comment: >
  
  How dare you!
context: /u/CanInotScrubIn (OP) has awarded 5 delta(s) in this post.
  All comments that earned deltas (from OP or other users) are listed here, in /r/DeltaLog.
  Please note that a change of view doesn't necessarily mean a reversal, or that the conversation has ended.
  ^Delta System Explained ^| ^Deltaboards >
  
  I have a simple caveat [1], as well as some complicated disagreements [2].
  
  The simple caveat is that it depends on your starting point. I've lost 60 lbs so far and am now what most would consider "pretty fit." I'd like to lose another five pounds to really define my abs. Losing that last five pounds has been a bitch. When I was 200+, losing five pounds meant making minor adjustments. There was a lot of room for small errors, like cheat days and whatnot. But going from 155 to 150 requires some very serious dedication, and you can easily lose a week of progress with one poorly balanced meal.
  The complicated disagreement is that more and more science is suggesting that the entire appetite, hunger, metabolic system, etc. are all intertwined in a very complicated, endocrinologically active system. There are hormones and such at play that we still don't understand. The big takeaway for me is that people have vastly different experiences when it comes to this area. There is a fundamental hormonal system that science is just scratching the surface of understanding. So what might seem like "I'm hungry, but I can push through it" for you could easily feel for someone else that their entire body is screaming "we are actually starving to death and you need to eat NOW!!!" Just like some people have severe allergies (their immune system freaking out over something small) while others just get a little sniffle - the body is complicated and we are biased towards our own experiences. >
  
  I agree with you that weight loss can be more difficult the further you progress. !delta awarded
  Regarding your point about new research, that is a fair one. Although, I still think that as long as you eat in a decent deficit (not extreme so as your BMR plummets), you have to lose weight just by the laws of physics. of course, the rate of weight loss may vary based on person to person >
  
  
  as long as you eat in a decent deficit (not extreme so as your BMR plummets), you have to lose weight just by the laws of physics
  
  Thanks for the delta! I agree with you on this point. I edited my second point a few times, but the point I was trying to make is that science is suggesting that the body's reaction to that deficit varies drastically from person to person. Some people might have a harder time maintaining a deficit because their bodies start freaking out, giving them brain fog, hunger pains, etc. and then releasing a shit ton of dopamine and serotonin when they do eat high-calorie foods. So it makes the struggle to maintain a deficit more difficult for those people, compared to someone who's body has a more mild hormonal response. >
  
  thank you for sharing this, I will look more into it. If this is indeed the case, and an individual's neurotransmitter response can vary to even a slight caloric deficit based on their genetic makeup, then weight loss can indeed be quite difficult for some people. another !delta awarded! >
  
  I would encourage you to check out Maintenance Phase. They are a podcast that talks about the health and wellness industry. Their episode on the science/history of calories was super interesting and very educational. >
  
  I've been a bodybuilder well over a decade and while I generally agree with you, weight loss is hard for so many of the reasons you stated.
  At the core, yes losing weight is simply burning more calories than you eat. As easy as that sounds, it usually isn't. It's not just about finding time to exercise or choosing the salad over the burger; it's about making a genuine commitment to your health every day regardless of the ups and downs.
  Because of the degree of complexities, let's just talk diet. Ultimately weight loss is 80% kitchen anyway.
  This is where nuance comes in. If you commit every day to an absolutely perfect diet, you'll lose weight. But that means meal prepping and being extremely conscious of your RMR and daily expenditure.
  Most people who are 9-5 are actually usually working well over that, and while yes, I'd argue that everyone has time for say a 30 minute jog, how about you throw in young children. Now you're getting up to go to work, you have to get home, feed/entertain your kids; if you have the energy to do any sort of exercise after that you're in better shape than me and I lift 5 days a week and run every other day for 40 minutes. 
  More nuance; eating too little will cause muscle loss and slow your metabolism to a crawl. You'll see rapid loss then hit a plateau, as our bodies are literally designed to store as much fat as possible.
  Also every person's metabolism is different, there are different body types that hold/gain weight (and muscle) easier, and those that have trouble gaining weight (or muscle) as well. The principle is the same, but I've trained guys that are significantly smaller than me and I had them eating more than me before they saw any growth.
  The same goes for weight loss; some genetic makeups are just unfortunate in that their body really fights to keep weight.
  Ultimately you're correct. Weight loss isn't hard, but it's almost entirely mental. You need to reprogram your entire lifestyle from activity, to what you put in your body and make it a conscious part of your life. No one is really taught this and "deprogramming" any bad habits is extremely hard. Especially people with an unhealthy relationship with food. Most extremely obese people have a very toxic relationship with food, as bad as any other addiction you could literally make the analogy that they are food alcoholics.
  So while weight loss isn't hard, changing your brain to adapt to a completely new lifestyle is brutal.
  I don't think I've ever met someone who lost a huge amount of weight say it was easy. I've seen people lose 80 lbs+ and it was a battle the entire time. Not with their body, but with their habits, lifestyle and routine; and something that you have to commit to every day. Just brushing it off and saying "they aren't dedicated enough," is a massive oversimplification. Tell that to someone who needs to lose 150 lbs and has been eating a certain way for 20+ years. It's like telling a smoker of 20+ years to stop on the spot.
  Finally the inverse is the same. I always have people come up to me and ask how I got so jacked and "what's my secret." I'm usually about 220 lbs & 7-9% bf year round and "I" find that "easy." The reality? I'm meal prepping every Sunday, I plan my day around food and the gym. But I've been doing it for well over a decade, it's literally as much as part of my lifestyle as anything else. But it took years of commitment and dedication, setting "rules" for cheat days, rarely drinking, etc. Most people would find it obsessive or bizarre, but it's no more bizarre than any other daily ritual. So while I'm on the extreme spectrum, even finding that middle ground can be tough and the bigger someone is, the harder it is to break habits. Working out is harder, eating healthy food can actually make a really obese person with sugar addictions feel sick, etc.
  Weight loss is simple, but it's not easy. >
  
  I wanna amplify this one with an anecdote.
  I lost 70lbs by cutting out all the unnatural sugar(anything that wasn't literally a vegetable), and artificial sweeteners (they made me crave sugar). That took a whole year, and I was HYPER dedicated. I was also miserable, terrible to be around, and frankly a bit angry at all times because my will power was always at zero.
  I had to consciously say no to all the foods I loved on a daily basis for a YEAR. 
  Side note, if you're American, do a little test next time you go to a supermarket, look for food that lacks sugar, and artificial sweeteners. And when you're done in the meat section you'll see how monumental what I chose to do was. It was a fucking struggle, and I hated every second of it. It worked though.
  Until I stopped. I'm back up again, though not nearly as high. I'm doing a significantly less extreme version of what I did before but it's agonizingly slow. 
  Point being, OP is looking for not 1, but 2 different lifestyle changes. One for weight loss, and one for weight maintenance. >
  
  
  Point being, OP is looking for not 1, but 2 different lifestyle changes. One for weight loss, and one for weight maintenance
  
  And weight maintenance is the hardest part.
  A lot of people do crash diets, (keto, fasting, etc) and the problem with every one of those is it isn't sustainable. I know Reddit is a huge fan of keto, but it's not something you can (or should) do indefinitely, and the problem I've seen time and time again; people will lose the weight they want, start introducing carbs again then quickly gain back 50% only to repeat it endlessly.
  Losing weight and keeping it off, is committing forever to simply eating healthier and making an effort to be as active as possible. For most folks this is really fucking hard and takes years to form those habits to where it's second nature. To your point, everything is loaded with sugar. The trick for me is that I basically eat the same meals every day. But again, I view food very abnormally. I enjoy it, but most people would get dead tired of eating egg whites/Oates for breakfast, chicken/rice for lunch, and some sort of protein/vegetable/complex carb for dinner. Every. Single. Day.
  I'm making assumptions but my guess is OP is young and probably never struggled with weight and/or has the time/resources that "make it easy," so he's making the assumption "it's easy for me, why shouldn't it be easy for everyone?"
  I'm in my mid thirties and keeping weight off is like a part time job; rather I have to dedicate hours on Sunday to cooking meals for the week, then run 40 minutes on my treadmill before work, then lift 1-2 hours M-F; while my goals are different, (extreme) I can say that's going to be extremely difficult for 90% of the population. It's also basically a hobby as much as playing video games every night or whatever. I sacrifice a lot of my free time "to my hobby," but I'm single without kids and have a fairly regular career that allows me the time.
  But your average folks who are just getting by, working themselves to death, even committing to a balanced, clean meals day in and day out is quite difficult. >
  
  You described my issues perfectly.
  Though to be clear, when I did my crash diet, keto hadn't yet made it into the mainstream, it was the Atkins diet that I modeled mine after.
  It was a nightmare for me because I LOVE to explore new foods. I legitimately love trying new cuisine, and restriction is hard on you mentally when you're like that.
  It's not that I CAN'T lose weight, cause I currently am, it's just that it's constant.
  I'd give you a !delta but I'm not sure the rules let me do that when we agree lol >
  
  Confirmed: 1 delta awarded to /u/SpoonyDinosaur (2∆).
  ^Delta System Explained ^| ^Deltaboards >
  
  I feel like there's something weird about how this is phrased. Given your caveats, you say:
  
  I feel that too many people just don't have proper dedication and drive, and end up either not making any progress or gaining weight back (after losing it) due to these reasons.
  
  But, given how many people "don't have proper dedication and drive", I feel like your title leads to a weird semantic question about what makes something "easy". If something takes more dedication and drive than a large chunk of the population has, why would we call that "easy" or "easier than people make it seem"? If a person doesn't have strong willpower, doesn't that make it hard? Is there actually a factual claim people are making that you think is wrong, or are we just arguing about the definition of "easier"? >
  
  I think the whole argument about "I don't have enough willpower" is a cop out answer. How much willpower does it take to eat 200 calories less than maintenance? There are much more harder things in life. >
  
  I dunno, for a lot of people, it seems to take a lot of willpower. There being "harder things in life" is certainly true, but seems kind of irrelevant. Can we at least agree that given two tasks, all else being equal the one that requires more willpower is harder?
  FWIW, it's extremely easy for me. But my experience is pretty clearly not the same experience that others have. >
  
  Yes, I can agree that a tasking requiring more willpower may be harder than one that doesn't. However, in my opinion, that doesn't make it an overall hard task. >
  
  Right. But I guess it's unclear what you're actually saying here. Imagine a task. Now keep dialing up the required willpower to complete it. Eventually, surely there is a level of willpower required that a task becomes "hard", right?
  As for weight loss, there isn't some fixed willpower requirement. Willpower isn't even something that can be easily quantified. Different people will have an easier or harder time, and different people have different amounts of willpower. Whether or not it's "hard" is a measure of the gap. >
  
  Obviously willpower is subjective. I just don't think eating in a slight caloric deficit requires that much. I think most people would agree that having the willpower to not eat an extra piece of cake is significantly less that the willpower required to do a 24 hour fast. There's no "willpower scale" to quantify this, but I think it's common sense >
  
  And yet many people don't have that willpower, right? So what are we saying here?
  My suspicion is that you aren't really talking about this task being "easy" or "hard". It just seems obviously hard for many people. You just don't think highly of those people. >
  
  You'd be surprised at the percentage of the population who are not perfectly able-bodied, working in 9-5 office jobs, and free of debilitating trauma.  And your breezy estimate doesn't account for time for commuting, childcare, food preparation, cleaning the house, and so many other things.
  What about the large number of people who live in food deserts?  What about the fact that cheap food is poorly nutritious and consists mostly of empty carbs?  Weight management is an extremely complicated subject. >
  
  Financially secure means you can afford more than just rice and pasta. And even rice and beans can be OK, as long you add in some basic proteins.   
  Food deserts are similar: large bags of rice and beans, go out once in a while to get frozen vegetables and meats. 
  You don't need to be PERFECTLY able bodies. I'd say at least 80% of Americans are able bodied, working less than 60 hours, and don't have "debilitating trauma" as in it doesn't cripple them like severe depression.
  Yes, it is harder, quite a bit harder than just grabbing instant ramen. But it's not harder than any other task in life. >
  
  "It's easy, just eat the same boring thing every single day" >
  
  That's what most diets are when you're poor. >
  
  What a great way to live. Work a shit job, no vacations, eating beans and rice. >
  
  You've never been poor, have you? >
  
  
  You've never been poor, have you?
  
  I have absolutely been poor. Cheap, shitty food is one of the only pleasures many people have when they're poor. >
  
  That's a choice. Just like drinking or smoking will also be a choice.  
  As with any diet, willpower will be needed. >
  
  I don't think that is the argument here. The reason most people don't want to do that choice is - what's the fucking point? 
  Sure, you'll be lean and maybe a little more healthy... But you're still miserable, working the same job everyday, barely scraping by. And on top of that you can't even enjoy eating the shitty stuff you like or drinking or smoking. They don't call it a poor man's poison for nothing. For a lot of people that is the only thing they have (sadly) and telling them to just quit is spitting in their face. >
  
  You say “for these reasons”, what exactly are the reasons you think it’s easy to lose weight? 
  Is it purely because you have had an easier time losing weight then others?
  Throughout your entire post the only semi-tangible reasoning stated for your argument was that mainstream media portrays weight loss as difficult. Other then that your post makes use of the words “I feel” a lot, because it’s almost entirely anecdotal. 
  Your post doesn’t even have much to refute at all because the only thing that backed up your statement was “I feel x”. How am I supposed to change your view when the reasons for you’re view are entirely based off uneducated “feelings”? 
  I’ll tell you why I think it’s hard for a lot of people to lose weight. It’s because the vast majority of people who are overweight will tell you it’s very hard for them to lose weight. That’s the very thing that constitutes something being “hard”. If 80% of nurses drop out of nursing school, it’s fair to say that going through nursing school is hard. If everyone whoo went there passed, it wouldn’t be considered hard. 
  Maybe weight loss is easy for you and people you know, but for the majority of people it is extremely hard. That’s the very thing that makes it generally considered difficult in the first place. >
  
  
  I’ll tell you why I think it’s hard for a lot of people to lose weight. It’s because the vast majority of people who are overweight will tell you it’s very hard for them to lose weight. That’s the very thing that constitutes something being “hard”.
  
  I can agree with you here. The only true way to quantify a task as being difficult as is asking those who have attempted it, what their opinions are about it. !delta awarded! I guess the next question is what makes it difficult for those people, aside from the caveats I mentioned above which I excluded. >
  
  IMO the reason it’s hard is because of an accumulation of addictive sugars that weren’t naturally present a few hundred years ago, environments that promote idleness, and a lack of mental grit amongst virtually everyone. 
  The last point is, in my opinion, the reason for the majority of personal issues in the modern world. Its something that could be expanded upon with an entire book but to sum it up I think technology = easier options and easier options = less mental grit. When people have two options they are biologically inclined to choose the easier of the two, but they should have enough mental grit to resist temptations for their best long term interests. The lack of mental grit that technology brews leads to people that stay terminally online, choose to date and meet people through apps (even if they know this isn’t the best option for them), and especially people whoo choose to eat a donut instead of resisting that craving (becoming overweight). This lack of mental grit also makes it harder for people to change themselves after they have already found themselves overeating on the daily. >
  
  Idk if you can teach it or not and I’m not saying you can or can’t. 
  I’m just using the term to describe the lack of ability to choose harder options. >
  
  I am a dietitian. One point I haven’t seen yet is the aspect of socioeconomic status related to obesity. There is a direct correlation between the two. This is being passed down generationally. How do you expect someone to maintain a healthy weight if:
  1. They have never grown up having a parent that knew how to or could afford to provide healthy meals consistently
  2. Possibly needed to use food banks to acquire food which typically has more pre-packaged food items 
  3. Possibly does not even have the tools to make healthy foods (stove, microwave, utensils, sink, dishes are all luxuries not everyone has) 
  4. Possibly does not even have any bit of information on what a healthy diet entails or that they are even not eating healthy food 
  Socioeconomic aspects are complicated and absolutely impact someone’s ability to lose weight and there are never “simple” or “easy” solutions. >
  
  I never understood this argument. You save money by losing weight since you buy less food >
  
  You can get unhealty food for dirt cheap. >
  
  I'll offer a counter argument, even though I agree with you. 
  It's simple. Not easy. 
  What is simple is reading an Ikea booklet to build furniture. What is not easy is actually doing it, and discerning the different screws from each other (I know the bags are numbered but shit changes, holes aren't made correctly, etc.) 
  What makes it not easy? 
  - Mental illness 
  - Having kids (between working 9-5, and feeding your kid, paying bills, you literally have no down time) 
  - Society celebrating and normalizing fatness (to be clear - you shouldn't be treated badly because you're fat - but it's not normal. Weighing 300 lbs is not normal, nor is it healthy). 
  - There's a new medication coming out which got approved to help people with weight loss. So instead of fixing underlying issues, I'm willing to bet it will be abused as a shortcut to a healthy lifestyle, which will only further make it 'harder' to make good decisions (why go to a gym when you can take a pill and eat pizza). 
  I'm exaggerating in many cases, but I believe that exaggeration is why it's not easy. 
  Solutions are simple, but it doesn't make it easy. I work my ass off at the gym to keep losing weight. And I do. But shits not easy at all. 
  I'm seeing progress, despite some weak days, but I'm not comfortable nor happy with my body or with being overweight and I'm taking steps to improve myself. Every day, I get happier and happier and my mood has improved significantly after 6 months of dedication. But it certainly wasn't easy. Worked my actual ass off at the gym to achieve the results I've had so far >
  
  Regarding your point about mental illness making it not easy, I would consider that as one of the caveats that I mentioned. 
  I do think it is easy though. Weight loss is basically calories in vs calories out. Even if you're so busy with kids that you may not have time to exercise regularly, all you have to do is eat less. By consuming less than you expend, you have to lose weight by loss of physics. Of course, you may not be lean and may not have muscular definition, and you may not even be fit, but you WILL lose weight. I think becoming fit, strong, and lean (aka not "skinny fat") are much more difficult than just losing weight on the scale. >
  
  
  Weight loss is basically calories in vs. calories out.
  
  Getting rich is basically money in vs. money out. Doesn't mean it's easy. >
  
  The thing is you don't know what will make you enough money to become rich and you have to actively do something to achieve it. You know objectively what to eat to loose weight. If you are, for example, a male adult with a regular lifestyle you already know how many calories you consume on average unless you have some sort of hormonal condition or something. You don't even have to actively do anything, just eat less calories. It couldn't be easier. >
  
  How is eating less not actively doing something? >
  
  Because you just have to not do something. You literally do less than what you are doing now >
  
  As a fat guy no it isn't that simple. It is literally an addiction. Try telling an alcoholic to just "not drink beer" after all it's NOT doing something it should be easy right? Tell a smoker to "just quit" it's not doing something it should be easy.
  People like me who are overweight and struggle with obesity are no different. I have an addiction, a problem. I have trouble NOT snacking in the same way a smoker had trouble NOT smoking. 
  I know addiction to food doesn't seem like a real thing but it is. The pleasure centers of my brain light up like a Christmas tree when I'm eating same as a drug addicts. If it were easy no one would be fat. >
  
  Being fat and having a food addiction are not the same thing. Majority of people are not addicted to food and that is another condition altogether. >
  
  Having a food addiction quite frequently leads to obesity. You can be overweight due to medical issues like thyroid, diabetes, and other endocrine disorders. You can be overweight because a condition prevents proper exercise.
  You can also be overweight because you have a food addiction causing you to crave unhealthy foods and overeat. I don't know why this is controversial.
  My default IS to eat. Not eating requires mental and emotional effort on my part. Again if it were easy no one would be fat >
  
  Those are exceptions to the vast majority of people. I used to be fat and now I'm not super fit or anything but it literally was way more similar to someone not doing their homework cause they are lazy and would rather play game or something. A lot of people just, me included, just eat bad because it tastes good, the just need a little discipline. Vast majority of fat people are not addicted nor have a hormonal problem. >
  
  Your caveats cover like 90% of people who are obese, if not more.
  As someone who has weighed up to 400 lbs, and has been technically obese since middle school, and am now in my 40's weighing under 300 lbs, I'll say this. Losing 10 pounds IS easy. I've gone to bed and woken up 2 pounds lighter. I've lost a pound or 2 on days where I didn't drink enough fluids. A stomach bug can get me to drop 10 pounds in a few days. I can watch what I eat and lose 10 pounds in a few weeks.
  Here's the problem. Obese people don't need to lose 10 pounds. We need to fundamentally change our relationship with food and activities/exercise. We need to find a way to quiet that inner voice that almost always wants to eat. We need to stop the denial/reward cycle that makes us fail at dieting. We need to figure out our NUTRITIONAL needs, and focus on meeting that instead of only focusing on caloric needs. We need education on good nutrition, from someone who understands what unique struggles we have with food. We need education on exercise from people who understand that we are starting (often) at almost atrophy, and trying to workout with another person's weight on our backs.
  I've been a very active person my entire life, even being obese. I've worked out 3 times a week or more from teens to early 30's, and now again for the last 3 years. I've done multi week group and solo hikes while obese. I've lost over 100 pounds from keto. And I put it back on. I've lost over 100 pounds by just eliminating processed foods and only drinking water or black coffee. I have never lasted more than a week counting calories/points. 
  I've given every obese excuse, and heard them all from friends/family. I can tell you, from first hand experience and from the outside looking in, that the reason more than half of Americans are obese has very little to do with dedication and motivation. >
  
  I've been overweight the whole time I've been cycling to high school and university. COVID has now killed that and now I'm obese, I now work remote trying to move away from abusive parents. It's much easier if it's something you have to do because it takes you 30mins each way by bike. I used to enjoy recreational cycling but now all of my friends moved on and live different lives so it's much harder and moved 1 hour by train >
  
  So... question: if it's so easy, why do more than 90% of weight losses fail, with the person regaining their weight within 5 years?
  And note: this is worse than just having stayed the same weight, because much of the damage is done while gaining it... you'd literally be better off, medically, just staying the same weight, 90% of the time.
  I think no task with a 10% success rate can be called "easy" for any sane or rational definition of "easy". >
  
  Agree with you that low success rate for a task can not justify it being easy. !delta awarded. >
  
  Confirmed: 1 delta awarded to /u/hacksoncode (487∆).
  ^Delta System Explained ^| ^Deltaboards >
  
  Smoker should just quit smoking it’s not that hard.
  Alcoholics should just quit drinking it’s not that hard. 
  At the end of the day all you just have to do is avoid one thing. Your view lacks perspective from the people who go through. Bad relationships with food developer are really difficult to change. It’s nice you don’t have to go through it, but to say weight loss is easy is very disrespectful to people who struggle with it. Weight loss has simple mechanics but applying those can be very difficult for the majority of people. >
  
  While quitting smoking is truly straightforward and you can do it in one day if you so wish, quitting alcohol cold turkey can actually kill you. >
  
  Some people find it difficult. There is an abundance of information, much of it conflicting, it can be overwhelming to start this journey. 
  Simple calorie counting doesn't always work. Plateaus often happen and can be demoralizing when you feel you're doing everything you can and feel like "jeez what more can I do"  Many people experience common and uncomfortable hunger. It can be difficult to push through when your body is screaming at you to eat. 
  Elimination diets can be hard too, especially in social settings. Allergies don't help either. Imagine being whole foods plant based with a nut, gluten, and soy allergy. Imagine being keto with a nut and dairy allergy, or with gall bladder issues. 
  There's also the issue of losing muscle mass instead of fat mass. Most people want to lose fat mass. 
  Weight loss also gets harder the less weight you have. If you're a bodybuilder trying to shred/trim it can be really difficult to shave off even 1-2% body fat. 
  But all in all it depends what you want by "people make it seem" and "easier". How much easier? How hard do people make it seem?
  Edit: forgot to mention genetics and biology play a part in all of the above and weight loss in general. >
  
  
  Simple calorie counting doesn't always work.
  
