Research
Energy balance
Common obesity is primarily driven by increased energy intake due to a changing food environment overwhelming homeostatic feedback, rather than defective homeostatic regulation.
Focus on the food environment and intake rather than just blaming willpower or assuming a broken metabolism. The primary driver of the obesity epidemic is increased food intake due to a changing food environment.
StrongSupportsHIGH confidence
These observations, along with little direct evidence of decreased physical activity from the late 1970s, suggest that increased food intake is likely to be the primary driver of obesity.
Why this rating
Based on a comprehensive review of empirical evidence and dynamic models.
Source
DynamicInterplayAmongHomeostatic,Hedonic,and CognitiveFeedbackCircuitsRegulatingBodyWeight
Kevin D. Hall et al. · RePEc: Research Papers in Economics · 2014
DOI 10.2105/ajph.2014.301931_6
narrative_review
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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