Do you know any chronically obese people?
Like, seriously. I'm not joking. What your parent described is something that is entirely true to a lot of people.
Losing weight is "easy", in the sense that how to do it is pretty obvious and well known.
The hard part is keeping it off.
Think of alcoholism. It's easy to just stop being an alcoholic right? I mean, conceptually...just stop drinking alcohol. Simple.
Now stop drinking alcohol for the rest of your life. You can never touch it again.
Not so easy.
Now imagine you need a small amount of alcohol every day or else you will die, but if you ever start to think "oh well I worked hard today I can have a second beer", then before you know it you're a full blown alcoholic again.
That's chronic obesity.
My weight has dropped and rebounded countless times over my life. I know what to do, I know how to do it, I've done it countless times. I'm fucking tired. The idea of having to weigh my food and track my calories for the rest of my life honestly makes me anxious, because I know that as soon as I stop, I'm going to lose all that I've worked for. Because it's happened so many times before.
GLP-1s are different. It's honestly like a light switch. Like "oh, this is how I'm supposed to feel". There is no more thinking about food. Even when starting to feel hungry, it's not "I have to eat right now", it's "I'll get to it when I get to it". It's not all-consuming.