  It always works. Unless you mean that people don't count correctly or realise they need to reduce their calorie intake as the diet goes on, which is a fair point. >
  
  It does not always work. Your body can lower it's energy expenditure to account for less energy coming in. And it's not healthy or sustainable to keep lower calorie intake in response. 
  Read up on it, not all calories are created equal. Your body reacts in different ways to different dietary patterns. >
  
  
  Your body can lower it's energy expenditure to account for less energy coming in
  
  Yes, that just means the calories out side of the equation drops. That's why I said people need to reduce their calorie intake as time goes on. >
  
  And at what point do you stop doing that? As I said it's not healthy or sustainable. Better to just fix what you eat. Less hunger, better health. To each their own though. >
  
  
  As I said it's not healthy or sustainable. 
  
  It's perfectly healthy and sustainable. In fact there's no other way of losing weight. All diets come down to CICO. 'Fixing what you eat' means eating healthy, which means less calories, which means exactly the same thing happens. And if it doesn't mean less calories, e.g you eat healthy food but lots of it, then you won't lose weight. You cannot possibly win against Physics. >
  
  
  For example many fibers and starches, while they are caloric, aren't completely digested by the body.
  
  This is where we are getting our wires crossed. 'Calories in' means the calories taken in by the body. Which is also why in the studies you mentioned, low carb diets are better. All this means is that the 'calories' listed on a packet of food are not completely accurate, which is already common knowledge in fitness circles. 
  That said, they're still pretty damn close. I'm a body builder and aim to gain 1lbs per week. I use the listed calorie info on the packet as my guide and I find I gain the expected weight each week. >
  
  That we can definitely agree on. Although even for the calories you absorb, depending on what they were they are allocated differently by the body but certainly will be accounted for at that point by the "calories out" portion (expenditure, etc.). Depends what your goals are ofc.
  But yeah I'm not saying CICO isn't a thing, just I think most times it's thrown out it's oversimplified and misleading especially for people who don't necessarily know better. I do understand though it's simple for a general layperson to follow. 
  I have my partner as an example earlier. Once COVID hit she stopped gym entirely and went on keto. Without calorie counting and almost certainly eating more than when she was she still lost 30lb in 6 months, breaking the plateau she hit when she was calorie counting and no longer feeling hungry and miserable. That showed me first hand that what you eat really does make a huge difference on things. >
  
  In my life I've lost weight many times, and each time, I've gained most of all of it back relatively quickly after stopping my diet. In fact, this happens at least once a year for me.
  Although I'm trying to change your view, I actually agree that it's easy to -lose- weight. I can lose 10 pounds in a week when I find the motivation, time, and opportunity to begin dieting again.
  But what about keeping the weight off? That's the part that's extremely difficult for most fat and obese people. It's partly cultural. People love to meet up and eat together, especially going out for food instead of cooking, and especially have desert. But one could say that's just not being motivated enough if you get tempted, right?
  However, the bigger issue is actually a physical one. Most people have a "set point," which is a weight level the body wants to maintain. If you have excess calories and you are at or above your set point, you'll get full quicker, so you won't eat as much. If you are below your set point, you will get hungrier and hungry more often. It becomes a test of endurance. Imagine if a drug addict got withdrawal worse the longer they didn't use the drug instead of it getting better and more manageable over time.
  This is why it can be simultaneously easy to lose weight, but difficult to not be obese for so many people. Their bodies are demanding them to eat too much every day, and it's near impossible to continually ignore that and live with it for years without slipping up. >
  
  True. anyone can do it easily, with some time! 
  it just takes a little while to find things that work. Could even take a few years but once you got it, you got it >
  
  You just gave all the reasons why it is hard: Nothing that requires all kinds of conditions that you give and all the effort that you agree it takes should be described as easy. What's easy is being more or less in the group of people you say should find it easy and more or less making the effort (healthy eating, sport) and nonetheless finding that you are slowly but steadily putting on weight, until at some point, maybe by age 40 or maybe by age 50 you are on the edge of being overweight and have a set of ingrained habits that while not being terribly unhealthy, are clearly not optimal, but they were always good enough, and it's hard to change them now, and anyway, you're getting on, so what's the point now really? >
  
  The problem is a majority of people are struggling with at least one or more of those things that you included in your disclaimer. >
  
  OP should also add eating disorders to their disclaimer, no one has brought this up. when making a blanket statement about food intake, you can't overlook how obsessively changing your food intake can affect people.  
  trying to lose weight when you don't have a healthy relationship with food to start with could exacerbate an eating disorder.
  i don't enjoy many foods that could help me lose weight, and i don't like food enough to cook for myself, sometimes it's easier not to eat. while not eating in theory seems like the easiest way to lose weight, it can be a slippery slope. >
  
  So your conditions are 
  No physical (hormonal etc) hurdles to weight loss
  No time hurldes
  No financial hurdles
  No depression related hurdles
  No motivation hurdles.
  So if you are a 
  completely healthy able body individual with a great job, relatively few obligations outside of work, with awesome motivation and will power
  Then you will find it super easy and simple to lose weight. 
  42% of the US is obese, not just overweight but obese. Let's say that only obese are in this "people that want to lose weight" group you reference. So you are saying that 30-50% of these obese people, roughly 25% of Americans, are 
  "completely healthy able body individual with a great job, relatively few obligations outside of work, with awesome motivation and will power"?
  ​
  I will say that you are right in that losing weight is super easy, calories in calories out. 
  No hurdles is a pipe dream.
  Motivation is one of hardest skills in life. >
  
  It's physically easy. Just don't eat. Easy right? Mentally, it's not. Your body is designed to process food. Your brain is hardwired to consume. And unlike drugs and other bad habits, it's not something you can just abstain from. You HAVE to eat to survive. And most of the time  it's a slow effect you don't even realize is happening until you're already in the habit of overconsumption and 60 pounds overweight.
  One day you're out of high school, or gotten out of a laborious job, so you're not burning as many calories. One day you may start to eat a small bag of chips with your sandwich at work, and now you do it everyday, a year later you have a soda with your sandwich and chips and then you start to have one everyday. Then you get a girlfriend and start eating out more or eating bigger meals at home. Then you have kids and they exhaust you and you're not doing as much around the house, and again you have to start making bigger meals with leftovers. Then one day you look in the mirror and you have a double chin and you're flabby under the arms. And you realize than in order to lose weight you have to undo 12 years of weight-gain, and break a dozen bad habits, and make several major lifestyle changes on top of everything else that's going on in your life.
  Just don't eat. Easy, right? >
  
  Sometimes I feel that people who say incessantly say "it's CICO bro" are grandstanding kinda, like they get to call you "weak" and "unmotivated" and feel self-righteous because you or others are struggling and they found it easy for whatever reason.
  Yeah it's factually true in a vacuum. But there's a lot of steps, self reflection and personal change/revolution that you need you take before "just eat less bro".
  220lbs in 2020 > 175lbs now, if that (somehow) matters. >
  
  I've linked these studies in arguments about this before and it always seems like people refuse to read them or even consider them. I'm pretty sure it's because they just want to feel self righteous >
  
  People do, indeed, enjoy feeling self-righteous >
  
  Reality contradicts you... >
  
  Cravings are also why it's hard to reduce your food intake.
  Deficiency of certain minerals and vitamins makes you crave certain type of food. >
  
  Riiiiiight.  Losing weight is so easy there’s no way a multi billion dollar industry could be built on it. /s >
  
  You mean the food industry right. Cuz all it takes to lose weight is to eat less of the food. You don't need special shakes or supplements or underwater sea cabbage or anything you just need less of whatever you're currently eating. >
  
  I agree with almost all statements above. Coming from a fat family where almost everyone struggles with overweight (I don't, so don't come at me), I've seen plenty of people trying to lose weight and going on countless diets for decades. 
  Yes, they all barely had any issue losing around 5-10 kg if they cut out sweets despite their bad genetics. BUT, they all struggled to go over that because after that it becomes pretty hard to lose weight. Losing the first kilos is relatively easy, it's done in around 1-2 weeks. Motivation is high, because you lose a lot in just a few days by changing your lifestyle a little. But then it becomes gradually harder and needs way more discipline than just cutting out sweets and doing more exercise. Ate one bar of chocolate in week 4? Here's +2 kg for you. Drank a  whiskey coke at that party? Congratulations, another 1.5 kg for your little exemption. 
  Most fat people also struggle with invisible disabilities, disorders, family backgrounds or just bad genetic predispositions that make it ultra hard to lose weight or stick by a new routine. If you grew up in a family that had unlimited access to sweets, did not cook healthy, does not have an understanding of regular portion sizes and eating culture or simply does not offer structured eating, you are WAY more prone to not being able to simply turn your whole life around. You're twice as fucked if you have bad physical genetics (many go unnoticed for years or even decades! Thyroid stuff etc) or predispositions like tending to go to extremes, not being able to regulate your emotions and behaviour well, more prone to addiction, impulsive personality ... These are all invisible and def do have a huge impact on your eating behaviour. On top comes if you have a strong support system or not. >
  
  just because something is rare, doesn't mean its hard >
  
  I'm finding it difficult to come up with a reasonable-sounding definition of "hard" that doesn't include the notion that most people who try to do it fail. >
  
  This is because OP hasn't practiced empathy yet. They are stuck in the framework that their experiences of hard are applicable to others.
  Definitions will either be about the majority of people, or we recognize how individual it is. Either way, we can consider it hard because it meets both criteria because it is widely not achieved and individually difficult for the people who haven't achieved it.
  There isn't a world in which OPs personal experiences are more important than the majority, or a person determining the difficulty for themselves. >
  
  I think we have to consider the poor eating habits that become engrained in a person on their way to becoming overweight or obese. These habits and psychology around food are not easy to change. Food becomes an emotional crutch to a lot of people. Reworking habits that took years to build and moving coping mechanisms away from food is incredibly difficult even without the acute depression you describe. >
  
  Losing weight is not that hard, I agree. But that’s how you just end up skinny fat. When people talk about losing weight they are usually talking about trying to actually get “in shape”. For example for guys, having abs. Just losing weight is not goin to get you a nice 6 pack unless you have the right build going into it. 
  So for a lot of people, this harder then because you have to pair enough nutrition to maintain or even build muscle and maintain enough energy to workout and not feel like shit all the time (I’ve been skinny enough to feel like shit all the time before, it sucks). 
  It also highly depends on your starting point, which is again related to genetics. If you are 50 lbs overweight, it will come off easily. But your body really fights you when you are truly trying to get shredded. And for everyone’s body the starting point of that fighting is slightly different. For some people they can maintain health below 10% and only have issues with hormones, immunity, sleep, etc. below like 8%. But for some people, they’ll start having issues with the above sooner than that. >
  
  Changing old habits you've had for years is tough at first. But if you're not enjoying the process you won't stick with it. You still need to enjoy your food, eat well, and not feel like you're making any sacrifices, just changing what you eat, or when you eat too. Some fasting certainly helps. If it's all a struggle it's too hard to maintain. But I agree that we have this idea in the first that we are supposed to suffer to achieve results. Eating well, eating real foods, is not about suffering, it's about being healthy. >
  
  My weight is something that I have to work on daily.
  The only method that works for me is to keep a food journal.
  I will set a daily calorie intake limit for myself
  I have to plan everything out, I use a food scale, and a notebook.
  I've learned over the years not to tell myself "oh I can't eat that", if I do I will fail. So i plan my meals ahead of time, but once I reach my calorie goal for the day, that's it I'm done. Also I've learned to only set small weight loss goals. I always just tell myself 10lbs, when I achieve that then 10 more pounds.
  For me, that works.  Oh and if you do choose to count calories, beverages are calories.
  Exercise
  If you burn off more calories than you consume you will lose weight. >
  
  One big caveat : you don't need an acute traumatic event for depression or other mental illnesses. Portraying it as resulting from a traumatic event is very misleading (and wrong). >
  
  I agree because I hear people complain all the time “I’ve been trying to lose weight but it won’t happen” but that’s just cuz they don’t do shit. They don’t go on a caloric deficit and they don’t train so obviously they aren’t gonna lose weight and not the mention they still eat the same fat shit. >
  
  The diet is more important than exercise when it comes to weight loss alone. You could workout for two hours straight, but then go out and put crap into your body and it’s like you haven’t done anything to lose weight. I watch what I eat for weight loss, and exercise for strength, stamina and well-being. It’s worked for years >
  
  Most are so addicted to cheap taste designed carbs and liquid sugar with no background in moving body at all. Under those circumstances it’s very difficult. 
  This doesn’t even include mental issues.
  Only way I’ve seen work is get someone addicted to the endorphins of working out. Hopefully they catch bug and exercise leads to dietary changes >
  
  It’s a routine. We can make excuses up all we want but as someone who has lost a significant amount of weight the harder part is making it a routine. We tend to blame everyone but ourselves for this honestly. I’ve gained a bit of my weight back but it is all 100% how I’m choosing to spend my time and I’m fully aware of that. >
  
  No, you don't understand, I have interacted with dozens of fat people on reddit who would have a Nobel Prize if they weren't so fucking lazy. They insist that their body breaks the laws of thermodynamics. Yet for some reason whenever I tell them to go claim their prize they shut the fuck up. Probably stuffing their fat faces. >
  
  I have a few chronic Illnesses that literally make losing weight seem basically impossible. So much so that I was put on wellbutrin/naltrexone (contrave) to see if it would give me a shove in the right direction and…nope. Thus far it has not. It has done WONDERS for my mental health, which I still consider a positive. Though to be fair, I’ve only been taking it since the end of September, and eating is hard bc it literally makes you want nothing. Like, even good stuff, so when I do eat, I know it’s maybe not the “best”.  I don’t eat a bunch of junk, don’t drink soda. To also be fair, I work from home 4 days a week, and getting back into working out has been difficult. Even just body weight workouts suck because it just makes me hurt, and not in a sore from the workout kind of way. I am so mad at myself for letting it go again. Because whether I like it or not, I need to work out. It is the only thing that has ever made me hurt less. But life and COVID happened and ya know, like a lot of other people I just fell way off. I’m also someone who when stressed unfortunately gains weight 😂 I am 240-245, and would really just like to get back down to even just 225 if that’s all I could do. 
  Me sharing all of this is to say that I agree with you, even in my situation, and I’ll tell you why. My husband has been lifting weights for probably a little over 10 years consistently. He has the opposite problem I do, so for him putting on any weight/muscle is ridiculously difficult(he’s almost 6’4, which has worked against him a little as well). But he’s never stopped. And lemme just say it’s worked out in his favor. He doesn’t think so, but dude is jacked   😂 he’s always worked out at home because of his work schedule, and it’s worked. I mentioned life stresses previously, and one of those was that his dad unexpectedly had to have a quadruple bypass and a defibrillator put in. We came very very close to losing him. This was October 2020, and I’m sure you can guess that our lives went from 0 to 60 fast. Thankfully, he lives right across the street from us, which makes things a bit easier. Through the surgeries, they informed us his dad was diabetic. But because of COVID, we got no help from anyone. And I mean anyone. They discharged him from the hospital not even a week after his last surgery, gave him about 20 different medications (2 of which were on an every 8 hour schedule), and then having to check his blood sugar 4 times a day. Unfortunately but fortunately I am not unfamiliar with diabetes, so I had some grasp on the food situation. 
  Oh yeah, and we were planning our wedding. Very small, but still 😂
  It’s been over two years, and my husband STILL is over there twice a day every day. Once in the morning, and then when he gets home from work. My point to my massive oversharing is that even through all of that, he NEVER stopped working out. Not once. I am constantly in awe of the discipline and 1000% wish I had the same. He explains it like working out is not an option. He doesn’t give himself a choice, he just has it in his head that he has to do it. Even when he really doesn’t want to, he does. 
  I honestly wish people would stop downplaying the difficulties people with legit medical issues have losing weight. But I also know that a lot of people are just looking for an “easy” way to do it. >
  
