New, 300lbs.

Welcome. I was 254lbs when I started, but I was (and still am!) 5'3". Let's just call it obesity III.

Best place to start is just focus on tracking your foods for a week. If you've plugged in your stats and MFP has given you a calorie goal, you can work with that, but for the first week or two, just get used to tracking and don't worry so much about whether you're over. Just be honest about your food intake and log everything.

Small changes pay off. Don't do anything too drastic out of the gate. When I got started, I committed to two things besides sticking to the calorie goal: no desserts over 200 calories, and at least 25 minutes of walking every day. (If the weather is bad, or the daylight gets away from me, there's a glider in the basement, but I like fresh air.) And that was it. I didn't eliminate snacks or give up eating in restaurants—though, admittedly, we go out to eat maybe once every 6 weeks or so. I didn't train for marathons. I just picked a couple of small, concrete things I could live with. Over time? I started focusing on protein, iron, and fiber. My exercise time increased. I added strength training... but it's been a slow progression.

The single easiest way to improve your health markers is to lose weight. The foods you eat are important for nutrition, satiety—you will find out that some foods leave you less hungry than others—health, certain fitness goals, and a bunch of other things. For weight loss, calories are king. In theory, you could eat nothing but cookies and candy in a deficit and lose weight. In practice, if you tried, you'd likely be hungry most of the time, and malnourished if you kept it up too long, but you would lose weight. You can make room for small indulgences; many people advocate an 80/20 split between nutrient-dense foods and treats.

Remember: You can eat whatever you want and lose weight. You may not be able to eat as much as you want, whenever you want.

Good luck!

Hi Tgosh.

I started at 380lbs..

I didn't calorie count to lose the weight, I just had a complete change in my diet. I stopped ready meals and takeaways to start with and went for the fresh food approach for all dinners. I made the personal choice to cut out bread, milk and alcohol as well.

Breakfast I have gone for 0% fat yoghurt or muller lights with fruit. Or for a preprepared option check out "overnight oats" on google. Very easy to prepare and it's a wake up and go breakfast.

Lunch I go for a packet of couscous made with boiling water mixed up with chillis, peppers, onions, sweetcorn and beetroot and I often have a packet of baked crisps with it.

Dinner is where my big change came. I will have 1/2 to 3/4 of a plate of veg. If I'm particularly hungry I might have a second helping of some veg or a smaller second side plate of it. I'll then have some meat in a powdered seasoning usually baked or slow cooked and some potato wedges which I've made from parboiling for 5 mins then baking for 30-45mins. Dessert will be 0% fruit and yoghurt.

I pretty much stuck to this and between and in a similar time frame to you wanting to lose weight I lost 89lbs (I had a lot more to lose though!).

What I found was the exercise wasn't too important to begin with. I didn't feel like exercising anyway and was too big. After a week or two though, the change of diet gave me a huge energy boost and I found myself walking a lot more which eventually led to me buying a bike and cycling 5-10 miles every couple of days.

What I will say, the thing which I find the biggest factor in weight loss and doing it. Make sure you enjoy the food you eat. I have so many friends who keep starting and failing. They're doing cabbage soup diets, juicing, replacement meal shakes etc which they say are horrible. They stick at it for a couple of weeks, lose some weight because they're obviously taking in less calories than previously but they kick it very quickly for a night on the booze and a takeaway and never return! If you find a balance where you're eating good food but enjoying it you'll be far more likely to keep going. I'm very routine in my meals, many people say they couldn't do what I do as it's boring and not the nicest sounding meals but I really enjoy the food and mix it up with seasonings. If I was having a salad every lunch because that's a low calorie meal I'd be ripping my hair out, it's not something I could keep doing!