Really struggling

There are some days that I am hungrier than others. I eat more on those days and track the calories. I do find that looking at the weekly average on calories helps me better gauge how I am doing instead of looking at a single day.

You shouldn't be starving, but what does "starving" feel like for you, and what makes it feel better?

If your system is used to eating a lot of food multiple times a day, then it's going to be a shock to your system to suddenly change that.

If you are used to eating pizza and ice cream, then your system is used to digesting those things and may be over-preparing itself for incoming food. If your intense sense of hunger in stomach sensations, then try an ant-acid and see what happens. It likely won't eliminate the hunger, but it can help you determine the difference between hunger and churning stomach acid.

Perhaps start with smaller goals? Start by just improving food choices? Get your body used to a different way of eating and then reduce portion sizes perhaps?

Basically, if too much change all at once is too hard for your body to adjust to, then start with smaller changes.

And for the record, maintaining is a GREAT goal, because if you can find a way to improve your eating and consistently NOT gain any weight, then that would put you 99% of the way there to losing weight, because then only small adjustments would be needed to start losing.

FTR, I lost from obese to very lean by never making any drastic changes. I completely overhauled my lifestyle, but once small, tolerable, incremental change at a time.

I never suffered, I never felt like I was starving, and I never felt like "giving up" because there was nothing to give up. My new, small habit changes were my normal. To go back to the eating that made me obese would require effort.

Try to approach this as loving self care, not punishment you put your body through for not being the "right" weight.

Treat it as an experiment where you try to find the best and healthiest options that your body responds best to. And know that the more small changes you make, the more your body will respond well to new changes over time.

Right now, the calorie goal you are trying to stick to feels impossible. But if you make changes over time, it may become incredibly easy.

Bodies don't like drastic, rapid changes, but that doesn't mean that they can't handle MASSIVE changes over time.

You have no idea what your body can become comfortable with, but you need to change on your body's timeline.

There’s nothing wrong with aiming at .5 lbs, or your maintenance number when starting out. The important thing is to control the process. There’s a fairly long learning curve that doesn’t get a lot of discussion. Calorie counting is a skill set, living with it is another skill set, give it time. Don’t let your brain wreck you.

Here’s a thing about that 1 lb per week. Conventional wisdom is that requires a deficit of 3500 calories, thats’ 500 per day. You don’t say when you started or what you were doing before you started, but if you were gaining then, you were eating in a surplus. So what you’ve done as far as how you’re living, is you’ve jammed on the brakes and gone into reverse in one move. So you might want to ease up to get started. Losing slowly is a whole lot better than quitting.

I found that in addition to protein, I want to be aware of how much fat I’m eating. Sometimes I can load up on veggies, grilled chicken and egg whites and still have this agitated never satisfied feeling. That usually means I’ve gone too far down the low/no fat diet road.

And this- sometimes I just need a stopper. If I find myself constantly going for another snack and never feeling satisfied I bite the bullet and make oatmeal. Middle of the day. I’m never hungry after oatmeal. If it puts me over my number, oh well. Some days are like that.

I always eat less on the days I exercise more—naturally. Then I’m hungrier than usual the next day.
If your feet and knees hurt, maybe this is a good time to think about weight lifting, yoga, Pilates? Summer’s here. How about some swimming, water walking?