There is no ‘best way’ to manage obesity

There is no single cause for obesity‍

While the cause of obesity may appear simple - eating too much and not moving enough - there are a lot of other factors that contribute to its development.² These include a diverse range of factors from lifestyle factors, genetics and biology to behaviour, age and environment.^2,3‍

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Factors that contribute to obesity‍

People with overweight or obesity have long been considered responsible for their weight because they made poor lifestyle choices and lacked self-control. However, weight is now recognised as being under the control of complex body systems and obesity is considered a disorder of body weight regulation.^2,3 So when it comes to losing weight and keeping it off, the old ‘eat less and move more’ advice, designed to fix the energy imbalance associated with obesity, is quite an oversimplification – especially when weight loss itself can affect how the body regulates appetite and metabolism (learn more about that here).⁴

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Different drivers of energy intake‍

A person’s energy intake depends on their eating behaviour. These behaviours include the desire to eat (hunger), the amount of food needed to feel full (satiation), and how long feeling full lasts (satiety). These aspects of appetite and metabolism are controlled by what’s called the homeostatic system of the brain and gut. Eating behaviour related to emotions is driven by what’s known as the hedonic or reward system, which controls pleasure around eating and food.⁵ Read more on this here.

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Research shows that people with obesity may fall into different categories depending on which aspect of their eating behaviour and energy expenditure is causing weight gain or weight retention.⁵ Scientists describe these categories as ‘phenotypes’ – which is a term used to describe observable characteristics or traits of a person that result from how their genes and environment interact.⁶ These four obesity phenotypes are:^5,7

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• Hungry brain – where an excessive number of calories are needed to reach that feeling of fullness (abnormal satiation)
• Hungry gut – where the feeling of fullness after eating does not last as long as it should and the gut empties quickly (abnormal satiety)
• Slow burn – where energy expenditure at rest, reported physical activity, and muscle mass are low (decreased metabolic rate)
• Emotional hunger – characterised by poor moods, emotional eating to cope with positive or negative outcomes, and cravings (hedonic eating)