I think the whole point to loosing weight is eating less calories than you burn. This can be accomplished eating less. Essentially having a net calories of less than 2000 calories per day. One of the big misconceptions I had and believe many of have is the food I was eating had less calories than it did, and working out burned more calories than it actually did.
Also think the people who make the statement about losing weight can’t really be done with exercise alone aren’t cyclist who spend hours a day cycling.