Losing 15-20lbs by July

I find it really really difficult to reach 1500 calories, and tips on snacks that are healthy and calorie packed?

Ok! I have a serious interest in understanding WHY you have difficulty eating/ reaching 1500 calories.

you don't know WHAT to eat? Meaning ..do u think certain foods are off limits ?

HAs your body adapted to eating lower cals, thereby rendering u " not hungry"

or is it food amnesia?

I'm genuinely puzzled by statements like this.

Example: a peanut butter sandwich and a glass of milk = easy
a bowl of yogurt, some sliced fruit and some walnuts
A sliced apple and almond butter
a slice of cheddar cheese and some pita chips
Almonds and some dried apricots
Sliced peppers and hummus

ANYTHING. focus on lean protein, veg, fruit, healthy fats ( nuts, nut butters, avocado for example) Fat is satisfying and calorie dense.

Hello! There are so many ways to go here, it really all depends upon *how* you'd like to lose the weight. Does it feel sustainable to remain at your current caloric intake, eating the kind of foods you do? Have you been nice and healthy there, pretty effortlessly? Do want to get leaner (less body fat %)? Get more nutrients? Or do you care about any of that? Your opinion on all of that does matter, and any way you feel is perfectly respectable.

As a general answer, though, I'll take a crack. I would move your carb intake more towards non-starchy, leafy vegetables, like mustard greens, kale, swiss chard, collard greens, etc. Then I'd pretty much eliminate alcohol, and nix the pasta, refined sugar and most grains (I say *most*, in the sense of staying on the perimeter of your grocery store, avoiding the isles of "fake" food). After the starch/sugar/carb reduction of whatever degree, I'd replace the vacancy with *high quality* fats found in stuff like nuts, oils (virgin olive, red palm, etc) and fish (salmon, sea bass, etc), grass-fed beef and free-range poultry, organic or local pork, following with as much butter and cheese as you prefer. If you were at, lets say, 55% carb, 15% fat, 30% protein before, doing the above would probably move you towards 5-15% carbs (of the mostly complex, fibrous variety), 50-70% fat and 15-35% protein, depending upon the balance with which you find yourself naturally most comfortable.

Overall, I think that would help break your "plateau", while at the same time help pull you away from having to count calories as meticulously as I suspect you are (which, if you think about it, our ancestors, who were all naturally more health and "fit" never had to do, nor did they even know what a calorie was haha!). Anyways, the foods you'll be consuming will be more satiating (fill you up better and keep you full longer), less aggressive (ie. less likely to be stored as body fat), more nutrient dense (excellent on many levels) and less efficient (lower % consumed likely to become body fat). Now, with that comes a few things you might not be used to. Your total "calories" will most likely go up, most likely violating MFP's strict calorie counting approach to weight loss; and your %fat/%carb balance will be flip-flopped against the numbers MFP uses. There's a bunch of backstory and tons of supporting study as to why I think that is perfectly ok, but keeping to the point, I have a feeling if you gave it a try, you might like the results. That's just been my experience. Whatever route you pick, do keep us posted!