If at first you don't succeed, try, try try again.......

feel free to add me as well. my nutrition isnt perfect by any means, but i am supportive and im always on here.

Hi! You will figure out what to eat as you go along. Example, when you log everything you eat every day you will soon see which foods are high calorie. That will cause you to make choices. It doesn't take long to realize that a really large apple is more filling and has way fewer calories than 1/2 donut. You'll find eating 2 slices of bacon, a scrambled egg and 1 piece of toast has about the same calories as sweetened cereal and a cup of milk, but often seems more filling.

When you note that a tablespoon of mayo is 90 calories you may decide you only need a teaspoon on your sandwich, or maybe just mustard! Stuff like that will begin to click. Then you might think that a salad with that 3 oz of chicken, ham or tuna instead of the 2 slices of bread is fewer calories and much more filling, especially when you find a good salad dressing that has 30 calories a tablespoon like Hellmans Balsamic (just as an example).

You can do this.

Buy a food scale as soon as you can and weigh everything except liquids. This is the most important thing to do in the beginning. Its super hard to guess how much meat, pasta, rice, fruit and cheese weighs.

Once you begin weighing your portions you need to find the correct entry in the database so you are sure you are logging the proper calories for the amount you ate. Whenever possible, use entries without an asterisk as those are most accurate.

Don't try to do to much all at once. Begin by learning how to eat within the calorie goal you choose. Oh, and if you feel you are not getting enough to eat, then choose a lower pound per week loss. Its better to stick with it and take longer than to get hungry and binge.

You CAN do this!

I know you won't take in all this now so please copy it into your computer and read through it some other time, a few times.

I agree with the sorts of things sodakat said although i don't think bacon is a particularly good diet food because its processed meat, its high in salt. That said a little bit occasionally won't hurt you. I have to disagree a little with Tatanja. Move more, don't force yourself to exercise. Or rather you don't need to and it can backfire in both the short and long term.

I'm not down on exercise per se but bear this simple message in mind: Exercise for health. Fix your diet for weightloss.

There is more and more scientific evidence and argument out there clarifying why exercise is not the answer to weightloss. that said, of course it can help but it can also make it both harder, more confusing, and be your ultimate downfall.
Exercise takes up precious time. There are more efficient ways to burn calories.
Exercise can become old - or at least solo forms like going to the gym and running around the block. Joining a sporting group or something with a strong social elements is bound to be more effective in the long run for most people because the motivational element is way beyond just losing weight.
Exercise needs you to eat more and when you stop exercise, unfortunaltey, people tend to continue eating more. I am not quite sure why this is but i think its got something to do with our muscle capacity to store more glycogen (carbs). Also when we have more muscle our metabolism is faster and i suspect there must be a link here between burning up calories faster and having hormonal triggers to eat more. Yes this is partly speculation on my part but i've been observing my responses to exercise over my life of 51 years. And lately reading what the researchers have to say. And this year i've learnt more about the role of hormones in weightloss which has been interesting and useful.

If time is short in your day, it probably means you are already moving around quite a bit in the course of your day. This should be enough exercise. and you can leave formal exercise activities until you are physically smaller and more in control of your weight, your diet and time management. But you can do little things to increase your activity level without it taking up much more time or throwing out your routines. You can take the stairs instead of the lift, get off the bus earlier to go to work, park the car further from the supermarket door and stuff like that. You can jog from a to b instead of walking. You can do more housework. You can go out dancing more often. Personally i find some of these things fairly hard to sustain in the long term too but at least being aware of them means you've got choices.

It sounds like you need to figure out the time management aspect of losing weight. It will take time to figure this out. What i suggest is that with the food management side of things, which is the most important here, devote a certain amount of time to it everyday. Most of us find it helps to be a bit obsessive about weightloss for quite a while. You need to think ahead about what you are going to eat, getting the shopping done so that your fridge is never short of good healthy nutritious food. You need to clear all the crap food temptations out of your home and your life. You need to take time to either log your food in mfp or do it on a spreadsheet on your computer. Food logging is pretty crucial tool for most people. Daily or weekly weighing of your self and logging the results is also very useful. Go to bed earlier so that you are more rested and you may find that this has beneficial effects on your time, your mood, your appetite, your commitment and well, everything. Sitting around in the evening watching tele or being stuck on the computer until the wee hours is pretty terrible for weightloss.

Personally i think you also need to find some time to read some decent diet books. You don't have to read them all at once. And i personally I do not think articles on the internet are a good alternative. There are some good ones but there are a lot that are very ordinary and even questionable so if you are going to read them, still read some books. How would someone like you know what to go with and what to ignore. Accept that its going to take some time to learn all you need to know and avoid feeling overwhelmed. There are many books i have liked and learned from. But if you are not reader, i would suggest a short one that will motivate you and give you some vital clues that will serve you well in the long term. FRENCH WOMEN DON'T GET FAT. Its a lovely book to read. It has some useful recipes. It has some excellent advice. For my part eating in courses rather than one large plate of food is easier to help you learn to stop eating when you are satisfied and avoid overeating. And the french understand food, the pleasure of good quality food like nobody else.

There's a big mental/psychological element to weightloss. Try to become more aware of your thought processes around food and your weight. Key tips on this are: maintain optimism. Don't get into a trap of being down on yourself for mistakes or if the scale doesn't go in the right directions when you think it should. I mean yes tell yourself that was stupid to binge on all that garbage, but then figure out how you are going to find a way to avoid that particular mistake in the future, then forgive yourself and move on. Its actually not too easy to get the details across very well but you are going to have to figure this out for yourself. Just avoid negativity as much as possible. Come up with strategies to minimise mistakes, figure out what's going wrong, look for explanations. Personally, I do everything in my power to avoid mistakes that throw me off.

So optimism is one thing.
Commitment and determination is another vital factor. Willpower is not. If you are committed, you won't find resisting unhelpful food difficult. That said, do not cut your calories so low that you are always hungry. If you are always hungry, then the most likely explanations are: you are not eating enough, and your food choices are poor. When in doubt eat more protein, more vegetables and fruit. And eat more whole foods and less processed food. That said, avoid traps like eliminating fat. in my view its better to eliminate refined sugar and replace it with fruit for sweetness. Fruit is low in calories and does not cause issues for the great majority of people. The sweetness of fruit satisfiers the need for sweetness when you start cutting back on junk food and it helps you adjust your whole palate to the enjoyment of healthy food when you eliminate junk food. If you must eat junk food i'd suggest not doing it more than once a month.

Hi I log daily, feel free to add me