Yeap. Cardio exercise for weight loss alone is mostly wasted effort that wears joints and causes inflammation.
It's unpopular because the fitness crowd is so religious and ignorantly-stuck in anti-intellectualism, but the best strategy to lose weight is to gain as much muscle mass as possible with the less effort to accomplish in order to raise NEAT. It doesn't take a lot of time or effort (mostly dedication and planning) to stimulate muscle development effectively, and becoming a gym rat is essentially wasted time, money, and effort. It's nice to have cardio fitness too, but I would do the minimum to avoid too much IIB to IIA conversion like the anorexic-looking treadmill-only gym users do. If you want no glutes, avoid squats and lifts, and run a lot.
You absolutely can. Eating less calories than your basal metabolic rate (calories burned just to stay alive) means stored energy will be burnt and body weight will reduce.
You missed the point. Sure a negative energy balance will cause weight loss. But even if you get to a BMI in the range considered normal you won't be healthy over the long term without frequent exercise. Just being thin doesn't help if you're weak.
It's unpopular because the fitness crowd is so religious and ignorantly-stuck in anti-intellectualism, but the best strategy to lose weight is to gain as much muscle mass as possible with the less effort to accomplish in order to raise NEAT. It doesn't take a lot of time or effort (mostly dedication and planning) to stimulate muscle development effectively, and becoming a gym rat is essentially wasted time, money, and effort. It's nice to have cardio fitness too, but I would do the minimum to avoid too much IIB to IIA conversion like the anorexic-looking treadmill-only gym users do. If you want no glutes, avoid squats and lifts, and run a lot.