How many calories should I eat a day?

DamieBird

OP - it's awesome that you're motivated! The hard part is making a change stick. I'm only a few months into this, so by no means am I as experienced as some of the MFP veterans on here (who all seem to give awesome advice!), but here's what's worked/working for me:

-I started out the first few weeks basically logging what I was eating, even if I ate at maintenance over, without worrying too much about what the numbers were. I was 1000 calories or more over every week at first.
- I weighed in once a week on Wednesday mornings. Now, I weigh multiple times a week, whenever I feel like it, but I understand that the scale is a fickle thing and I only look at long term trends (a week or more). I have an excel tracker where I record data because I'm a nerd like that and I enjoy seeing progress. Every week feels like it's a slow loss, but when I look back to where I was last month, or when I started, I'm so proud of myself.
-I started going to the gym, and as I settled into a routine I calculated my estimated TDEE just to see where I was. I changed my actual daily goal to the estimated TDEE for a sedentary person at my goal weight using the logic of "if I couldn't work out at all, could I be happy eating at this level?". The answer was yes, and that got me 1850 at 5'7", starting out at 217lbs.
-Over time, I got better at logging. I eventually bought a food scale. I now log EVERYTHING, which allows me to end up eating more (yay!) and be confident in those numbers.
- I decided very early on that I would not cut out ANY food. The first six weeks or so, I had cheesecakes, chocolate cakes, snack cakes, beer, wine, etc. I tried to keep the portions reasonable (except for that one time in March, when I basically ate an entire cake by myself over several breakfasts. I was extremely delicious), but I didn't make anything off limits. Now, I really don't crave that stuff as much. I can still have it, I was even waiting for my monthly intense craving of a Fudge Round and Red Wine dinner, but it never came. I went from drinking 2+ bottles of wine over the week, to 1 bottle over a weekend, that I might not even finish. My point is that it's a SLOW change, and you might not even notice it happening, but the cravings and hunger do start to diminish as you start to front load your diet with healthier options.
-I read this thread. The entire thing. It's the most inspiring and motivating this on the entirety of the MFP forums. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10087100/what-nobody-tells-you-about-losing-weight/p1

I've lost 19lbs in 3 months (hoping for that last 1 to get to my first mini-goal at tomorrow's weigh in!). It's slow, it's frustrating at times, but it's possible and YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE MISERABLE to lose weight. I look at it like this: I'm going to be a year older no matter what I do. I might as well be a year older AND 50 pounds lighter. . .

Good luck, OP. Stick with it and don't give up!

melpidal

@DamieBird THANK YOU!!!! So appreciate all ur advice!!!!!!!!