People don't realize it's just a math equation. They also won't admit that you have to actually put in effort to track stuff. I've known women in the past who say, "I don't eat anything all day. All I do is drink a bottle of wine for dinner." And then they don't understand why they don't have energy and never lose weight.
So much truth there. When I was coming down off my heaviest all I did was make sure I HONESTLY and religiously filled in EVERYTHING I ate into my fitness pal. I knew I needed to be under 3k to even start losing weight, and after a week I realized I was eating/drinking more than 5k calories a day. First step was an easy one. Limit my time at the bar to one night a week. Knocked out over 2k calories a day right there....eat fast food ONCE a day and now I'm 500 calories below maintenance and the body is melting away. It's kind of empowering to see the little choices make a difference.
The work came after I was down to 240lbs. I became a obsessed with fitness and diet, and I can see the trend starting that way again. I'm finally waking up before my daughter, so if I wanted to get an early morning work out in, it's actually on the table. I don't think I feel like cycling anymore, and I've got a nice paved trail right behind my house that is BEGGING for roller blades.