From July 2005 until July 2006, I lost a total of 110lbs, I did it by counting calories (no real diet other than my own) and at least an hour of exercise a minimum of 6 days a week.
Now that I'm at my target the hardest part is maintaining, I still count calories but not that strict as I did when I wanted to lose. It amazes me what eating out does to the calorie count. I noticed that my weight was creeping up so I decided that I would only eat out once a week and make that my cheat meal, lo and behold I lost weight and back down to my original target weight. I still do at least 30 minutes of cardio and weight training a day but the only thing that changed was eating out an average of 3 times a week down to 1 and made all the difference.
Here is a link that I used to plan my dining out schedule
http://www.dietfacts.com/fastfood.asp
It's amazing what eating out can do to someone trying to eat 2000-2500 calories a day, one meal and your done..