Everyone wants a quick fix

Yep, got it in one. So I'm guessing no converts then

I've been trying to get my flatmate to DO something for about a year. Her Doctor has told her she needs to lose weight because she's putting pressure on her heart (she has a pacemaker - died for 8 minutes at the age of 23).
She keeps asking me about different shake diets she should do. I actually yelled at her the other day when she suggested the last one.
She lives with me so she KNOWS exactly what I've been doing. She can see for herself there isn't a quick fix.

Could you invite here along on your journey to do some of this things you are doing?
ie: If you go for a walk or some exercise, ask her along?

"Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder, but don't nobody want to lift no heavy a** weights" - Ronnie Coleman

It all boils down tot he fact that people don't want to work hard. Once you accept that you have to work hard to be in good shape, then that's when you actually start getting in shape. Until then, they'll jump from fad diet to fad diet for weight loss: low carb, detox, cleanse, paleo, vegetarian, low fat, no sugar, no carbs after 2:00pm etc. etc.

I'm not sure why all that you mentioned would be considered a fad diet. I don't call what I'm eating a diet, it is a lifestyle. And now that I have reduced my carb intake and don't eat all the processed crap and white flour, wheat and sugar and diet soda and low fat junk out there, the bloat is gone, I have no more joint pain, my energy has increased, I sleep better, and oh yeah, I'm losing weight too. I don't criticize anyone's choice of what works for them, only the fact that they want it by tomorrow. There is no quick fix. I eat real food, I exercise and I feel great.

Had the same experience when one of my coworkers said I'd lost a lot of weight and asked me what I was doing.

I said swimming after work, took meat out of my diet, walking my dog for at least an hour every morning before work, making sure to stay moving all day at work (my job requires me to be on my feet, anyway, may as well use that time to walk a lot. 5-7 hours of walking 3-5 times a week adds up), and keeping my intake to between 1250 and 1350 calories a day.

She said there had to be more to it. I said there wasn't, and then she looked at me again and said "Yeah... I'm not gonna do that..."

What I'm doing isn't even all that hard, it's just a little bit every day, adding things that can give me a little extra push when I feel I can handle them, but I'm going on 45 pounds lost from it. I'm taking the "slow and steady wins the race" approach.

We're programmed via media to believe that simple cannot be effective. It has to be some secret thing that we cannot do for ourselves by listening to our bodies and doing what we know is good for them. Obviously doing ten squats before getting ready for work to get yourself physically used to that type of exercise and building up from there until you're doing 20, 50, 150 every morning is a simple thing, so it can't work, not unless we have some gizmo from an infomercial, that is.

Keep doing what you're doing, you look lovely, and congrats on your progress =^_^=

You should see how pissed people get when they are gushing and telling me how great I did and how hard I worked and I just say, "It really wasn't that hard, I just cut portions and exercise a few days a week."

Do people really think there is some magic formula?

Yes.

If someone had found it all the other crap things people sell would be left in the dust because it actually worked...

True.

How many times does this happen to you?

Countless.

Have you ever managed to convince someone the only thing that works is hard work?

Not yet.

I actually got asked this for the first time today (which in itself was a NSV as they had no idea I was "doing something" to lose weight, but they commented on the fact that it was obvious I had lost quite a bit). I essentially said what others are saying here with regards to eat less, move more and told them about MFP (even emailed them the website).