I would also like to add something after my earlier post-and it concerns exercise. Yes, a calorie deficit works alone, but health is health-and exercise is important-and just as much as your diet is.
On that note-you don't have to go from doing NOTHING to joining a gym and working out 2 hours a day. Actually-this is exactly how millions of people make their New Years Resolutions and end up completely FAILING by February 1. They go from pizza and Cheetos on the couch to a super strict diet plan and 2 hours a day at the gym-and 2 or 3 weeks later-they QUIT. They simply took on way too much at one time.
Exercise should, in my opinion, start simple if you are a couch potato. If you do nothing, then it is going to be pretty hard to go directly from doing that, to doing 30 minutes, or 1 hour, or more per day. Start small. When I started after my first child was born almost 8 years ago-I started out with a 10 minute ab video that I did 3 days a week (with a day in between for my ab muscles to rest). It was a very small start-but it WAS one, and once I successfully kept up that routine for a few weeks, then I added 10 minutes a day on the days that I didn't do that ab video...I walked for 10 minutes, or rode my exercise bike for 10 minutes. So, a couple months later, I was doing over an hour of exercise a week that I was not doing before-and I hadn't quit yet. Over time I added time each day, and tried new things...
As far as not liking exercise-I don't like to go to the gym either. I absolutely hate "team sports" like softball/volleyball/basketball with an absolute passion...so what good would it do me to sign up for something that I hate? No good at all, because I won't stick with it. I believe that there is an exercise for EVERYBODY. You just have to get out there and try new things now and then.
5 years ago I signed up for a beginning belly dance class-and I fell in love. A year later I joined a student troupe, a year after that a professional performing company. I have been teaching classes myself now for well over a year. I get to exercise, get paid, entertain others and have a blast, and play "dress up" all at the same time-with the same activity.
My father in law runs a clogging/country line dancing/square dancing group-and they perform all over at festivals and have a BLAST.
Exercise does not always have to be running or joining a gym. It can be water aerobics at the local YMCA (which I have heard are super fun!), it can be meeting up with friends to walk together while gossiping a few times a week, or it can be getting a season pass to a local zoo and taking your kid(s) there a couple times a week-family time+ walking all in one!
There are no excuses not to move. The key is to not jump in too fast, and also to branch out and try something new now and then, rather than concentrating on the exercises that you "don't" like.