  I'm not an expert, but here's how I see it. Losing weight takes a big amount of willpower. Willpower is a limited resource. So if you are already living a life where you are doing your best, chances are you are already using up all your willpower. So to lose weight you need to make room for it. Now, losing weight touches basically everything in your life, because you have to eat differently, AND change something else in your life.
  Not only that, but losing weight gives you very little in terms of good feelings. You're basically using a good chunk of your energy on staying hungry, in exchange for nothing except a small feeling of relief as you see the number on the scale slowly going down. You even get less energy in since you're not eating. If you also have to give up something else that was fulfilling, you're not only hungry for food all day, but you're starved for good emotions. And if you were using food to cope with bad emotions, the "emotional deficit" is really racking up. >
  
  So, as someone who struggles with this, I think the part that makes it "not easy" for me is the self-control. I don't know if this is something that everyone can relate to, and I have no idea why it happens, but I can be sitting there arguing vehemently with myself in my head about whether to go exercise or eat skip some unhealthy snack and then lose the argument. I'm not obese by any means, but I have yet to be able to stick to my plan and I don't know why it's so hard to just do what I need to do. It just is. And I'll be frustrated with myself while doing the thing I'm not supposed to be doing.
  Take it out of the context of fitness, if that's not something you struggle with, is there anything in your life that you want to do but just can't seem to get motivated for or stick with? Maybe learning a new language, picking up a hobby, saving money, studying for school, etc. Whatever causes exist for that could apply to someone else trying to lose weight. >
  
  You are going to need to explain your thought process as to why on earth there are invalid/valid reasons for a task being difficult. Difficulty is individual not collective, it's irrelevant how difficult something is for someone else, it only matters how difficult it is for that person.
  You've already mentioned that you believe physical causes make something difficult, e.g. hormonal. Willpower is just as much as a physical condition than anything else. Starting a task, or stopping yourself from doing something involves brain processes and dopamine pathways. To get up and do any task relies on a little hit of dopamine that usually comes from the anticipation of getting that task done. For people who stuggle with motivation, this process doesn't work in the same way. You can sit there thinking about how much you want to do a thing, and should do that thing, but your brain won't let you do it.  
  You are looking at this with the bias of having a brain where these things aren't a problem. It's easy to assume that other people are working with the same tools as you are, which leads to thinking about it as a moral failure. To put yourself in their shoes, think about how difficult it would be to do a hard task after you've been awake at a demanding job for 18 hours without a break. Now imagine, you feel like that for every single tiny task you have to achieve.
  People lie on a spectrum of having no difficulty to a lot of difficulty initiating tasks. You don't get this information, if people say something is personally difficult, believe them. If someone has a goal and not meeting it upsets them, there will always be reasons. The problem is that you aren't empathising with challenges you haven't personally experienced. >
  
  1) I don't think you can call something easy when your caveats exclude 50-70% of people. That seems silly. 
  2) people are different and struggle with different things. Just because YOU don't think something is hard, doesn't mean it isn't hard. For example: most people struggle with public speaking. Personally, I think it's super easy. It's just talking to people, except you are prepared and speaking to a lot of people. To me, it's easy, but for a lot of people it is not. I could come on here and argue that public speaking is easy, because it's just talking, but that ignores all the people who have a difficult time with it. And whether that is a motivation/willpower thing or an anxiety thing or something else is entirely irrelevant, because the point is that it's NOT easy for them. >
  
  Boy do I have a podcast for you and a lot of people in this thread.
  You have discounted 90% of people with your caveats, and the whole post is based on feelings. There is evidence that bodies that have reached a certain size adjust and want to hold onto that weight, so it physiologically is not easy. Not to mention the huge amount of structural conditions that can make it hard. And very importantly: rampant weight shaming and fatphobia in our society shames people for their size, and contributes to disordered eating and unhealthy relationships with food among fat people. Being stuck in a shame cycle is one of the hardest things to overcome >
  
  Dedication and motivation aren't the only issues. Information is a barrier. Some people just don't believe in calories in/calories out and that misinformation holds them back. >
  
  Weight loss is not simply a matter of eating fewer calories. It's about changing one's relationship with food. If a person views food purely as something that provides nutrition, it may be easy for that person to simply cut calories.  However if food is used to comfort anxiety,  escape boredom, or something else then cutting it out may cause mental stress (e.g. headaches, irritability, insomnia, etc). A person can only handle so much stress over time before they revert to old habits. The solution in these cases requires a person to  handle the cause of the dependency on food before they can successfully eat in a way to lose weight. >
  
  I agree mostly. But you need to remember that a LARGE majority of people do not have great willpower. It's the same reason why consumerism is so rampant, and ramen and cereal tastes a lot better than rice and beans. >
  
  Try quitting masturbation, now link that to eating food. >
  
  If you are in North America, losing weight will always be harder than anywhere else. The reason I say this, is because of the way food prices are. In NA, it is cheaper to buy sugary, carby and virtually nutrition-less foods. Fruits, veggies, legumes, and lean protein are super expensive. 
  I’ve lived in Greece, England, France, Spain, Belgium, South Korea, Malaysia, and Indonesia. In all of these places, it’s the complete opposite.
  EDIT: Income is a massive barrier all over, so while I lived middle class, I can’t speak to the experiences of someone who lived in poverty, for example. >
  
  Legumes are definitely NOT expensive.  Beans, rice, lentils are some of the cheapest food you can buy.  One bag of dried pinto beans which is lunch for about a week is $1.  Of course, you have to be able to cook it, but even in developing nations they can cook beans. >
  
  Okay, and being healthy includes eating more than just beans… >
  
  It depends how overweight you are tbh someone who is 600 pounds overweight is going to have to workout for a few months to become skinny. >
  
  You're going to say I don't count, but I do, and here's why:  If you had known me my entire life, for most of it, you would've used me as an example of what you're describing.  Hell, there were even times when I successfully lost most of the weight.  But honestly, there's also been problems and reasons I couldn't maintain a healthy lifestyle that just don't come up in casual conversation.
  The most recent issue is when I got suckerpunched by a combination punch of workplace anxiety(at my decent-paying job) followed by exacerbations caused by a scalp infection I've had my whole life and my autistic obliviousness.  By the time I realized I was in a nosedive and started to pull up, I was talking to a dermatologist about how to fight off a major infection in my shin that he was worried would claim my leg.  Most people were and are oblivious to the issue outside what I've actively told them, and even my younger brother(who I worked with) told me I was being arrogant when I was in the worst of it while following-up that I stopped sounding so arrogant when I started figuring out treatment habits.  I sprouted up from about 300lbs to 400lbs in the worst periods, and exercising or eating less would've both been torture I lacked the willpower to execute.
  And here's the radical thing.  In recent months, I've dropped about 20-30lbs by sheer and utter accident as a consequence of the healing process.
  So while I might agree with you that it's pretty easy for a platonic "no-other-issues" fat man to lose weight, I'm not really convinced you have a good handle on how much any given fat man matches up to that platonic form.  I don't fully understand my own deviations from that norm, even though I'm sure now that I've gone through periods where I didn't line up, despite nobody knowing something was wrong at the time. >
  
  Sorry, u/Spiritual-Extent-771 – your comment has been removed for breaking Rule 1:
  
  Direct responses to a CMV post must challenge at least one aspect of OP’s stated view (however minor), or ask a clarifying question. Arguments in favor of the view OP is willing to change must be restricted to replies to other comments. See the wiki page for more information.  
  
