Society generally promotes the idea you can lose weight if you want to. I bought into this idea until very recently, and so I wasn't too bothered by my weight gain (during some personal issues) as I thought it was temporary and I could just lose it again.

Doing some googling, I've seen loads of articles saying "it is borderline IMPOSSIBLE to lose weight", "very FEW people do it". Essentially making out that we can't lose weight in the long term because our bodies are designed to preserve themselves.

And finally, I've seen stuff which seems to contradict the above articles. Claiming that fat cells remain constant from our early 20s onwards, and it's really just a case of they increase in size or decrease. Indicating that weight gain after that point doesn't necessarily have a permanent effect on body composition - it just impacts how large the cells are.

Anyway, I've been getting a bit irritated because I just want the truth. If it really is impossible to lose weight, then it feels like what even is the point in trying? At the same time, I'm sceptical, because I've known people who've lost weight and it also seems real convenient for it to be "impossible" and therefore not worth the effort.

I'm prepared for it to be difficult. I just want to know if I'm lying to myself by believing that it's possible to lose weight. Does anyone have any science to explain what the facts say?