Women over 300lb Starting Weight

Hi! I am 5'7", 41 years old.

My starting weight was more than 350lbs. Currently: right under 180lbs .

Here's what I found to work, and not work. We'll start with what worked for me first.

1. Motivation: ME. We are our own best friend and worst enemy. You have to find your own motivation, while friends and family can help, in the end it's YOU, YOU make the commitment.
2. There are no "good" or "bad" foods. Unless you have allergies or intolerances towards certain foods, eat food you like, just in moderation for the high calorie stuff. I eat "junk" food, just not a lot. Just enough to keep me happy, a diet of purely "health food" would make me miserable.
3. Read the labels!!!! Seriously, a lot of "health" food isn't very healthy. Per serving, Cookie Crisp cereal has fewer calories than Quaker Real Medley Cranberry Almond cereal. I know I would rather have cookies for breakfast.
4. Weight loss is NOT: linear, fast, or easy. It takes time, dedication, and patience.
5. Accept that setbacks happen. We all have bad days, it's called being human, there are 8 billion of us, so if you mess up a little; welcome to the human race.
6. Eat fewer calories than you use. That's it. Track your calories accurately, and eat fewer than you use in a day and you will lose weight.

What does not work:
1. Diets. Anything that promotes quick and easy weight loss in 30 days, will not work in the long run. Most "diets" are temporary, that's why they fail, because once you are off of them, the weight generally comes right back on. Unless you can stick to something for the rest of your life, don't do it.
2. Giving up. I did this a lot. I would get frustrated because I wasn't losing as much as I wanted to. Hello!!!! If you lose 10lbs, but your goal was 20lbs....you still lost 10lbs.
3. Water retention happens: that whole non-linear thing, yeah. Especially in women, about once a month is even worse. If you are doing everything right and haven't lost any weight in a few, be patient, there's usually a "woosh" effect right after a plateau.
4. Trying to lose belly fat, or legs, arms, back... You cannot pick where your body loses fat first. The first place I lost weight was my chest, that was not my choice.
5. Expecting great results without great effort. Sure we'd all like to have the physique of a world class athlete, but in reality most of us (myself included) are not going to put in 8 hours a day of intense training that is required. I would constantly get upset when I wasn't getting the results I wanted, but I didn't put the effort in to get the results... Looking back I wish I could have smacked myself for that.

Remember: regardless if it takes 6 months or 6 years, you will get there with persistence. If you give up, you will never get there. It does get easier as you go.

Hope this helps.