Beyond personal causes like metabolism or diet, there've been some fascinating discussions here in the past few months about why technologically advanced societies seem to have an exponential obesity problem starting around 1980, relative to other cultures that exercise less and take in more calories. I can't find the thread. But it definitely bears consideration. I think the view would be that hacking your way partially out of a problem isn't necessarily bad, but we've seen decades of data used to incorrectly imply one chain of causality or another and there's a larger problem to solve than a drug or a tummy tuck can tackle.

There's also recent evidence that consuming fructose increases your intestine's absorption of nutrients from the food you consume. The rapid integration of fructose into everyday foods (i.e. high fructose corn syrup being put into bread & sauces as a bulking / thickening agent) may be connected to the western world obesity crises.

Didn't know this! Assume it's this study: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02195-1

Was posted on HN 4 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28239113

(in case other people want to check it out)

Yep more research being done on the hormone imbalance side. Nascent area though.