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It makes you fat. And 'Eat less and move more' reduces your weight. And 'Eat less and move less' usually reduces your weight too.
I assure you that if fat people stopped putting anywhere near as much food into their mouth, they would lose weight. This is a difficult thing to do, but it is quite simple. The issue is indeed self control, though also self-deception (pretending things that are high in calories are "healthy", pretending certain things "don't count", that sort of nonsense)
You're not really addressing the argument I'm making. If weight loss is simply a case of choosing to eat less and choosing to move more, why does all the literature show that dieters regain their weight in the long term? According to your model, they must be choosing to lose weight through dieting and then choosing to regain more than they lost? Why do people who lose significant weight have permanently lowered metabolisms, and burn fewer calories than we would expect for their size? Why did the entire planet suddenly start getting fat in the 70s?
Calories in, calories out isn't a prescription for weight gain or loss, it's a description of it. It's like someone asking why the bar gets full on Saturday night and responding with 'more people enter than leave'. You're describing weight gain, but you're not explaining why it happens.
Look at this chart, what do you think caused the massive inflection?
Because they stop eating less and moving more in the long term.
Cheaper food, reduction of lead in the air, reduction in smoking.
It happens because people eat more.
As above, less smoking, less lead, and cheaper food.
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Because they stop eating less and moving more. This is, uh, pretty simple? Whether they consciously pay enough attention to make it an affirmative choice or just slip into habits casually because they're no longer paying attention is not really the operative thing here.
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