In studies, it seems MOST people perceive that exercises are harder to do in proportion to the actual amount of calories burned. There is one major exception, and THAT exercise burns MORE calories proportional to the perceived effort than any other, and virtually everybody has the necessary skills and equipment.
Walk. Park the car WAY out at the end of the parking lot. Walk to the mailbox. When you get home, take a 30 minute walk instead of watching TV and snacking.
Also, there are some foods that have very low calories for the volume they occupy. This allows you to eat a substantial amount, fill yourself full, and eat low calorie anyway.
Number one on the list is broccoli. A serving of carbs is about 15 grams. That's 4 CUPS of broccoli. So who wants to eat a lot of broccoli? Hang on, I'll get to that.
The next problem is, that most diets contain way too much meat, and not enough healthier fruits, nuts, grains. A serving of meat ought to be about 3 ounces, which, lets face it, ain't much.
So, what sort of foods give you lots of healthy foods, like broccoli, and very little meat?
Can you say stir-fry, boys and girls? I knew you could! A little bit of meat, a LOT of veggies, a bit of sauce for flavor, and cooked from scratch in a few minutes.
If you want to learn more, go and find a book for dieters and diabetics that gives the calories, fat, carbs, protein content of the meals (magic words: carb counting, exchange diet). The American Diabetes association and the American Diabetic Association BOTH suggest the same approach. They will suggest the number number of grams you should eat of each everyday. Try it.
Shopping will take forever, until you learn what to eat, what to avoid, how to get the most of your precious grams of fat, carbs, protein. Find a list of "free foods", and buy these for snacks if you need them.
I lost 60 pounds in one year, and had to convince my new doctor I was in fact a diabetic. My blood glucose put me square in the middle of normal for the whole population, NOT just "good for a diabetic".