Disheartening, perhaps, but I believe it's true

Diet and exercise alone are no cure for obesity, doctors say: For most of the nation’s 79 million adults and 13 million children who are obese, the “eat less, move more” treatment, as currently practiced, is a prescription for failure, a group of weight-loss specialists says

A group of respected physicians is challenging the common assertion that obesity can be easily fixed by diet and exercise.

For most of the nation’s 79 million adults and 13 million children who are obese, the “eat less, move more” treatment, as currently practiced, is a prescription for failure, these doctors say.

In a commentary published Thursday in the journal Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology, four weight-loss specialists set out to correct what they view as the widespread misimpression that people who have become and stayed obese for more than a couple of years can, by diet and exercise alone, return to a normal, healthy weight and stay that way.

“Once obesity is established, however, body weight seems to become biologically ‘stamped in’ and defended,” wrote Mount Sinai Hospital weight-management physician Christopher Ochner and colleagues from the medical faculties of the University of Colorado, Northwestern University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Everyone agrees that diet and exercise are important, but relying on only that ignores the constant battle those who are or who have been obese have with their biology. More doctors and insurance companies should learn about this and change their practice as a result.