New to this... where to start?

I'm new to all this... my hormones have been messed up and I've gained alot of weight despite not eating very much. Where do I start?

So far I'm below my target amount of calories for each day based on height and weight... (my target is 2300, and I'm way below that).

Should I just try to eat less fatty foods and more healthy foods?
Is there anything that you'd recommend?

Oh yes... I'm starting birth control with my next cycle- so that should help to take care of my hormone problems that made me gain alot of weight in the first place.

Hi Julie. Glad to see you here. As you know I am probrably not the best one to give advice about what to eat and such but I would say to grab the healthy stuff when you are hungry and leave out the fatty foods.

Thanks!

Welcome!  Start on the Home page and first do the Walkthrough, then start clicking on all the links.  Do some reading about nutrition and be sure to see the "Calorie Count Diet"

It takes some time to figure it all out.

To answer your question - identify your bad eating habits, then figure out how you can make each one into a better habit, then do them one at a time.  This can be eating less sugar or fat or carbs, or giving up an item, like soft drinks.  Just make sure you make changes you can live with for the rest of your life - this is no temporary diet that you'll stop as soon as you've lost weight.

Hi there! Welcome!! I recommend the following website... It's a website that provides a list of what is considered the world's most healthiest foods and then it has a link on each food item with information on all the nutritional properties and benefits:

List of The World's Healthiest Foods

http://www.whfoods.com/foodstoc.php

I threw together this post a while back with all the little things I learned when I first started. You are more than welcome to check it out.
http://www.calorie-count.com/forums/post/8532 .html

Thanks Claire and ix!

Changing my bad eating habits is going to be a challenge... I have a thing for pepsi. I've tried 'quitting' many times, but it's never lasted. I also have a problem with convenience foods. I'll tackle my bad habits one at a time. :-) 

ix, I've tagged that thread with all the info...  I've already gotten so much useful info from it! I'm going to keep going through it a little at a time. Thanks so much for putting it all in one easy to access thread!