New, never tried to lose weight before, advise needed

cbwill0220

I am new here and this is my first serious attempt that trying to lose weight. I am not extremely overweight but I am well on my way there and have finally realized that I can't eat whatever I want, not workout, and expect to stay small anymore.

A little bit about me.... I am 23 years old, 5 ft 1 in, and 144 lbs at my highest weight ever. In high school I was extremely athletic with an extremely muscular build for being so short... people used to call me a beast even though I was tiny. I always hated my body and felt embarrassed by it because I wanted to be stick skinny like all of the "sexy" girls in school. How young and dumb I was... I'd give ANYTHING to have that body back!!! I was a size 2, 125 lbs and you could see nearly every muscle in my body.

A little over 3 years ago, my boyfriend passed away and my entire life was uprooted. I lost all of my friends because I just wanted to be alone and before I knew it, I hadn't spoken to anyone in years. I drank every night... if not an entire bottle of wine (sometimes 2...) I'd throw down 4-5 22 oz. beers. I'd also eat 1-2 fast food meals a day and drank soda like it was water. No wonder I've gained so much weight.

I want to change my lifestyle and get my old body back, if that's even possible (I'm 23, not 18 anymore). I'm not one for scales because even at my smallest size ever I still weighed more than most of my friends and it was because I was all muscle. So I'm trying not to pay much attention to the scales but rather how I feel about myself when I look in the mirror.

When I stated MFP - I started out with a goal of 1,000 calories per day on a low-carb diet. I stopped drinking alcohol and all other beverages. Water only. However, as I've read more threads and websites, it seems that 1,000 calories per day is too low and will not help me lose the weight I want to. So now I plan on a goal of 1,400 calories per day and a 45 min. cardio workout 4-5 days per week plus strength training.

As I said, I've never done this before. I've never worked out, I've never dieted... I just played sports and ate whatever I wanted. But now that I'm older, I realize I can't do that anymore as an adult.

I plan to post a before picture for my own motivation.

Friend me, message me, whatever --- I need a fitness pal : )