59 Years Old and Attempting to Lose 30 lbs in 6 months.

Hello, and welcome!

30 pounds in 6 months sounds do-able at your current weight, with the caveat that IMO the calendar isn't a great weight-loss buddy. Making meaningful progress by your birthday, and finding habits you can live with long term along the way, is a pretty powerful goal in itself. The timing of the pounds lost can mess with a person's head sometimes.

Coincidentally, I also committed to weight loss at age 59, after around 30 previous years of overweight/obesity, and reached a healthy weight (but not final goal) by my 60th birthday. (Now 68, I've been at a healthy weight since loss at 59-60.)

It sound like you have some great plans in place. If those are reasonably easy and also practical changes that fit well into your lifestyle, you're on the right track IMO. As a hedonistic aging hippie flake, I didn't totally cut out anything, just worked on getting good overall nutrition at appropriate calories. I'm not suggesting your approach is incorrect, because I think the magic is in finding a personalized routine that works for an individual, within the framework of ones own preference, strengths, limitations, and lifestyle.

What are you finding confusing about setting a calorie deficit? If you put your data into your MFP profile, it will give you a starting calorie estimate. (I'd suggest picking a weight loss rate in the profile that's in the range of 0.5-1% of then-current weight per week, with a bias toward the lower end of that unless severely obese to the point of it being a health risk, and under close medical supervision for deficiencies or complications.)

Follow the MFP estimate for 4-6 weeks, tracking food and weight. At that point, there's enough data to compare target weekly weight loss rate with actual average weekly loss, and adjust calorie goal if necessary. Use the assumption that 500 calories per day is about a pound a week, (If the first week or two look very unusual compared to what follows, ignore that data and go for another week or two. Sometimes water weight weirdness distorts the initial weeks. Were you not in menopause, I'd be recommending comparing body weight at the same relative point in at least two different cycles, but both you and I past the hormonal fluctuations phase now. ).

One way or another, it's the calorie deficit that triggers fat loss. (Calorie deficit = calories eaten less than calories to maintain current weight.) We don't necessarily have to count calories to achieve that: Any tactics that get calorie consumption a manageable bit below weight-maintenance calorie needs will accomplish it. Some people find they can achieve that by cutting out certain food categories, increasing exercise, eating more whole foods, and/or altering timing of eating (etc.).

Myself, I did count calories, and tried to get overall balanced nutrition for my health's sake. I didn't dramatically change the range of foods I ate (already eating lots of healthy foods, just too much!), not dramatically increase exercise (already athletically active, perhaps oddly, for a dozen years while remaining obese).

It sounds like you're on a good course. If you have specific questions, I hope you'll ask here in the Community: I've found that pretty much everyone here truly wants to help, though there are a range of communication styles from "tough love" to "warm'n'fuzzy". If you can ignore then ones that don't suit, and take onboard the advice that makes sense, I think the MFP Community is a great resource - it has been for me, for sure.

Best wishes for success!