How are you guys losing weight? Working out everyday? Calorie deficit?

However you create a calorie deficit is the way to go. Either exercise or eat less, or a combination of both. Both are not precise, with exercise being a lot less precise. You don't give us any information about yourself, but with 15lbs to lose it will be excruciating slow. 0.5lbs per week likely. But I'm sure you can eat more than you do now, and don't forget to eat at least a part of your exercise calories back as your calorie deficit is without anyway. Do things you enjoy and to distract you from eating. Boredom is not good if you tend to snack.

If you provide us with your current stats then we can give you more tailored advice.

hi @aubreymasaveg

Welcome to MFP!

First off, you have a very small amount to lose. The closer you are to goal, the harder/slower/more frustrating loss can be.

Many people new to the app get wildly excited and enter that they want to lose a pound or two per week, and set themselves up for failure with the resulting super low calorie goal.

Make sure you’re starting with a reasonable goal that gives you adequate calories to fuel your body. For some reason, there’s this myth that 1200 calories a day is magic, and people will shoot for even lower than that in hopes of faster loss. People who set slower loss goals tend to be more successful, at both losing and keeping it off.

Think of your calories as your dollar budget. How can you best allocate those calories to get more bang for your buck? What foods satiate you?

I found that - for me - it was protein. I make sure to eat a lot of protein, even as snacks. Some people find higher fiber foods filling, some prefer fats, and the occasional person here likes carbs. As long as you’re keeping within calorie goal, you’re fine.

Are you using a lot of protein shakes or similar supplements? Liquid diets can leave you unfulfilled.

I totally get the boredom thing. That’s me in a nutshell. What can you do to keep yourself occupied? Take the dog for a walk? Start a project with the kids? For me, it’s any type of needlework. It’s hard to eat when hands are moving, and you need clean hands to do it.

Consider alternatives. Be willing to experiment. Get creative. Be mindful of what goes in your mouth. Did it taste good? Was it worth the calories? Is there a substitute that would be equally satisfying but lower calorie?

I used to eat half a carton of Breyer’s at a sitting. I still have ice cream, but I make my own and control the ingredients- typically just a plain fruit sorbet, or a yogurt or skyr based ice cream with fruit or jam as a sweetener.

When I make a lasagna, I use half the noddles called for, add tons of chopped veggies, cooked lentils, and ground chicken I’ve “marinated” with Italian spices for a day or two before browning in a dry preheated pan without oils.

Pay attention to labels. I can shred whole milk mozarella myself and save about 20 calories per ounce versus preshredded. Yeah, it takes a few minutes, but the difference in taste is worth it, even without the calorie savings. In a rush? Use kitchen scissors to nip a few pieces off a mozarella log for homemade pizza. Its gonna melt anyway so who cares what shape.

Experiment. Instead of a high calorie pizza crust, use lavash, naan or pita. Or, halve your pizza crust recipe and roll it out thin.

Most important of all, create new habits. Habits that will stay with you when you reach goal. If you just revert to old habits, you’ll be back here in a year, having just regained.

There's no losing weight without a calorie deficit. That's non-negotiable.

Adding workouts can give a person a few more calories to eat while losing at the same sensibly gradual rate. Workouts can also be a distraction from boredom.

But some workouts spike some people's appetites, so it might take experimenting to find the right activity. For weight loss purposes, moderate workouts on a moderate schedule are most useful. Why? Because when we over-exercise we rest more, drag through the day, burn fewer calories than expected in daily life, wiping out some of the exercise calories. That's counter-productive.

On top of that, over-exercising is counter-productive for fitness improvement, too: It short-changes recovery, which is where the magic happens, the body rebuilding itself better than before.

If the problem isn't fuel or nutrition, the answer isn't food. Boredom eating needs to be replaced with some other boredom-busting activity. (It's usually more effective and easier to replace a bad habit with a new, better one, rather than just trying to quit the bad habit cold turkey.) Like Spring said, bonus points if the new boredom-buster requires clean hands (needlework, sketching, playing a musical instrument, etc.) or creates dirty ones (carpentry, painting, gardening, etc.).

This is more subjective advice: Change your mindset from "lose weight" to "find new, permanent, positive habits that very gradually lead toward a healthier weight, then work long term almost on autopilot to stay at that weight". The maintenance is the hard part, for most people.

Work on finding new, routine habits that are a little better than before. If you aren't very overweight, high odds it won't need to be some big, radical change, just some manageable tweaks. Don't get on the bandwagon for "lose weight fast, then go back to normal", yo-yo loss/regain, bad relationship with food.

To answer your title question: When I lost weight (< note past tense), I used a sensible calorie deficit and experimented to figure out how to stay mostly full and happy, plus get decent overall nutrition, on that calorie level. I didn't significantly change/increase exercise, though I was already active. I didn't change the range of foods I ate, just portion sizes and frequencies of higher-calorie things. Unlike you, I had a fair amount to lose, around 50 pounds. I lost it. I've used the same habits to stay at a healthy weight for 9+ years since.

Honestly, it wasn't terribly hard, certainly not after the "figure things out" phase at the start. My advice to you is not to make it any harder than it has to be, and focus on permanently improved routine habits, both eating and activity.

Best wishes for success!