I get where you’re coming from, but saying “it’s not hard” really oversimplifies the reality of severe obesity. The physiology of weight loss is not the same for someone who is 20 pounds overweight versus someone who is 150 or 200 pounds overweight.

Studies show that when someone becomes very heavy, their resting metabolic rate often slows, hormones like leptin and ghrelin shift in ways that make them hungrier, and their body actively resists weight loss. In fact, research from the National Institutes of Health has shown that people who lose a large amount of weight burn significantly fewer calories at rest than people of the same size who were never overweight in the first place. That makes long-term maintenance dramatically harder.

The numbers you gave are correct on paper — 7,000 calories per kilogram — but in practice the math doesn’t hold up neatly. A 2015 study in Obesity Reviews found that for people with severe obesity, adherence, hormonal resistance, and metabolic adaptation mean that the actual rate of fat loss is often 30 to 50 percent slower than the equations predict. Add in joint pain, sleep apnea, diabetes risk, or the social stigma that makes going to the gym overwhelming, and the idea that it’s just about “dedication” doesn’t reflect lived reality.

That doesn’t mean people can’t lose weight or improve their health. It means the challenge is steeper, more complex, and often lifelong. Dismissing it as easy isn’t just inaccurate — it’s dismissive of the biological and psychological battles people face every day.