  If you would like to appeal, you must first check if your comment falls into the "Top level comments that are against rule 1" list, review our appeals process here, then message the moderators by clicking this link within one week of this notice being posted. 
  Please note that multiple violations will lead to a ban, as explained in our moderation standards. >
  
  In order to lose weight, you need discipline, motivation, and to have the right knowledge.  There's a lot of people trying to sell you something and being disciplined is the real reason it isn't easy.  We like to think we are motivated to do the right thing but actually following through day in and day out with every temptation and advertisement trying to lure you away is not easy.  I went from around 350lbs to 220 and I am back to 240.  So I got to do better, but I blame the holidays and those delicious treats.  It is simple but not easy. >
  
  I’m going to sit here and assume your sex is male. It’s inherently more difficult to loose weight as a woman. It sucks but it’s true. Also, I think a lot of it is depends on biology. Here’s why: 
  I’ve been slim my entire life, I eat modestly, but not well, and hardly- if ever- exercise. My peers tell me they do everything they can and can’t loose a pound or two. I supposed they could be misleading me with their reports but I don’t think so. I think that there is too much information on what to “do right” with your diet vs “what’s wrong” and people are genuinely confused >
  
  I can only speak from personal experience. I thought quitting smoking was the hardest thing I ever did because I tried to quit 50x before I made it. But i was wrong. Losing 20 pounds was the hardest. And even though I lost those 20 pounds, I never kept them off. Only took a few months to put the weight back on. Never did make it. >
  
  At least in America, it is pretty damn hard. Everything around you is telling you to eat more and worse. Advertising is doing everything it can to make you buy it's shit. Human psychology is exploited in every way possible. Can you really blame people for having a rough time? >
  
  I can't change the truth. >
  
  You say "for a normal person with 9-5 job, no disorders or trauma, no depression" etc. You are not describing a normal person. Everyone has at least one of those things going on in their life.
  Further, the body has biological survival mechanisms made to motivate us to eat more if the brain thinks we need it from a survival perspective. The body also has a goal size in mind that it tries to meet.
  If you brain's goal matches your own goal for the size of your body then congratulations, you officially won at life. If not, welcome to the club. >
  
  Ok so then teach me, oh great master, how to not be constantly hungry, constantly tired, constantly sleepy and miserable, doing all the work, cutting down calories, having physical exercise, doing my best, deinkin water, AND STILL HATING MYSELF AND MY LIFE EVERY SECOND. 
  Sure, it's worth it and I have not lost my resolve, but to say it's easy ? Hell fucking no. >
  
  My parents put me into martial arts when I was 8 years old and I was obsessed with it right up until the age of 28. I'm in my 30s now and I've been fit my whole life. Got a cousin who was fat and ate a lot of junk food while he was young and when he hit his adult years he decided to lose weight and we trained together, for years.  He was just as fit as me and he lost some weight but he's still a bit fat because he put it on when he was growing years ago. 
  People are different. It's harder for some than others. >
  
  
  I feel that losing weight isn't that difficult with some proper dedication and motivation.
  
  So what you're saying is that if you ignore the hard parts (the dedication and motivation) then losing weight is easy? >
  
  People wouldn’t need to loose weight in the first place if they didn’t have those barriers… >
  
  I’ve graduated from university. Definitely easier than losing weight lol. >
  
  It varies quite a bit.  The ability to lose weight is heavily influenced by biology.  There are a host of factors involved. The result of that is people fall on a spectrum.  
  I have a very good friend who gained a lot of weight while carrying her second child.  She had a very challenging pregnancy during which she developed a very bad case of gestational diabetes. It was so severe she had to inject insulin 5 times per day.  With her first child it was easy for her to lose the weight. But after the second was born, it was very hard for her to lose the weight. And then came a cancer diagnosis which she fought for 2 years requiring multiple surgeries. Those two events not only left her much heavier than before, she found that her pancreas was highly impacted which severely affected her ability to lose weight.  While she did eventually lose the weight it was a very long and hard battle over the next several years that required extremely strict diet and exercise. 
  It is easy for some to lose weight. But don’t let that lead you to believe that it is easy for all. I’m so proud of my friend. But she really had to work quite hard at it. And if you tried to tell her that it is easy to lose weight to her face, she might kick you in the balls.
  My advise is not to extrapolate your personal experiences (or those of your friends and family) to everyone. Sure, in some cases you will be right. But you do a disservice to many people when you ignore the inherent diversity of human biology and environmental factors across the population. >
  
  
  work a regular 9-5 job which leaves time for exercise and fitness
  
  You don't have any children do you.. The only time I have to myself is between 10pm and 6am. That includes every single weekend.
  Also what you are saying that its only easy for someone who is wealthy and healthy. That literally excludes most of the world's population.. >
  
  Here's the thing. Have you accomplished this easy weight loss yourself? >
  
  Quitting heroin is easy; just don't inject it anymore!
  The real world isn't  that simple though. >
  
  As someone who's lost, re-gained, and re-lost a decent amount of weight over the last few years, what I've found is that the diet and exercise in and of themselves were the easiest part. The hardest part of losing weight was two kids and a job.
  The idea that all you need is willpower backfires, because the implication is that if you don't have it, you're just fucked. You can't exactly go to the store and buy more. >
  
  You mentioned all it takes is "dedication and motivation."
  Yes, that's the hard part. >
  
  I already added a caveat that my post in not referring to those with relatively rare conditions (ex cushing's disease) >
  
  I agree with you that motivation and discipline are major contributing factors to people giving up on weight loss. However, I think it is due to ignorance or a lack of enjoyment rather than a lack of willpower. What do most people say as advice for losing weight? Go to the gym and eat healthy. But how do you do those things? Hiring a trainer to teach you could work, but now we're introducing money as a gatekeeper. You can google the moves online and figure out a diet and excise routine on your own, but that takes significant amounts of mental energy to teach yourself a skill. Life is hard, and many people may not have the motivation to start from zero. What I have found works is to help a person find an active activity that they ENJOY. Maybe the person doesn't know how to use the gym, but they might really enjoy hiking, playing tennis, golf, or swimming. That enjoyment feeds the persons motivation and willpower to continue.
  All of these can be fantastic weight loss tools, but they don't have the learning curve that can come with traditional forms of working out.  The key to losing weight, on the surface, is calories in vs calories out, but how you get to that point requires you to think and plan out exactly HOW you will get to that status. Most people's supply of mental energy is extremely limited nowadays. Wages suck, rent is high, food prices have gone up, and we've been in a pandemic for two years. All of these factors can make weight loss EXTREMELY challenging and I don't think it's solely down to motivation. Interest plays a large part as well. Engaging in a physical activity which does not feel like work can bring people that would otherwise not work out at all into a healthier state of being. I see this all the time in my kickboxing class. Some of my students do not work out in the traditional sense AT ALL, but they show up every Monday to my kickboxing class because they are having fun and they come in during the week to do heavy bag workouts on their own. Their enjoyment of the sport GIVES them the motivation and drive to lose weight and be healthy. >
  
  But what about prior the pandemic? What about people who live a comfortable middle to upper middle class lifestyle? What is their excuse?
  I don't agree with the premise of requiring too much mental energy. Calculating your maintenance calories, and eating less than that will lead to weight loss. You don't even need to exercise! It's not that hard and its very simple. >
  
  these are things that are easy for you, but you can't judge the general population based on your own experience. 
  i promise, not everyone has the mental energy to do what you describe, and not from lack of understanding or lack of motivation. >
  
