Reaching out to the fitness folks for some direction. Looking to drop some weight in a healthy manner with good diet and exercise.

Background: Went from 6’ 210ish to 234 currently (down from 237) over the last few years due to a shitty diet (pizza, beer, Grubhub, and being lazy, 6pk of beer while playing call of duty with the guys, and so on). Also changed from a house I would work on all the time to an apartment where I’m not doing manual labor every day after work.

So main questions are diet and exercise… Diet wise I’ve cut out anything that been refined or premade aside from a protein shake or a non frozen premade meal once a week. All of my shopping is mainly meats and veggies. Cut out all booze aside from 2 beers a week during axe throwing league and swapped those to mic ultras instead of IPAs. Usually have a salad with protein for lunch or dinner, or it’s a meat and veggie. Really don’t eat rice or pasta too much because of the extra carbs.

What kind of macros do I need to be aiming for? I just recently started tracking them so I’m kind of new to this. Calories hover at about 1500 a day (usually under) and I’m not hungry usually after that. Any advice there is appreciated. Currently using Loose It to track calories and macros since it’s got a bar code scanner and a lot of preloaded stuff in there.

Next up as far as the gym goes… I’ve been walking about 4mi every day to every other day to start the ball rolling and getting my fatass back into the gym, but I’ve never really spent much time in the gym before. Always kinda been on the farm strong vs gym strong side of the fence. Any good starting points here without beating my body up too bad?

Main goal is to completely change my lifestyle for diet and exercise to shed some pounds… Not a race to be a twig but would like to see some changes after a month or two.

i dont see how you have much energy at all on 1500 calorie a day at your height and weight

I mean , if you go from pizza and chicken fried steaks w/ gravy down to what you say you're eating - that should theoretically work well, but how long have you been doing this

Forget counting calories or anything else.  Eat protein and animal fat, nothing else, drink only water.  When you eat, eat until you feel comfortable.  After while your body will work out on its own what weight it should be, then you can start adding some limited veggies.

Been doing it on and off for a while but actually getting serious about it now. I hold down a desk at work so I don’t get to burn off much of anything there. Where I shot myself in the foot is snacking at work and beer I think. So just swapped to drinking water instead of shoving stuff in my mouth.

Also it was a lot of calories from beer too. 1-2 IPAs a few nights a week really adds up from the figures I ran haha. So cut those completely out aside from 2 light beers a week, coffee with sweet and low (havent transitioned to coffee without a sweetener yet), and water.

Most of my weight is in my mid section, but it doesn’t look like a lot of “weight”, but it is. Arms are pretty solid, and legs are frickin tree trunks with a little chub on the inner thighs. Rest of the weight is in the middle section.

So that’s something I kind of suck at… I normally have coffee or protein shake/banana for breakfast. Salad for lunch with a protein, and then dinner is beef, chicken, or fish with veggies or a side salad. I also skip out on traditional dressings and either use a ginger dressing or a balsamic dressing.

Trying to break the habit of eating fast too so I know when I’m full instead of shoveling it in my face to get off to something else. This has helped with doing smaller portions. Don’t get me wrong though, I’d destroy a half pound of baked salmon and some broccoli given the chance lol. But instead of that I’ll do about a 1.5-2in wide slice along with broccoli or mixed greens salad.

Intermittent fasting also helps.

The best way to get very familiar with your food intake, is to track everything for a month. Weigh everything you put in your mouth and track it.

Doesn't matter if you're going keto, doing IF, or whatever, still track everything, gives you a better appreciation for calories.

I absolutely agree with this. If you're guessing, you are guessing low every single day.

I don't advocate tracking everything for the rest of your life, but you need to get a good idea of how quickly it all adds up. Measure and track every single thing that goes in your mouth. It will surprise you.

I haven't measured and tracked for more than a few days in over a decade so don't worry about it becoming a full time job.

Yeah, that was kinda the main idea behind the whole tracking. Not necessarily to hit a calorie goal or something like that but to get a really good idea of what goes in my mouth. That’s kind where I was mainly looking at the macro balance so I can kinda cut down on the carbs.

So with weighing stuff do y’all just use a kitchen scale? Asking because I don’t have one or weigh anything right now. Just best guesstimate and trying to over estimate. The app I’m using has a scanning feature so it will import the label but you have to set how much you actually toss on the plate.

I have a digital kitchen scale,  I probably bought it at Walmart.  It was cheap enough. It measures in metric and standard which has been helpful.

That was old mentality, mostly if you eat a high carb diet.
Low carb and a smaller window of eating time with intermittent fasting outside the window is the new way.

I still follow the 5-6 small meals a day. Mainly because it keeps me from feeling bloated if I eat a larger meal and helps with not snacking at my desk during the day.

OP, it honestly doesn't mater which diet plan you choose- find one that you like and can stick too. If low carb works for you, stick with that. If OMAD gives you results and you can make it work, do that. Consistency over time is more important than which diet you choose vs. which diet others think is best. Same goes for exercise. If you liking walking for cardio and to help build a caloric deficit, do that. If you like to play in a basketball league, go with that. Choose what you'll actually do.

Consistency is key.

This, 110%