"simply avoid overeating" has the same ring of "simply stop being depressed"
People are a lot more complicated than that, and a persons diet is anything but simple.
People are a lot more complicated than that, and a persons diet is anything but simple.
It's nontrivial to simply "eat less", I agree, but knowing that's the core goal (or more accurately, reducing caloric intake) has value when you're trying to decide how to resolve an obesity problem.
Solving poverty is also not very complicated when reduced down to "just have more money". That might be a useful starting point but it's worthless in practical terms.
I disagree that leading with "reduce consumption, if possible" is impractical when we're trying to address the results of calorie intake
We do lead with "Reduce consumption, if possible". The point isn't that it's impractical but rather that stopping there is woefully ineffective. We've never had more visibility into calories consumed; yet we're still seeing rising levels of obesity.
If we actually want to reduce obesity then we need to identify and address the reasons that cause people to overeat. That's what makes the reductive view of "calories in, calories out" counter-productive.