TLDR: more exercise, dramatically less junk food consumption (fast food, soda, snacks, etc), dramatically increased nutritional education<p>More importantly I find the focus on low-fat fast food menu items highly suspect -- significantly reducing carbohydrate consumption has been shown, empirically and anecdotally the world over, to have a greater impact (if not the greatest impact) on weight and health management.<p>The low-fat diet craze has hurt more than helped the fight against obesity.<p>The problem with restricting carbohydrate intake is that <i>it&#x27;s everywhere</i> and it hurts the bottom line of pretty much all of the prepared food and drink industry.<p>That said, I&#x27;m not at all advocating that we all start eating sticks of butter, but a balance must be maintained -- 30&#x2F;30&#x2F;25&#x2F;10 with 30% protein, 30% fat, 25% carbohydrates, and 10% dietary fiber.<p>This is back of the hand math but I think it works out. Most people trade out protein for carbs (because protein is expensive) and fat for carbs (because fat is apparently bad for you), which results in weight gain and diabetes risk.<p>Generally it can be assumed that the most common form of carbohydrate substituted is a sugar or grain, which usually have very high-glycemic indexes. This spikes the blood-sugar and beta-endorphin levels, the latter encouraging addictive habits (feeling good after eating high-glycemic food, going into withdrawal when not consuming frequently enough, etc).