It really isn't and I say this as someone that never went over 180 pounds and is usually around 12% body fat.
Just the 'lifting 3 times a week' will take out a lot of the working population out of the picture. Why? If include commute to gym, working out time and shower/etc, we are looking at least 6 hours per week. Add the gym costs/going to the gym costs and you have maybe 100 bucks a month as a cost. We are fortunate we can spend that time/money on ourselves, but seriously, a lot of people can't. Heck, if you take 80% of the comments here in HN how they work 60+ hours a week in their startups, I doubt even us techies will have the time to do so.
In my country (and I think the USA as well) obesity is highly correlated with low income.
Then you have the psychological aspects to it. Stress is a major contribution to over eating. If everyday you are worried if you have enough at the end of the month for rent, you wont stop, go online, get a recipe, go to the grocery store to get fresh vegetables, come on, cook for an hour to have a nice healthy meal... You most likely will pick up a microwavable lasagna and be done with it.
I don't disagree with you that losing weight is easy, it is, basically "eat less than what you need", but being able to do that, based on many many factors isn't as easy.
The average American spends 3 hours per day watching TV. To find 6 hours/week, it's just a matter of turning off the TV for 2 hours, 3x/week. http://www.bls.gov/tus/tables/a1_2013.pdf
As for not affording a gym, that's nonsense. Bodyweight fitness exists and it works great.
Last year I met a super skinny tall Indian dude. He asked my help on how to get in shape (I'm tall but not so skinny), so I invited him to join me for a bodyweight workout in the free public park. He joined me, stuck with the program ("if you do 7 pushups today, try 8 tomorrow"), and got into considerably better shape.
He works 6 days/week and probably earns about 10,000rs/month ($150, maybe $300-400 after adjusting for cost of living). He can't even afford an internet-capable phone to visit the /r/fitness FAQ. Rather than making excuses, he just decided that fitness was more important than TV and made it happen.
Damn right it does. I struggle with weight, and have done so all my life. After my divorce 7 years ago i piled on the kilo's. Combination of overeating, and being lazy. I started a gym a few times, and got personal trainers involved at some point. All the same thing: pound the treadmill and stairmaster for an hour, and go home.
I have been on and off diets and few, if any, are long term doable for me.
Last October, I hooked up with a personal trainer who is totally awesome, and got me into the "if you do 7 today, try 8 tomorrow" perspective. The first weeks were brutal, and very, very hard, but his approach was to find my limit, and push me ever so slightly over it. I used to go 3 times a week, half an hour, early morning. Now I also join in with evening sessions.
Everything we do is bodyweight training, boxing, kickboxing, and some cardio workout. No running (it would destroy my knees anyway), just simple stuff: squats, pushups, pull ups (from a horizontal position, working to "proper" pull ups), etc. His mantra is "small victories, every day".
It works. Although he does give me gentle nudges about my eating habits every now and then ("eat less meat, more green veg. Drink water with lemon") he emphatically doesn't want me to worry about dieting. "Get fit, and the weightloss will follow".
I have lost about 20 kilo's so far, feel better than I have in a very long time, and have an unbelievable amount of fun doing it (I am lazy, and I hate working out)
I agree that it's not easy to overcome the inertia (the psychological aspects). I've been skinny all my life and I still have to motivate myself to exercise.
You don't necessarily need to "go to the gym" though. There are lots of bodyweight exercises that can produce great results. Not just pushups, either:
Some of those exercises are very difficult - the only one I can do is the single leg squat (pistol). But pullups, dips, pistols, sprinting, kettlebells (cheap one-time purchase) can take you a long way.
For what it's worth, when I lost weight I was exercising for 90 minutes a day 6 days a week (half of that hard exercise, half more casual) AND carefully watching everything I ate. The idea that this is "easy" is completely cracked. I could only do it because I was self-employed and single.
I gained a bit back after getting married, and I've gained 10 pounds a year on average since my son was born.
Just the 'lifting 3 times a week' will take out a lot of the working population out of the picture. Why? If include commute to gym, working out time and shower/etc, we are looking at least 6 hours per week. Add the gym costs/going to the gym costs and you have maybe 100 bucks a month as a cost. We are fortunate we can spend that time/money on ourselves, but seriously, a lot of people can't. Heck, if you take 80% of the comments here in HN how they work 60+ hours a week in their startups, I doubt even us techies will have the time to do so.
In my country (and I think the USA as well) obesity is highly correlated with low income.
Then you have the psychological aspects to it. Stress is a major contribution to over eating. If everyday you are worried if you have enough at the end of the month for rent, you wont stop, go online, get a recipe, go to the grocery store to get fresh vegetables, come on, cook for an hour to have a nice healthy meal... You most likely will pick up a microwavable lasagna and be done with it.
I don't disagree with you that losing weight is easy, it is, basically "eat less than what you need", but being able to do that, based on many many factors isn't as easy.
(congrats on the weight loss)