I lost the vast majority of my weight while not exercising (due to time constraints rather than desire). I go to the gym to get buff, not to loose weight. If you are a woman, it is ok to just be thin and look good. But for a man, you would go from being considered fat to being scrawny, which is not much better. I have realized that exercise doesn't help much with the weight loss ever since I would look at the calories burned after spending a hard 30 minutes on an exercise bike or treadmill. The little red display would be blinking a measly 300 or 400 calories and I would be so voraciously hungry that I would easily eat three times that much to reward myself for working out so hard. Now I completely ignore the cardio equipment and devote all of my efforts into building muscle on the weights. With this, at least I know that I will see real results.