then, how you treat, for example, various thyroid problems that are the underlying cause for increased body weight and that no real treatment is known for? Given that you are so highly qualified as to call bullshit on a medical professional, you sure will be able to offer more than telling everyone who has superficially similar symptoms to yours that they are too stupid to cure themselves because they don't do what you have done?
And yes thyroid problems make it amazingly difficult to manage your weight.
So what the studies say of everyone who starts a diet some will successfully lose a significant amount of weight. And of those success stories every single study that's followed them for 5-10 years shows that almost everyone regains almost all the weight.
The most famous of these studies was "The Biggest Loser". But are others, but they all show the same effect.
I've tried finding a study that showed sustained long term weight loss through diet, and there aren't any.
If you want to be thin, spend >80% of your effort in the kitchen. If you want to be strong, join a gym.
Sorry, but I have to call BS on that. Having lost ~50 lbs last year (after my blood pressure started getting scary), I can tell you it's all about planning and self-discipline. You plan a diet that fills your stomach and provides the major types of nutrients, yet gives less calories that your body burns every day, and you stick to it for a couple of months. No bullshit, no cheat days, no "let me just have that 500cal chocolate bar as an exception". And it works like clockwork, solving a bunch of health problems on the way.
As a matter of fact, I would call it very unethical to comfort people into an unhealthy lifestyle associated with major health risks and shorter life expectancy just to get an extra buck from treating numerous symptoms, instead of giving them a strong motivation to resolve the underlying cause.