Finding it hard

Yes. You can. But you have to take it in moderation. Save you some splurge cals at the end of the day if you need to, but try to eat healthy and exercise to earn that splurge. This method has worked really well for me. Don't beat yourself up if you blow it. It's going to take time to reach your goals, and it's going to take some effort to be consistent.

I love when I find it hard.

But for what you're asking, I'd suggest exercising, then eating your calories back, as MFP suggests.

You can eat whatever you want, just not necessarily in the same quantities that you want (barring any medical conditions/allergies etc). I've lost about 85 lbs, and I haven't cut out any single food or food group. I have chocolate nearly every day, and regularly have things that aren't considered traditional dieting food. For me, logging my food here has really helped me to control my portion sizes, and I can make good decisions based on how the rest of my diary looks (ie whether I've got in enough protein for the day, or fibre). I've got used to smaller portions rather than unlimited quantities. Obviously, I have more room to indulge on days when I have burnt off a lot through exercise.

Some people find certain foods trigger them to binge, so if that's the case for you, you might find it easier to cut those foods out, at least for now. Otherwise - go for it. Portion control and an overall well-balanced diet are key. Actually, you could lose weight even without a well balanced diet - just with a calorie deficit, but you can certainly be healthy and enjoy your desserts at the same time.

Theoretically yes you could eat one chocolate bar as 200 calories of your diet every day and still lose weight, but that isn't the problem for me.

The first problem is that the 200 calories of chocolate I'd eat wouldn't fill me up at all. And since I'm on a calorie deficit, it's just like eating 200 calories less for the day when I eat a chocolate bar.

The second and biggest problem for me is that I had/have what you might call a junk food addiction. I can't just have one chocolate bar, after one I'll be craving just another one all night. I have the will power to just have one now but the unpleasantness of the cravings for the rest of the night after that one chocolate bar isn't worth the 60 seconds of euphoria I get when I'm actually eating it.

Just my two cents.

Yes and no. I have been eating many of the things I like, like ice cream, pizza, and even Chick Fil-A, but not as much as I used to. And I make sure I'm under my calorie count. And, I've made adjustments. Instead of eating sausage pizza, I stick with cheese pizza. And I only do it maybe once a week or less, which is a lot less than I used to eat pizza. I had Chick Fil-A for the first time since I started counting calories this past weekend, but I made sure that what I chose would still be under my calorie count. And for ice cream, instead of getting regular ice cream with chocolate syrup and whipped cream, I do the Edy's half fat ice cream. So I'm eating what I like, but I'm being careful about it. And I'm doing the really bad stuff less and in serious moderation.

I hope that helps. I've been counting for two weeks now and I'm down 6 pounds (even though about half of that was water weight).

You can have dessert every night if you want, just make it something that you feel good about, i.e. fruit, low fat pudding (custard), small amount of chocolate. Berries are very low in calories and should satisfy your sweet tooth.

If you don't have calories remaining for the day consider fruit tea.