Hi there, and welcome to the EM2WL group! We are glad you found us.

OK, well first of all, TDEE means your maintenance calories - the amount of calories you would need to eat to maintain your current weight.

BMR, or basal metabolic rate, is the number of calories your body burns at complete rest (think of being in a coma, but your body still burns calories by pumping blood and lungs breathing, even when sleeping, etc.)

When using Scooby to figure your calories, EM2WL recommends choosing a 15% deficit for losing weight. Since you do have a bit more to lose (no need to be embarrassed, by the way), you could probably choose a 20% for awhile until you lost some initial weight and then switch to a 15% deficit. A 15% deficit will allow you to eat more calories, but you will lose a little bit slower. We usually don't recommend anything more than a 15% calorie deficit though.

You also need to choose an activity level. Do you exercise at all? Do you have a desk job and sit the majority of the day? What does that look like for you? Depending on your activity level, your age, weight and height, Scooby will figure a calorie goal for you. You will eat this same amount of calories every day, even on days you to not exercise.

If you can give us a few more stats, we can help you figure your numbers. What is your age and activity level and how many calories have you been eating everyday and for how long?

I use the simple version of Scooby: http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/. When I input your info, I get 1960 for a 20% deficit. This is without any exercise at all. Once/If you incorporate some exercise or if you have a job that keeps you at all active, then you need to up the activity level in the calculator. Stay with this for about a month and see how it goes. If you are really, really hungry or are losing weight super quickly, then check the calculator out at a 15% deficit.

Right now, focus more on eating less rather than eating 'healthy' - you are more likely to stick with things if you don't give everything up. I still have alcohol and chocolate and the like...I make them fit. But I also eat more 'healthy' items than non-healthy. Feel free to check out my diary (right now I'm on a cut so eating 1925 calories - you can get a sense of what I eat/drink regularly - I didn't do any filling in last week as I was away on holiday).

No worries JustMimi - I'm on a few boards (not just MFP) and I can handle no filter and blunt.

You go to goals - go to bottom and hit 'change goals'. Go to custom goals and enter your calorie goal and put your exercise goals as 0. Ignore anything it says on there (it usually tells me I'm going to gain weight and, nope, I'm losing). Then, when you do exercise, put it as 1 calorie (you can enter your own number for this) to keep track of exercise, as TDEE includes exercise.