I am a 54 year old male who has lost 55lb in 5 months - eating an average of 2300+ calories/day. I have been following these blogs for a long time so I know how difficult many people find it to move to a new diet or introduce a tough new exercise regime.
Hopefully my story can be of help to fellow strugglers.
So how did I do it. Firstly I got lucky - on the 1st of August I discovered a site "My Fitness Pal" which indicated that for me to lose 2lbs a week I had to have a nett average of 1750 cals/day (My starting weight was 320lb). This meant that I could eat more than 1750 cals a day as long as I was active enough to burn of the excess calories.
I used a Garmin Vivofit monitor to record my daily calories and link it to the My Fitness Pal Website. - Since the 1st of August I have never been over the 1750 allowance (based on weekly averages - however I normally go over the dailly allowance 2-3 times per week) and I have lost weight EVERY week since August 1st and continue to do so.
The only changes I made to my lifestye were minor - I now go for a 30minute walk every lunchtime (I used to sit in my car and read) - I record everything I eat but I no longer eat between meals - I still eat rubbish - burgers, chips, pies , bread, crisps etc. I have also just completed a 9 week couch to 5k course and although I am dead slow (takes me @ 45mins) at least I can do it now. In the new year to help keep me motivated I plan to complete regular "Parkruns" and will compete in a sprint triathalon in May. I still have a long way to go in my weight loss journey (another 50lbs) but I believe that with the support of the community I will get there.
Good Luck EveryBody