I'm ready for change.

First tip: get some kind of app/method that allows you to track all of the calories you consume. MyFitnessPal is super useful and has helped me (and a lot of people around these parts). Once you download it, you input your height, current weight, goal weight, how much you want to lose per week, etc etc and it will spit out a goal number of calories that you can consume per day.

My second tip is that eating to lose weight doesn't have to be all rabbit food. As long as you stay under the aforementioned calorie limit, you can theoretically eat whatever you want (you will simply notice that it's much easier to stay full on that limited number of calories when you eat things like grilled chicken and rice than when you eat ice cream and chips). That being said, I still eat ice cream and chips regularly and have lost 30 pounds in the last 4 months - because I track my food religiously and make sure that when I snack, it's balanced out by a lighter meal that night, exercise, etc.

Third tip: losing weight is primarily about what you eat. Yes, exercise helps, but you can't out-exercise a bad diet. I'm stealing this quote from someone more clever than me on this subreddit (can't remember who it was), but the best exercise you can do - from the comfort of your own home - is fork put-downs. Plenty of people lose weight from watching what they eat but never stepping foot in a gym. You'll never lose weight even if you spend hours in a gym every day if you're also eating too much. (Think about how easy it is to mindlessly consume 500 calories, and then think about how much more work it is to burn off the same 500 calories.) That being said, I find that I'm far more successful when I combine calorie counting/watching what I eat with exercise - it gives you context. For example, once you get a better sense of just how much exercise it takes to burn off your preferred junk food, you might think twice about consuming it in the first place. Not eating something is generally easier than eating it and then having to burn it off later.

Whew, wall of text. Best of luck - really hope to see you around here with some flair soon! Happy New Year!

/r/loseit Thread