Help please

I know where you're at, that's me right now. All I do is eat smaller portions and drink lots of water so I'm not as hungry. If the dinner your family makes is unhealthy but they have a salad eat mostly salad and just a little if none at all of the other food. I'm also 18 and I weigh 215 and my goal is also 130!! You can send me a friend request if you'd like (:

That's a rather difficult situation although at 18 you should have a larg amount of control over your life ie. what you eat and how much you exercise.
I have four bothers, all that eat like teenagers do without any care or thought. Leaving high school I weighed 240, mostly fat. Being a football player heavier was always better. I decided one night, basically in tears, that I was done with the weight and that I wasn't going to eat the things they ate and I was going to exercise. By simply being strong willed I lost the weight and got to 190 pounds. I cut out pop, sugary food, butter, fired food. All the crap. I went to the track at school and ran, did bleachers, and lifted weights. You don't have to cut out all food, the situation your describing doesn't make that very possible. What you can change are the portion sizes and how much exercise you get.
The first step is making the decision and dedicating yourself to change. This part is easy. The hard part is following through. You have to be mentally tough. You have to be able to sit down at a dinner table with family and pass on the fried food, pass on the pasta, and say no.
What I found was that at first people will not understand you. They will look at you funny and ask why you won't just eat it. They tell you you're crazy, that one bite won't kill you. That's when you have to say you are bettering yourself and stay strong. Just say no thanks. Take the criticism and do what you do.
Your going to have to exercise more. And you can do it! You can walk, jog, run or workout. Do sprints, lung walks, body weight squats, bike ride, jump rope anything. Three or four times a week for a half hour or so. Progress will come. Stick to the plan and be consistent. You'll trip every now and then. You'll give into urges and cheat. Is it the end of the world? Hell no. Take it in stride and keep going. The human body is incredible the way it can change, but the mind has to be aligned. You have to focus and be a beast. You aren't in the ideal situation, but in the grand scheme of things, are you ever? Make it happen.

Can you walk to work? Do you take the bus? Or does someone drive you? Park your car further away. Get off the bus one stop earlier. If someone drives you, get off a block or two away and walk the rest of the way. The key is to build in small amounts of added "exercise" and yes walking is a great way to start. Meals that are micro & canned, pay attention to the labels. Rinse off the canned food of added sodium & sugars, pay attention to the calorie count, protein is important, and do what you can as much as possible to just pay attention.
As for meals that are cooked by someone else, don't eat the "skins" on the fried food, stick with the veggies, serve yourself before the butter & salt are added, eat less or none of the crap but don't go hungry. Pay attention to the protein. (Remember, eggs are a good, cheap source of protein.)
You can do this. Just look for ways to work it in to your lifestyle and you will see your lifestyle start to change for the better.

Add me if you want, I log daily and can hopefully help you! So far I have lost 30 pounds, starting at 205. I agree with some of the people above, try and talk to your parents. You have a job so maybe you can help buy some of the food.

When I started I had no motivation either, you have to find something that is fun. For me it was Zumba for the wii. I could do it when I wanted with no one watching in my living room and it made me feel it and sweat and the time passed quickly. As I lose more wight and all that I have now joined a gym but I worked out at home since Feb. and the gym thing you never have to do unless you want or can afford it. There are some awesome videos on youtube too with workouts for beginners as well (look up Hasfit or fitnessblender).

Just make sure to log everything on MFP and exercise if you can, even go for a walk or anything just to move, the more you move the better you will feel and have more motivation to do stuff. Keep the end goal in mind to stay motivated and allow yourself cheat days, not often, maybe one meal a week and dont go overboard.

On the days when you don't work, maybe you can go for a run? Maybe you can explain to your parents that you are trying to lose a bit of weight and ask if you can make your own dinner, but eat with them. That's what I do at my house. My parents eat one dinner and I eat my own... but I eat my dinner WITH them