Perhaps your anecdote does not qualify as a suitable counter argument. Is yours a normative experience? It is easy to lose weight in the sense that the solution is easily stated. Just restrict calories enough and weight will be lost. I suggest this is one of those things that is easy to say and hard to do. Isn't it akin to telling lifelong smokers, "Just stop smoking."? After all, if one simply doesn't smoke cigarettes then one will no longer have a smoking problem.
Can you see that perhaps your level of commitment is not possible for some people? Some people simply lack the willpower to do this.
> Isn't it akin to telling lifelong smokers, "Just stop smoking."?
It absolutely is. And I say this as someone who, after 25 years smoking, I stopped one day. I wasn't even really wanting or trying to quit. I just... stopped.
I consider myself incredibly fortunate at the complex, unlikely, and non-transferable, set of conditions that made this happen to me. Despite my success, or precisely because of my success, I am the least valid person to help a smoker quit.
Can you see that perhaps your level of commitment is not possible for some people? Some people simply lack the willpower to do this.