I used to drink soda as a fidget. I needed something to stim while poring over shitty code trying to extract cleverness. The preponderance of free soda situations in the 90’s tells me there were a lot more of us hiding in plain sight. Several times I switched to water or tea and lost 10 lbs pretty quickly. Usually after bad news from the dentist.

That’s not a weight-loss plan though, that’s a fit-back-into-your-current-wardrobe plan. People with “weight problems” are generally on an upward slope and a point source puts a notch in the graph, it doesn’t zero the slope or take it negative. What it does say, if anything, is that there are factors we can control that moves the needle, but they are the journey not the destination.