Is obesity a societal problem, or what?

We're aligned on the formula itself, just don't think reciting it actually helps most people in practice. If it worked that simply, obesity would've been solved long ago. Feels like it really takes getting in there and understanding what's driving someone's eating individually.

Extremely likely that's actually the case here. Would genuinely recommend digging deeper into the science behind obesity rather than putting the entire blame on personal willpower.

Is this question limited to women's experiences, or do men here feel similarly? General sense is that society tends to judge women more harshly for carrying excess weight compared to men.

Carrying obesity genuinely isn't safe for everyone either. Just because a particular approach didn't work out for you doesn't mean it's harmful across the board. Broke my ankle out hiking once, doesn't mean I go around telling people hiking is dangerous and nobody should try it.

Folks like having a target so their own lives feel less dismal. Prejudice about fat people has lasted forever, its visible and normalized. Common belief blames obesity on gluttony, and gluttony counts as a sin. Folks accept religious edicts without question, and that fuels the pile-on. The reality is obesity is a multi-factor medical issue, same as diabetes. Yet US law doesnt force Medicare or private insurers to pay for obesity care as they do for diabetes, and insurers mostly treat obesity medication as vanity drugs. Its a mix of stigma, belief and money, and changing that will be slow.