hello...

How many daily calories are you set at?

I'm 5'4 and started at 183, now down to 159 in four months of actively eating at a calorie deficit. I took a two month hiatus in the middle and maintained at that time. I'm twenty years older than you, not sure how much difference that would make metabolism wise. Most days I eat 1200-1300 calories, and probably more like 1500-3000 a few times a month. I don't workout and am quite sedentary (for now, thinking of changing that soon).

Here's my top tips (these worked for me, not saying they are for everyone):

- I use a kitchen scale and weigh, measure and log everything (except for those few higher calorie days mentioned above).
- Pre-plan my food.
- I eat a lot of simple foods and repeat meals often: bean quesadillas, salad with chicken breasts, peanut butter on whole grain toast, turkey tacos, etc.
- I treat myself when I want to and then I move on and get back on track.
- I find restaurants tricky as I don't go to a lot of places with public calorie counts, so generally I do avoid eating out.
- I've found awesome and extremely supportive friends here on mfp. I find diet talk extremely boring in real life so this is the perfect place to get the support an information I need.
- I read, read, read. All the sticky threads, all the success stories. Arm yourself with information, don't just depend on this thread for it.