Since Monday I have been counting calories and I have made sure to stay under 1600 a day. Most days it has been even less than that. I also haven't had a soda since last Saturday. I have been allowing myself one vanilla coffee a day but that is factored into my calories and I do not add sugar the only sugar is in the syrup which is 80 cal an ounce. I am going to limit myself to 1450 cals a day after this week but I just wanted to show the progress I have made so far.

Good for you!! Keep it up and you'll feel and see results soon!!!

Hi j0lamo01, Glad to meet a fellow calorie counter.
It's good that you have a plan/starting point. Sometimes that's the hardest part. I've also started counting calories this week. I did it many years ago and it worked well for me, but because of time and laziness, I stopped.
I also cut down on soda(diet) and decided to reward myself with 1 soda while doing the dreaded housework on Saturday.
Good luck counting calories, you can do it!

Thanks Bunti! And yes PHatKat it can be hard some days thanks for your support and good luck!

you can do it you can do it, put a little power to it!!

Good job staying under your 1600 a day goal I always find the first week the hardest since I am not in a routine yet. I am so impressed that you have given up soda! I'm addicted to diet coke and I am ashamed to say I tried to tell myself no more but I just can't give it up. Good luck and keep up the hard work

great work! stay strong!

Well done! How much have you lost so far? I always like the first week as I tend to lose a few pounds which then psyches me up for the inevitable slow down.

Sounds like you are doing great! Be careful, though, not to fall in the trap of thinking that fewer calories is always better: if you aim lower and lower, the diet gets harder and harder and then it's easy to say "Oh, f*** it" and go back to your old habits. It's better to eat 1600 calories a day for a year than 1200 a day for three months and then 2500 a day for the next nine. If you lose weight on 1600, I'd stay there. For me, at least, this turned out to be the secret--and it took me 20 years of being macho and "toughing it out" before I figured out that it wasn't about how much will power I could show, it was about making a change for life.

I found that by simply cutting out the Cokes I lost a ton of weight pretty fast. Good luck hon!