The Energy Balance Equation: Reigning Intellectual Paradigm or Straitjacket?

Abstract

People approach any task, whether it is to manage their weight, their retirement account, or anything else, with mental models that reflect the world as they understand it. They create these models out of their prior experience and whatever knowledge they have (real or imaginary, naive or sophisticated). Once formed, mental models are all important because they determine not only how people make sense of the world, but also how they act and what strategies they use to achieve their goals.¹