  As a person that had lost a lot of weight. Losing weight if you are fat is not complicated. You have to be really strict and commit to it during some months.
  The problem is to maintain your weight after. Because for many fat people food is an addiction, comparable to tobacco or worse. That's really the problem that a lot of people don't want to admit.
  If you stop smoking you can decide that you won't smoke a cigarette anymore, if you are fat you still have to go to that birthday party and you are not going to "make a scene" asking for salad when everyone is asking for pizza. But remember, just that pizza. Then you have to go back to diet and exercise because if not you will lose in one week the effort of two months. >
  
  Age is a huge factor. In my 20s I could shift weight without even really trying.
  Now I'm 48, and not much that I do seems to really ever reduce my weight.
  Doesn't help that I work long days, have kids to feed and look after etc. Most of my exercise is dog-walking which is just enough to stop me gaining weight.
  I should add I love exercising - quite happy swimming, cycling, walking and the occasional run - but time is a massive factor when your career and your family life eat up 99% of your available time and energy. >
  
  If you're lazy, I would suggest skipping a few meals. This ain't rocket science. >
  
  "If you are running up against structural barriers, I would just suggest an eating disorder" >
  
  Can second this. Barring some medical conditions slowing the process, it's relatively easy and quick to lose weight. >
  
  It’s so hard for me. Granted I’m not overweight but I’d like to lose ten pounds. The problem is I exercise all summer but I’m also super hungry. And I’ll probably lose 5 lbs with hard work.  In the winter I don’t really exercise and eat whatever but I only really gain 5lbs >
  
  The actual process of losing weight is simply, follow an eating and fitness routine and barring any medical issues, you should lose the desired weight. The real problem is that most people don’t keep the weight off so it’s the constant dieting and gaining weight merry go round that people find difficult and very frustrating. If you are constantly worrying about putting on the weight that you lost then it is a never ending battle that makes it hard to keep trying. >
  
  I think you’re right that weight loss is easy if you have the right mindset. If you’re not a food addict, then staying at a healthy weight is super easy. But, as someone who has struggled with extra chub, I can tell you that it did not feel easy when I was in that headspace. The problem with addiction is that it makes all other pleasures of life feel lacklustre. Nothing is as good as your addiction - not sex, not a beautiful sunset, not cuddles, not a warm bath. The only thing that makes you feel pleasure and happy is your addiction. The only thing you ever really think about is ur addiction. So yes, it’s as easy as not eating, but not-eating can feel like the hardest thing in the world. >
  
  There are metabolic disorders and they are real. The entire thyroid can slow down the heart, digestion, and lower body temperature. 🥴 >
  
  Extra weight is a symptom.  Sometimes it's someone just eating more than they need to and failing to exercise, but if it's someone that's making a real effort and failing, then it's a symptom of something else. >
  
  Yes, you just stop stuffing shit in your face ... Or Is IT? >
  
  I would agree. A big elephant in the room for people trying to lose weight at least in the UK where I'm from is alcohol Consumption. People will eat decent enough Monday to Thursday then Friday, Saturday, Sunday will have 4000 calorie days by the time you've added the alcohol, takeaways and other weekend treats. >
  
  Arent living paycheck to paycheck, I don’t know too many ppl like that bro >
  
  Weight loss is easy. Not eating too much, that's the difficult part. >
  
  It’s simple it’s but it’s not easy. Most people should be able to lose 10lbs in 4-6 weeks if they stick to a solid diet and just add in a few cardio sessions a week. But for many people that’s not easy even though it’s a pretty simple formula. >
  
  Literally start fasting regularly and you'll lose weight. Probably ain't healthy but ur losing weight >
  
  It is easy to lose 10 lbs. It is hard to keep it off. Check back in a year. >
  
  If one part of your ‘caveat’ (financial security) applies to over half (at least in the US) of the population, it’s probably worth reevaluating your position >
  
  I just want to add that eating healthy foods doesn’t have to be expensive. In fact most times it can save you money. Grains, legumes, and fresh produce are the basis of what you need, and those aren’t typically costly. >
  
  I think, rather than engaging in a debate about motivations and intentions, reality has already tested this for us. 
  Firstly, what is/isn't difficult, is surely measured against performance. If 100 people try something, and 50% fail, I think we can agree it's difficult. I'd go so far as to say (it being an entirely arbitrary assessment), that a 25% failure rate is difficult. If you administer a test, and there is a 25% failure rate, it's a difficult test. 
  Adjust the figure how you wish, but the point I'm making is that difficulty is a subjective measure, and like any subjective measure, the reference point is the population. 
  Weight loss varies with context, but in a country such as the US for example, a country which has a huge emphasis on body image, a third of its population is obese. 
  Secondly, if you begin the enquiry with the position that losing weight is easy, you then would assume that a large portion of people are just inexplicably incompetent or unmotivated. Which, if false, means your premise is false. But if true, leads to the next point. 
  Thirdly, if there are people who has obesity problems because of a lack of self control, then that lack of self control cannot be cured just by them willing it harder. The very thing they are missing is the thing they need for the solution. 
  So, in summation, reality already tells us it is hard for those people who struggle with it. 
  But I do agree with you (though you did not express it explicitly), nothing is gained by encouraging the perception that it is hard. >
  
  You should read the work by Aubry Gordon. She just released a new book about all the myths around fat people. Maybe she can help change your mind and give you more insight into the nuances of weight, stigma, health, and antifat bias. >
  
  I think you should watch the show “Fit to Fat to Fit”  where in shape personal trainers gain weight to help a client lose weight. Even the personal trainers have a hard time losing the weight they put on. >
  
  I think your entire argument ignores that a lot of people have seemingly everything set up in favor for them to lose weight - they have time, financial resources, and access to knowledge - but they grew up in an environment where making healthy choices simply wasn't a priority/taught.
  I know plenty of people who grew up reasonably well off, and were overweight into early adulthoods. They struggled mightily to lose weight not because they couldn't afford to, but because they simply grew up in an environment where unhealthy habits were normalized. You are simply not accounting for how difficult breaking these mental barriers can be for someone.
  Bad habits engrained early on can be like a trauma - deeply rooted and very difficult to remove. Certainly makes losing weight not easy. >
  
  Gain weight +20lbs and then lose it. Prove your point >
  
  Weight change = #Calrories Consumed - #(non-exercise) Calories Needs to sustain weight - #calories burned in exercise  
  ​
  For the vast majority of people it really is that easy.  But... to change your view, 10lbs is a lot if you're already within 10lbs of your optimal weight and already exercise regularly.  When I was ironman training I expected to loose tons of weight - and I did - the day of the Ironman (between 8 and 12lbs in one day) - but not leading up to it.  All sorts of physio reasons for that - so may be "easily" is not the right terminology as you put it.
  If you're 30lbs overweight (I am now) 10lbs is easily obtainable (I yo-yo all the time) - I would agree with that.  If you're 10lbs overweight and active... I would disagree that the final 10lbs is "easy" to shed. >
  
  It’s actually really really really difficult for me. I pretty much live next to restaurant city. >
  
  I just want to say 1 thing. Yes its simple but not easy >
  
  If you’re a male losing weight is known to be easier than it is for women. 
  Losing weight is not easy. >
  
  It's easy to stop eating junk food and fast food but it's time consuming the more weight you have and at some point, someone might give up because of that. >
  
  Remember, calories cannot legally enter your body without your consent. >
  
  I would suggest that you're mistaking simple and easy. Weight loss is simple. Consume fewer calories than you are expending and you will lose weight. Changing habits, lifestyle, everything, that part is hard. >
  
  
  I feel that losing weight isn't that difficult with some proper dedication and motivation.
  
  I feel that getting rich isn't that difficult with some proper inheritance. 
  Dedication and motivation are not sitting on the shelf waiting for you to use them, they are rare and mysterious forces that people spend fortunes trying to conjure. It's akin to telling depressed people to just snap out of it, use your willpower, when willpower is the very thing that's under attack. Broken leg? Walk it off. Always hungry? Just eat less!
  Seriously, if it's so easy to prevent hunger, please tell me how. Because my hunger is stronger than my will to go to sleep at night, and stronger than my dedication to concentrate at work.