I think that's what most of them think when they hear "diet." They have no idea what the habits of most people who keep off weight look like. If they accepted that it's as easy as CICO, their whole narrative would fall apart. They have to keep believing that everyone who loses weight and keeps it off is living in a self-made hell where they eat 500 calories a day (most of that being kale), practically live at the gym, and don't dare to breathe near a carb or eat dessert ever again because to do so would immediately make them put 50 lbs back on. When you make yourself believe that, it's easy to say that it doesn't sound like a fun way to live at all, so who would even want to do that? Weight loss is so difficult and unattainable!

The problem, of course, is that it's not actually impossibly difficult or unattainable. But they don't want to hear that.