I've been slightly overweight now for a few years. I've experimented with a couple different diets and calorie tracking methods. My go-to a year ago was Keto, and I saw a bit of success with that, but then I fell off the wagon and started drinking again. I blew up to about 180lbs a month ago. I quit drinking and started to prioritize fiber intake for two reasons:

1) I learned quite a bit more about the effects of short chained fatty acids, and other gut bacterial byproducts, that really help optimize your digestion and metabolism, and provide a ton of other benefits.

2) I wanted to really limit my calories to about a 800/day deficit and I didn't want to feel really hungry all the time doing it.

So I've started to track fiber in take in the same way I used to really prioritize tracking protein intake. I aim for about 30g/1000 calories, which is about double the USDA recommendation. So this really entices more consumption of legumes, whole grains, etc - I eat lots of lentils, split peas, vegetables, red river cereal, berries, etc.

It's been exactly 1 month today and I went from 180lbs to ~170lbs. Plus or minus 2-3 lbs for both owing to hydration, time of day, etc - that's pretty decent progress. By my estimation that's averaging around 1.5lbs to 2lbs a week when you exclude all the potential noise represented on the scale. AND it has saved me quite a bit of money because although I still eat meat, the consumption of it has decreased because I just feel really full after I eat my fiber source. I never really feel hungry, I usually feel pretty satiated. The first week I felt pretty hungry, but then I got used to the diet and now I feel good.

I won't lie, it can potentially take the enjoyment out of food because 30g/1000 calories kind of necessitates quite a bit of really high fiber foods like beans, lentils, split peas, quinoa, etc. But I've also picked up some crafty ways to make those things more flavorful.

So to conclude, I feel like aiming for fiber has been an excellent weight loss tactic for me. It may be worth a shot if you're feeling stubbornly hungry, or want to mix strategies up.

Hi all. Hope you don't mind me sharing a separate update to that my original loose skin advice post. Quick recap: I [45m] was preparing to tell the woman I'm dating [37F] about my loose skin and was seeking advice from the sub on the best way to do it and just generally how to handle it. I've lost 80kg in a year and my lower abdomen and pubic area has a lot of loose skin.

I received overwhelmingly positive feedback from everyone which made me feel a lot better and more confident heading into our date. She was coming over to my house and we planned a long afternoon and evening together. It really was fantastic in every sense. I wanted to introduce her to my dog (my dog is an anxious little guy and a proper introduction will make the world of difference long term on anyone I bring into the house) and then have a nice dinner and relax into the night. Not to sidetrack too much but she arrived carrying a giant bag of top of the line dog treats, which showed how serious she was about winning over my dog immediately, and she succeeded so much that he was all over her all night.

After the dinner we were relaxing on the couch when I just brought it up the loose skin as something that's been on my mind. I tried not to treat it like a confessional or some dirty secret because it really isn't. But I just told her I wanted her to know because it's something I'm self conscious about. Her response was about as perfect as anyone's could be. Firstly she was pretty much saying she figured already. She might not know the full extent of it but she said she knows people who have lost a lot of weight and knows the loose skin can be an issue for them and something they might be self conscious about. When I told her before I lost a lot of weight she assumed I would have loose skin.

She said whatever my loose skin situation is wouldn't be something she would have a problem with as long as I was healthy and happy she will work with me on whatever happens. She told me all of my positive qualities she likes, that I make her feel safe, and I know how to love, and I treat her well, I'm handsome and she sees all of me, not just my stomach. She loves every second of being with me and misses me when I'm not around. That I'm worrying about one body part when she sees the full package of who I am and she wants to be with that whole person.

She had her hand under my shirt while she was saying it and was stroking my stomach in a very gentle way.

It was, I'm pretty sure, the best possible outcome of all the outcomes in my head. Even writing it now I'm amazed it even happened at all and I'm not imagining it in some delusional post-shame breakdown where I've rewritten history to save my ego.

