What is easier said than done?

Losing weight.

It really is as simple as making sure that Calories In < Calories Out. Reduce caloric intake through dietary changes and increase exercise. But in practice it can be difficult to maintain both of these consistently.

Then shouldn’t your OP be, “What’s easier done than said?”

Walking is a good example. It is much easier to walk than it is to precisely describe walking to someone who has never done it.

I mean, most idioms are silly if you take them at face value.

To me, "easier said than done" is a response to an unrealistic idea that carries the meaning of "I don't think that'll work"/"that's too much"/"etc.

If I told a friend "hey let's make spaghetti for dinner" and they replied "easier said than done" I'd be like "...okay, you're technically correct, but I want spaghetti so I'm gonna do that anyways"

But if I told a friend "hey let's solve world hunger today" and they replied "easier said than done" I'd be like "yeah, I know...maybe we can go help out at a soup kitchen?"

Suicide. I say that seriously. You can plan, prepare, accept, rehearse, make peace. But when it comes to the moment of actual doing, the human survival instinct is insanely powerful, frustratingly so.

Doing the right thing, especially when it puts you at a disadvantage.

Edit: I tell my kids that there are days in your life where the only satisfaction you will have is knowing you did what was right. I know this from experience. Sometimes things go completely to shit and you don't have any control over 99% of it. But what you can control is you and a tiny sliver satisfaction is better than none at all.

Having a civilized, factual debate.

Exercise. People often forget (or aren't even aware) that output isn't the only factor in getting in shape, that walking is better for you than running, that the body just wasn't made by the forces at play for a lot of continuous rigorous activity (think the paleo diet logic but for exercise; in fact, if anything, the logic is applicable TO exercise), that gyms cost thousands of euro/dollars, and that many people just don't have time for it.

The icing on the cake is when you have no friends and someone says "the gym is a great place to meet friends", unaware that the problem is you're not good at holding a conversation and that that part about gyms being better for making friends is not even true. It's like, I don't know, gyms are trying to cash in on peoples' random life problems.

Literally everything, unless you're a mute.

If you're a mute, everything is easier done than said.

Getting rid of crooked republican AGs in Texas apparently.

Engineers wants features held to less than 10 microns. Big parts on 'easy' materials.

Their idea of making parts is tossing it into any and all CNC machinery and automatically get good parts. That is rarely ever the case with tight tolerance parts.

Yes, literally everything is easier to say than to do, but that's also the point. This is an expression that's used when someone makes a declaration that they're going to undertake some task. The expression is meant to convey disbelief that the declarant will follow through and actually perform the task.

Being honest.

android dev tips the scale for me

idk man, helping out sir sisyphus's cyst-susceptible sister is easier done than said

Even shutting the fuck up is easier said than done for most.