I wonder when this BS will end? At some point in my life I graduated from a military boot camp. At the end of camp all overweight people were lean, slim and muscular. No special diet were given to overweight people to achieve that result.
Take away the phones, the ipads, the TVs, the computers, add a (very) healthy diet, literally all day every day outside from morning to night with some small breaks.
No huge weightloss (camp might be a month and half or so) but generally endurance, fitness, etc, kids are remarkable(!) - seriously, their bodies just problem solve it seems overnight for the change (takes about 1 week to start noticing difference).
The idea that high fat / sugar / salt / mental health issues from being plunked in front of screens all day doesn't play a role in all this seems weird. At least with kids, mental health is a big deal actually in lots of behaviors (procrastination / eating etc) and being outside all day does seem to help some kids.
This is not even close to a scientific sample.
The obesity rates of US veterans approaches that of the general population, which is a concern given that the military selection process precludes many people who are likely to become obese in the longer term.
The point of the article is that obesity is not a simple model and that the simplistic idea that kJ in vs kJ out is the same for everyone is flawed. The balance and solutions vary across the affected cohorts.
Treating obesity as a simple issue with simple answers, and claiming that any introduce nuance to the discussion as 'BS', does not really provide any insight or assistance to folk who are struggling with this condition.
Edit: typos
However, my experience in boot camp, though the same in that overweight people were not by the end, was not ideal weight-wise.
I was someone who went in slightly underweight and too lean. I did not gain weight until I got some protein supplements near the end.