New and need help!

I cant see your diary so I don't know what you are eating so far... but...
Start by purchasing a food scale, a quality set of measuring cups and a good set of measuring spoons.

Then focus on whole foods - the things you find around the outside of the grocery store and minimize things that come in packages/boxes.

Ensure that you are having protein, fruits/veg and healthy carbs at every meal.

Small changes first.

If you would like more thoughts feel free to PM me. Of add as friend, you can see my diary.

Your food diary is closed, so we can't see what you are eating.

Feel free to add me! 39 year old mommie of four! :flowerforyou:

Hi, feel free to add me :-)

Feel free to add me too. I tell people I spent 20 years losing 20 pounds. Basically I was somewhere between 178 and 198 with no particular clue as to why I weighed what I did. I'd recommend the following

- Log your food. All of it, every day. Make your log public amongst your MFP friends.

- Pick a target calorie number that you are comfortable with. Mine is 1500. In practise I eat 1500-1800 most days.

- Get a scale and weigh yourself every morning after you get up and hit the restroom.

- Pay attention to your two week running average weight. Daily variations will drive you nuts (and don't really matter much.) I use the Fitbit Aria scale combined with Trendweight.com to do this automatically. You can do this manually too.

- Get a pedometer and try to walk 10,000 steps a day. I've got a Fitbit Zip, but most any pedometer will work.

- Walk more, eat less. (I lost 20+ pounds just walking. I don't belong to a gym.)

- Modify your daily calories until you are losing .5-2 pounds a week. Don't try to lose more than 2 pounds per week.

- Your personal calorie target is probably lower than you think. I started off at 2000 and ended up at 1500 and I'm 6' tall.

- Your scale doesn't lie. Trust it. You may find you need to target 1200 calories a day to lose at your desired rate. That's OK. If you still aren't losing, it's OK to go (a bit) lower, just make sure you are eating a balanced diet.

- Share the journey. I've made more progress in the past year than I did in the prior 20. MFP has been very helpful.

Hope this helps. My advice is worth at least what you paid for it.

Good ideas here... I've had success with concentrating on simple, satisfying foods. I don't mind repeating the same breakfast or lunch, which makes life easier, but I make sure these are meals that actually satisfy. There are people on this site who eat a lot of snack-y protein bars or 100-cal this or that type bar or other food: those, for me as I can only speak for myself, provide no satisfaction and appear to be highly processed products from corporations that are not providing a lot of valuable nutrition. Since my daily calorie limit is quite small, I just don't have room in my diet for this type of food. Plus, if I buy a box of six of these things, I would be left with none for tomorrow, as my cupboard would call out to me. Just like cake... I don't claim to be perfect and have the same temptations everyone else has, of course.

A scale is very helpful, as it is so easy to underestimate the amount of food we eat.

As for exercise, I've found it has been key to losing 60 lbs over the last year and a half. As an older female, it just takes both diet and exercise nowadays for me to lose weight. I bought myself a Fitbit, for motivation, and find that it does help me to set goals and keep myself more active.

I'll friend you and maybe we can support each other in this effort! Good luck!

I'm close to goal but am happy to help and support anyone who wants help. Best advice is if it goes in your mouth it gets logged.. gum, mints, everything. Buy a food scale because even though you probably think you can judge weights, you'd be surprised.
If I can help at all, add me with a Friend Request.

Best of luck and welcome to MFP :flowerforyou: