A Few Questions From A Beginner?

Well this post will stir the pot of opinions for sure. People are overly sensitive when it comes to this.

I say it'll take some experimentation for you to find what works for you, your body, your budget, and your priorities.

Calories in versus calories out is a component, but not always as important as quality. That said, many believe you can't out-exercise a crap diet and expect healthy, long-term results (myself included). You could get your daily calories worth out of Twix bars or bacon and maybe lose weight, but your lab work at the docs office will show your health is no better than before you lost. (That said, don't deny yourself a treat on special occasions.)

For me, I focus on meeting my macros and have customized mine to keep me feeling satiated during the day. I also try to focus on the quality of the food going in. Sometimes convenience is more important for me (to make sure I get the calories/energy), since I work as a nurse on a busy unit. Other times I focus on quality - minimally-processed foods, meals I assemble from scratch, clean foods.

In terms of clean foods, generally anything that has not been mushed together at a plant somewhere to make a product is clean. In other words, the produce, meat, and -depending on who you ask- dairy sections. Bread, meal bars, protein powders, cereals, or anything from a bag of box are typically not considered clean. Many people who eat clean do so 80% of the time, and 20% not clean.

Some people flow their meal plan 6 days of the week and allow themselves or cheat day or a cheat meal.

Again, you will get a million opinions on this subject and someone is bound to get all sorts of butthurt over everyone else's opinions.

Bottom line is to find what works for you.

Purely from a calorie aspect, your body doesn't know or care about the difference between eating a cheeseburger or two pounds of celery. If each of those things comes out to 400 calories, your body looks at it as 400 calories. That's it. It doesn't ingest a cheeseburger thinking "this is BAD food, now I will make you fatter because you ate it!" That's why people tend to feel guilty about eating "bad" food when there really is no such thing. It's just food and ALL food is fuel for your body.

Nutrition is a different argument. If you ate nothing but cheeseburgers or nothing but celery and stayed within your calorie limits each day, you'd lose weight but you would not get the nutrition your body needs to run efficiently and you'd suffer from malnutrition. That brings in its own host of health issues.

Balance is key to living a healthy life. Many people strive for the 80/20 diet. Make 80% of what you eat healthy and nutritious food (lean meats, fish, vegetables, fruits, etc) and the other 20% can be some kind of "fun food" (ice cream, cake, donuts, chips, etc).

Also, how much money should I expect to spend weekly on "healthy food choices?
buy stuff on sale or stick to stuff you like after you figure out a budget. Go to the grocery store take a calculator, add things up as you go, even do a mock trip where you go don't buy anything and just add up the price of stuff you'd like to get. They probably have grocery lists that you can print out or write down if you don't have a printer and take with you. Make sure it's stuff you like.

What kinds of food should I focus on as far as eating "clean" goes? I think this means foods without a lot of chemicals in them? If that's what you mean, then foods as close to natural as you can get.
Examples are: Fruits/Vegs/Rice/Whole grain stuff, Unprocessed meat products, whole beans/legumes.

And is feeling hungry 75% of the time a sign that I'm either:

Not eating enough
Eating the wrong food choices

?

Drink more water if you're not drinking any start, use the MFP calories thing on here as a guide, until you learn what works and be really honest about your weight/lifestyle when you enter that information. I am not hungry as a general rule, but I try to eat whole foods as much as possible, I spread my food out over the course of the day, I drink water, use the food diary on here, and a lot more of other stuff that I won't have the time to type out.