Losing weight is more difficult than quitting smoking

Quitting smoking is one of the hardest things I've done in my life. However, it's no where near as difficult as losing weight.

When people quit smoking they can quit cold turkey or wean themselves off over time. Either way they eventually eliminate cigarettes from their lives.

Success in weight loss is dependent mostly (approximately 80%) on food choices. So limiting the unhealthy food choices is the best way to achieve weight loss success. The trick is to LIMIT but not ELIMINATE certain foods from your diet. The human body needs some oils and fats so they can't safely be removed entirely from your diet. But it's so much more difficult to have small amounts of something tempting than to eliminate them completely.

Imagine if someone was told not to QUIT smoking but to have just one or two cigarettes a day. That they need just one or two in order to survive. They are bombarded in the media with smoking advertisements (similar to food, restaurant, etc advertisements). However they cannot have more than 2 cigarettes even though their friends, family, co-workers, etc all have more than 10 cigarettes a day, often right in front of them. It would be so difficult to exercise the self control required to stay on track for the rest of their life!

There, FWIW, is my analogy of why weight loss is so tricky.