ADVICE PLEASE! I'm 5'8 and 184 and want to get down to 154

I also needed to lose 30 pounds (I have 5 more left to go). I cut my calories down to what MFP said and started out by doing cardio only. I would do cardio about 4-5x week. I would use a heart rate monitor so I would know approximately how many calories I was burning. I would eat about half of these calories back. Once I dropped about 20 pounds I started to incorporate weight training. 30 minutes of intense weight training an burn calories for the next 36 hours, so it's really awesome in burning those calories but it also helps start to shape your body a bit.

I didn't want to just strictly do cardio, as I wanting to put some shape on my body and increase my strength. So I would say start off by knowing how many calories yo should be eating, then start some form of exercise be it treadmill, elliptical, bike etc. I would say it is possible as it;s been 4 months for me and I'm 5 pounds away from my goal weight. It just takes a lot of dedication and realizing that you aren't perfect and sometimes you will mess up but you have to just keep on going.

You will lose weight mainly from how you eat daily. Exercise is more for health than weight loss.

I would actually recommend lifting weights more than cardio. Lifting helps not lose muscles while losing. Good luck.

And if you exercise, you will burn more calories. Keep it up!