For this metaphor to be remotely apt the person would have to be perpetually hyperventilating, in a way that seriously impacted their quality of life on almost every level and would lead to premature decline and death.    That aside they have basically admitted they have no control over the impulse to eat and hold the mistaken belief that weight loss would require constant vigilance, a total life focus on restricting food.   In reality, for almost any human, self-control improves with use, and with healthy diet and possibly psychological care, people can lose weight and achieve a normal relationship with food.  The only exceptions for this are extraordinarily rare, things like Prader-Willi where the drive to eat is uncontrollable and powerful.  But even in this case, other people restrict food for them so they don't eat themselves to death...