I find a lot of people who claim to have "tried" diet an exercise haven't effectively done either. "Exercise" does not mean sitting on a recumbant bike for 30 minutes while reading a magazine a few times a week. Sure, it's better than nothing, but it's not going to burn significant calories or increase your basal metabolic rate much. Likewise, "diet" does not mean switching to the "low fat" or "diet" versions of the foods you usually eat.
Effective exercise involves BOTH cardio and strength training. Cardio 5x a week, strength 3x. Unless you have a diagnosed health condition other than weight, it should not be moderate- It should be vigorous. Cardio can be pretty much anything, but it should involve periods above 80% max heart rate. Endurance exercise (1hr+ exertion) at a lower heart rate should be mixed in as well. Proper strength training involves doing sets of major exercises (deadlifts, squats, bench press, rows) until or near failure. Things like dumbell curls and kettlebell swings are fine supplements, but you won't see much in the way of gains from doing endless reps of curls on a 5lb dumbell.
Effective diet involves eating whole unprocessed foods with a lot of micronutrients. Don't drink your calories (most caloric drinks get that way through sugar). While the exact components of an ideal diet are a matter of debate, it's pretty clear than anything that comes in a box or can or sealed bag is a lot less likely to be healthy.
If you do the above, you will burn significant calories from the cardio and significantly increase your basal metabolic rate by adding muscle. Your total calories will likely decrease without any conscious reduction efforts because fresh fruits and veggies will fill you up a lot faster than a bag of Doritos. None of this is rocket science, but sadly is ignored by most people looking to loose weight. Mostly because it involves a lot of hard work (it will take a year of consistent training for your strength efforts to be visible), and because there is no gimmicky product to sell. All you need is the produce aisle, a good barbell set/bench/power rack, and a pair of running shoes.
Re Lawyer compensation:
It's true that a partner at a large firm can make $500k (indeed, some make millions per year), but that's a tiny fraction of lawyers and they do work close to every waking hour. This is at most 1-2% of practicing lawyers. Very successful plaintiff's lawyers can make millions on one case, but have no steady income. Of highly paid lawyers, much more common are large firm associates (start at $160k and go to $280k or so), or in-house lawyers at large companies ($110-$300k depending on seniority). The in-house lawyers often get pretty close to 9-5 hours. That said, at least 50% of lawyers are fighting for table scraps and make much less. It's true that nobody does lawyer work as a hobby (you need a client, so you can't just do it for no reason), but plenty of lawyers do free legal work for the poor.
The bottom line is all highly paid jobs require significant expertise and the very top of most professions make very outsized salaries compared to the average practitioner.
Well, yes and no. A truly small business started by a single individual (or spouses) will be treated as a disregarded entity unless it elects otherwise or forms a corporation, which does not subject the business person to the full brunt of business tax complexity. It's more complex to run a small business, but mostly from an administrative standpoint (i.e. keeping all your receipts, etc.). The actual tax law that applies to such small businesses wouldn't expand all that much. But, in my experience, the people who really get into trouble with the IRS tend to be small business people. Big businesses have the technical and administrative resources to follow the law.
A VC funded startup will have tax planners on the VC side.
I'm not ranting about average people at all. Just clarifying. Actually, the tax code for most individuals doesn't need to be all that complex. The U.S. could do what the UK does and have a pro forma tax return for W-2 wage earners and eliminate the need for 90% of the population to bother filing a return. However, that would require tax reform which has proven to be a near impossibility. You could simplify business taxation to a large degree with some key reforms, but as long as you make "Income" the tax base, you are going to have a complex tax code for large business enterprise. However, the large business enterprises aren't getting away with murder to the degree that most people suspect. Remember, corporations are just vectors. Ultimately a real human being has to pay tax, so corporate tax complexity can be a bit of a red herring.
As for the necessity of my profession... any time you have laws, you need someone who specializes in their interpretation or application. Name me a type of law, and I will name you a specialized practitioner. Doesn't matter whether the law itself is simple or complex.
Machines have less problems. I'd like to be a machine. -- Andy Warhol