The one caveat is that we didn't actually get fully intimate. We cuddled on the couch and just enjoyed being with each other. But that was totally ok. She might not have seen the full extent of my loose skin but I'm more confident now that when that moment happens she will be as gentle and loving about it as she was tonight.

I think I've hit the jackpot. The added bonus is we played video games most of the night so she is literally my dream woman.

I want to post this because when I was looking for success stories I mostly only found them in comments not as actual posts and they were harder to find. Hoping other people can get the confidence from my experience that they need to not let loose skin stand in the way of finding happiness and love. (It's early days yet for me so I'm trying not to get too carried away but I'll float on this cloud for a long time!)

I’ve lost and regained weight several times over the years but this is the first time it’s like “oh shit I get it” and… it’s actually clicking this time

Things like “it’s a lifestyle change not a diet” and “you can’t outrun a bad diet” or “follow your hunger cues” kinda felt like bland platitudes before?

Like not offensive; I’ve always understood CICO just fine, but also ultimately kind of pointless.

I’d more or less grimly diet my way down to a goal weight and then it’d creep back up when something didn’t go my way.

One thing I realized is that all my previous weight loss attempts have been largely about what other people wanted/expected. Some dumb fucking man, a lot of the time, tbh lol

But this time it’s about what I want and idk, it’s surprisingly easy this time. I’ve lost 30 lbs since May and this is the first time I’ve even talked about it to anyone at all.

anyway, idk if that helps anyone. If I had to suggest anything to my past self, it’d be to really imagine what it would feel like to be at my ideal weight. Not whether someone would be impressed or if I’d look good in those pants or if I’d be less embarrassed to be seen at the pool in July. (And certainly don’t try to be motivated by some sense of duty to extend my lifespan bc sometimes, that sounds like a curse lmao)

But imagine purely the physical experience of it. How would it feel to be in that body? Lighter, freer, more comfortable in motion?

At some point I realized I don’t care as much about how I look as I do about how I feel, and I simply feel physically better as I lose. How did I not really internalize this before lol

Without calling anyone out by name, I've been noticing more and more the insidious fetish undertones in WIEIAD and 'healthy eating' videos. I see it all the time now. A conventionally attractive, thin, young woman announces this is the low call, high protein version of a decadent food that helped her lose XXlbs. She then leans right into the camera and takes a huge bite of the food, making sure to crunch and slurp as loudly as possible, all while moaning and rolling her eyes into the back of her head. She does it two or three times, making sure to get food on her face and/or hands. Then, she'll go on to give you a totally normal and helpful recipe, or modification to a fast food item, while taking about her 'weight loss journey'; normal, relatable things. She'll wrap it all up with one more loud, sloppy, way too big bite of food while staring right into the camera.

This has to be fetish content, right? I mean, it's so blatant. When she makes food in her car, she always pours more sauce on her fingers than she does on her food. She makes sure to capture every loud, aggressive crunch. She takes bites so large her cheeks bulge while she chews and smacks. And she's not the only one just the worst of them that I've seen. So many creators do this, but they didn't start off like that. I wonder at what point do they realise they get a boost of creeper views when they covertly play into the feeder fetish content.

I guess my point is just that it's weird how pervasive the trend is. Plus, I have severe misophonia and I'm sick to death of people crunching loudly directly into microphones. When did people stop closing their mouths when they chew?

I have tried many times in my life to lose weight. I’ve been successful some of the time and failed many times.

My most recent attempt I tried something different. I drank very little alcohol for the past month. Most days I did not drink at all. I still ate a bit recklessly. I have put back on several pounds but it’s been a lot slower than usually when I drank moderately and ate moderately. The weight would pile on so fast.

I have been tracking my calories both with alcohol and without alcohol and I end up with about the same amount of calories or a little more when I don’t drink since I’m eating more.

What gives? Is there something different happening when it comes to gaining weight while drinking alcohol versus just eating the same calorie from food?

What has your experience been with calories from alcohol versus food and long term success?

