A new perspective to long-term weight management. Is there a better way?

Background: To manage the increasing rate of excess weight and obesity, individual health care providers and many health promotion programs have focused on encouraging people to lose weight, and/or achieve a certain weight, for optimal health. The focus has been on the person's weight, in other words, on the 'end point'.

Objective: This article provides a theoretical background to the need to think of the issue of weight management in a new way.

Discussion: In an environment that has been described as 'obesogenic', past and current strategies have not succeeded in creating positive change. The time has come for a new 'process orientated', more holistic focus.