You won't like it. Nobody does. The answer is you are burning less calories than you are taking in. Period. Doesn't matter what the calories are. That's the problem.
So, how do we solve the problem? That probably varies from person to person, but I'm a guy who can convince myself to follow a plan based on a guaranteed outcome.
How do we guarantee the outcome you ask? Follow these simple steps:
1) Go here and put in your weight, height, etc. (Don't lie here, because you'll be sorry later if you do. Get on the scale and do it right.)
2) Get a smartphone or a tablet or some mobile device. You can do it on the home computer, but it's better if it is mobile, so you can find out how many calories are in whatever you might come across.
3) Search for 'calorie counter' in whatever app store/market you have on your device and download it. I like the one from FatSecret, but others do well with MyFitnessPal. Either app will not only allow you to count calories, but it has a large database of foods and ingredients, including the entire menu of most major chain restaurants and fast food places. (Yes, I said fast food. I never ate fast food before I did this, but I do now all the time. It's in moderation, of course, because that's the whole point. It's all about portion control.)
4) Go back to the first step and put in your goal weight instead of your current weight. The number that it pops out is the number that you have to come in under after you are done in order to not lose weight. You'll need to count calories for the rest of your life, but you'll know where you stand.
You are now in possession of all the information necessary to lose all the weight you want. And if you stick to your plan there is NO WAY TO FAIL. That's right. No failure. No plateaus. No waking up one day having gained a bunch of weight back. No old habits creeping back. All that crap is out the window.
I've got everyone I know doing this since they saw the drastic change in me. I'll never go back to being the way I was, because there isn't any reason to. I can have whatever I want to eat, but I just have to control how much I take in.
For confirmation, here is another guy who did the same exact thing.
http://consumerist.com/2009/07/how-i-lost-1004-pounds-in-6-months.html
It is possible (and safe...don't listen to the idiots who enjoy 'managing' fat people. Not a one of them would know a fact if it crawled up their *** and died there.) to lose 100lbs in 6 months.
Unless you are measuring the calories you excrete (with a calorimeter) then your calculation is missing a critical factor. Also the the form of the calories matter, the biggest distinction being how they are absorbed. For example you could have a diet of pure oil, high in calories, but lose weight even doing no exercise at all. That’s because the oil won’t be digestable and won’t be absorbed. (you would also slowly starve to death)
Thank you all for your help. This really does give me some direction and new things to try. I appreciate it very much!