47m/5'9/436. Lately i just cant find anything that works. I am currently not able to workout as i have a knee injury that prevents me from going more than 10-15 minutes at a time walking. So i know that is part of it. I doing a high protein lower carb diet for the most part. Most days I eat anywhere between 1.5k-2k calories. I was over 600lbs in 2018, got down to 340 by about 2023 and then broke an ankle and have slowly ballooned back up. Nothing I have done seems to work anymore. Before my knee injury it was just work out more. Diet went from one thing to another and i just kept gaining. Look I know at my size and age im a heart attack waiting to happen but ffs im just tired of CONSTANTLY fighting my weight. Came across this sub randomly for the first time in a long time and juts wanted to post. Not sure if i am looking for help, encouragement, tell me ima fat ass and just fning do it, i know im just tired. Thats all I got. Thanks.

Tl;dr - vegan content creators who focus on protein without mentioning any other macros because they think that tracking kcal is a sign of disordered eating are a bane of my 5’1 existence, because their “30g protein” recipes are also 800-1000kcal per serving, which is like 70% of my daily limit.

——

I’m vegetarian with mild lactose intolerance so I end up eating a lot of vegan food. I follow a lot of vegan content creators for meal ideas. But I am getting exhausted by the current trend of "protein maxxing" paired with a hostility toward calorie counting.

My tested resting metabolic rate is around 1350 kcal. My dietician has advised me to stay in a 1200-1400 kcal range, and this is not easy because I’m used to eating closer to 1800-2000 kcal. Hence why I’ve been tracking meticulously because I can’t eat “intuitively”. I also want to prioritise protein to stay full longer, which has been hard because I’m Indian and our vegetarian diet is very carb-heavy. And I want this to be sustainable because most “healthy” recipes don’t taste that good to me and I can’t keep eating that for the rest of my life.

But so many content creators (that aren’t health or diet recipes focused) push the narrative that any calorie tracking is a one-way ticket to developing a disorder, they completely omit calorie estimates from their recipes while focusing solely on the protein number. And when you actually audit some of these "30g protein per serving" vegan recipes, they are wild! Multiple cans of coconut milk, beans, several tablespoons of nut butters, “generous” drizzles of olive oil etc. All incredibly calorie-dense foods. One creator recently posted a video about meals with “over 30g of protein”, but one of the meals she made was over 1000 kcal per serving (39g protein).

For someone my size (5’1), eating meals like that means blowing most of entire day's limit in one go. I can easily get 25 to 30g of protein from a scoop of vegan pea protein powder for under 200-250 kcal. Hitting that via calorie-dense whole-food fats and legumes alone requires an insane portion size that I simply cannot do on a deficit without resorting to OMAD or similar. It’s more sustainable for me to just add a scoop of protein powder to my dal.

To top it off, when these content creators get comments about this, the response usually is that food is fuel and people should be moving enough to sustain eating these meals 3x a day. Look, I WANT to be active, but I also have a full-time demanding job, and an hour at the gym burns maybe 500 kcal at best. I can't live in the gym, and this rhetoric completely erases people with disabilities or mobility limitations who literally cannot just "move more" to offset a 3000kcal day. This is why I track in the first place!

I'm a great cook, but weighing and logging every single ingredient gets tedious. The whole point of using someone else's pre-built protein-forward recipe is to outsource the mental load so I can just relax. Instead, because so many of them refuse to include calorie breakdowns I have to log every single gram of the ingredients just to make sure I won't blow my entire daily limit on a single lunch, which totally defeats the purpose of using a recipe in the first place.

I'm vegetarian, so I do have the luxury of using Greek yogurt, eggs, and whey to bridge the gap. Which makes it even harder to understand how strict vegans manage this without eating massive surpluses or using supplements. Why is it so bad to just include calorie totals alongside a healthy disclaimer, or suggest adding a clean protein supplement instead of burying 30g of protein inside a 800-1000 kcal bomb?

With this logic I could label a pepperoni pizza a great “high-protein meal” because it contains like 40g+ of protein.

Either include all nutrition info + macros, or don’t include anything.

I should be sleeping right now, but I couldn’t get this thought out of my head. I’ve always understood that Covid really messed with my life, but I had usually thought about it fairly practically. Tonight, I’m just feeling anger and frustration.

