That's the bottom line, alright.

I've always found that exercise helps me lose weight faster - provided I still watch my Calories. The rule of thumb is that, for every 3500 Calories more or less than what your body needs to maintain your current weight, you gain or lose a pound, respectively. Cycling burns an average of about 500 Calories/hour, so, assuming you eat your maintenance Calories (there are online calculators you can use to determine this), you'll lose a pound a week if you ride for an hour a day.

I've aimed to lose between 1 and 2 pounds a week, with a combination of watching Calories and exercise, and it's been pretty successful and not TOO painful. But yes, if you want to lose weight, you have to learn to live with hungry. That's your body telling you that you're forcing it to "dip into savings", and it doesn't like that.

The key, for me, is to try to make it sustainable. Any plan that includes severely reducing intake, or eating a lot of one food group rather than a balanced diet, or huge amounts of exercise that would never fit into a normal life ... is a loser. Moderation and patience are the key.

If you use one of the "Calories required for maintenance" calculators, and eat the maintenance amount of calories for a sedentary individual at your DESIRED weight, and combine that with 30 - 45 minutes of aerobic exercise 5-6 days a week, you'll lose weight gradually (and really slowly as you get close to your desired weight), but will also never really need to change the way you live when you've lost the weight.