Oh dear

Well, everyone is different, but I'll tell you what is working for me. I also used to be pretty fit, but got horrendously out of shape.

I started in September by simply trying to cut out the obvious culprits - junk food, beer, soda and other 'empty' calories.
Then I focused on portion control, and learning how big a portion of each food actually looks. 3oz of steak on my plate instead if 12 or 16. A quarter cup of dried pasta instead of a cup. And so on and so forth.
Then I started phasing out meat, down to only having it a few times a week instead of every night.
Then I phased out pre-prepared meals, and moved my grocery shopping increasingly to the fresh sections of the supermarket.

About two months ago I started work on introducing exercise. I started with a simple walk each morning. Walking is great. You don't need a gym, you don't need equipment, you just need working legs, and most of us are lucky enough to have those so there is no excuse. I'd walk a 20 to 30 minute circuit at a brisk pace. If I was struggling a little to keep the pace up at the end, I'd know I had it right.
From walking, I moved on to the couch to 5k program on a treadmill (since it's bloody cold here at the moment). If you have a smart phone, there are plenty of apps to download. I use the original C25k from active.com. That became my Monday, Wednesday, Friday workout.
After two weeks of that, I added a basic balanced light weights routine to Tuesday and Thursday. Nothing strenuous, the goal isn't to look like Arnie in the 80s. Just 60% of my max lift, 1 set of each exercise, 12 reps. I've since bumped it to 2 sets. The intent is to maintain lean body mass, and keep the focus on fat burning.
Finally I added a stretching routine after each workout. Should have done it from the beginning, I know, but limiting the initial time commitment was a big part of building the habit for me.

I'm about four months in now, and I've lost 30 pounds out of my 50 pound goal. My wellness plan now looks like this -

1. Use MFP to maintain a 1000 daily calorie deficit (net 1300 calories, after adjustments for activity). Your requirements *will* vary so be sure to calculate your own calorie needs.
2. Eat a veg, fruit, beans, pulse and grain heavy diet. Low calorie density foods keep the hunger at bay. Avoid almost all processed food, with 80%+ of my grocery shop coming from the fresh sections of the supermarket. Thankfully I'm pretty handy in the kitchen. [Unfortunately my wife and daughter just made me some delicious cookies which could so easily be my undoing if I don't ration them properly...]
3. Disciplined exercise regime - Couch to 5K program Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Moderate weight lifting Tuesdays and Thursdays. Stretching every day. Active play with my daughter and step-son at the weekends.

I'm sure a personal trainer and dietician could find faults in my plan, but I feel it's a balanced approach, with a manageable ramp up. It's certainly worked for me!

MFP seems to give a pretty good estimate. Just remember that it's a *net* goal. So if you do a 300 calorie workout, you should consume 1,500 calories to meet the 1,200 net. And if you go over a little, don't panic, don't get upset, and don't feel guilty. At 1200 net calories, I'm guessing you selected 2 pounds a week as your goal. You could go up as high as 2,200 net calories before you start actively *gaining* weight.

There's a great post written by someone who obviously knows much more on the subject of nutrition than I do (everything I know is from trial and error learning, and website reading), which may demystify things a little -

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

Norovirus season again, what fun. I'm a Brit, by the way, just living in the US. Thankfully I've always avoided the norovirus.

If you look around the Success Stories section, you can see a lot of people who have started at weights much higher than yours and are posting wonderful progress/after pictures. 215 is not unfixable, you just need to take it one day at a time.

Hi,

You can do this, I am so proud of you for starting. Today is next step in a long journey, put one foot in front of the other and you will be moving down the scale in no time flat.

Better now than later... if you don't do anything it's likely to get worse.
Here's some advice I've collected: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Robin_Bin/view/how-to-use-myfitnesspal-427993

I agree with Doug in that you should read the 'in place of a road map'. Maybe more than once. It helped me a lot when I had been here about a month. 215 is certainly not something you cannot overcome. I started more than 100 pounds over that and still am currently but for someone who has always been overweight I am doing the best I ever have (minus a hicup in Dec).

You will find a lot of talk about eating back exercise calories, BMR, TDEE minus 20 etc. I personally aim to eat just over my BMR and not eat back my exercise calories. Works better for me as I tend to exercise late and am not yet disciplined enough to eat more during the day. And who wants to eat 1000 cal at 8 at night? Previous life yes, Now absolutely not.

Good luck!!

Hi! so i started at 215lb as well so let me tell you this just because MFP says to 1200 calories to start does not mean you can eat anything you want as long as you stay around 1200 on a non exercise day . There are many factors to loosing weight I would definitely recommend for you to beging to add vegetables, fruits, whole grains and increasing your water intake. Also, start cutting out all of sweetened drinks like soda ( including diet), fruit juice ( from the store because these often contain added sugar that are harmful), canned tea ( once again added sugars), try to keep this up until all you can drink is water. I would definitely cut out MAJORITY of the added sugars in you diet including bread, cereal, etc. Finally do not change all at once please do not It would be so hard on you! why do not you begin doing like a 50%-50% or 70%-30% ( good foods%- bad foods%) of your daily calories? I am currently trying what i can to keep a 90-10. Oh! one more thing increase your calorie intake I am currently at a 1600 daily calories and more on exercise days I hope this helps some good luck and you can add me as a friend if you wish

Sooo know how you feel - I logged back into MFP in October at my heaviest ever (181 lb). Feel free to add me - maybe we can motivate each other?