Up until senior year of college, I’d always been significantly overweight. I had never learned to build a healthy relationship with food or exercise. But in October of my senior year in 2018, I decided enough was enough. By graduation in May 2019 I’d lost about 80lbs. Not only that, but I’d landed a huge job opportunity with a six figure paycheck. I moved to a new city and put in a lot of effort to make new friends, establishing a friend group after 6 months. I was dating and having some fun too, which was mostly new to me. And I was continuing to lose weight at a more sustainable pace. I had a pretty healthy relationship with both food and exercise. I had put in a massive amount of effort to set up what should have been an amazing decade. Truly a new me.

And then March 2020 came along. Confinement to my apartment with only a still-new friend group who was not close enough yet to meet regularly on lockdown. I’m a social guy, and this quickly fucked with my mental state. I had a panic attack for the first time in my life and some serious depressive moments. The habits I’d built up slowly slipped away. And it just. Kept. Going. Years. My friends from that friend group moved away. My habits were completely destroyed. My job was the only thing that was still working well, so I turned all of my attention to it.

After 2 years of this, I was unrecognizable compared to the 2019 version of myself I’d put so much effort into setting up.

It was my first full professional job and that was the relationship I now had with work, life, food, and exercise. All of it out of balance and unhealthy. And it was a cycle. I worked a ton of hours, so I didn’t have time to meet people. Not meeting people kept me unhappy. Being unhappy made it hard to care about myself and reestablish those habits.

It took until a month ago, 6.5 years later, after getting out of working 80 hours/week for 4 months straight and turning 30 years old to begin to break the cycle. I’ve been pretty optimistic for the last month being on this new journey and continue to be optimistic that I’ll get back to where I want to be. But tonight I’m feeling sad and angry about losing out on what could have been an incredible 20’s. I feel like I permanently lost my young adult experience and I can never get that back.

I understand that many people loved their 30’s and I intend to make the most of it as well, but time is the only truly finite resource we have and so I suppose I’m mourning my loss right now.

Hello Y'all,

I am just shy of 1 year since hitting my weight loss journey head-on, and have worked my way down from 594lb to 369lb (-225). This is ~0.93% of my starting weight per week, accounting for the scale going down over time. I couldn't be more happy for the progress, but I've hit my first prolonged slump where motivation just hasn't been there and my diet hasn't been up to my standard over the last ~10 days. I'm back into the swing of things, but am looking for advice on ways others have looked at long weight-loss journeys. It feels like I have swam up from Marianas Trench and found myself at the foot of Everest.. I've shown myself that I can David-Goggins this and show self-discipline, but I'm a year in and still have a long road ahead. The scale doesn't move as fast as it once did, and milestones are less frequent.

How do I put my recent successes in the rear mirror and focus on the next week, next month, next year?

Edit: To give context, I am 23m/6'4 with a very rough goal of 240lb

I'm 24M, 184 cm. I’ve gone from 109 kg to 90 kg, and my body fat has dropped from ~40% to ~29%.

The problem is that I barely feel different at all. I know losing 19 kg is objectively a lot, but I still look very obviously fat. I still have a large beer belly, a double chin and my waist is a mess.

I’m supposedly only about 5.6 kg away from crossing into a normal BMI and going under 25% body fat. 5.6 kg is still a decent amount, but it’s only about a third of what I’ve already lost.

Could those last 5-6 kg make a disproportionately large visual difference? Or would I likely still look noticeably overweight at 25% body fat and need to lose considerably more before I actually look “normal”?

I’ll be seeing a dietitian this week for the first time. I’m 24F/5’4/175lb and aiming to be 120lb-140lb. I was able to lose 60lb from July ‘25 to April 25’ and did a few months of maintenance and now have had problems with motivation. A few months ago I denied using a GLP1 when offered by my Dr and I asked to see a dietitian instead.

Firstly, what should I be asking? I honestly have no idea what to expect and haven’t put much thought into it because I’ve been extremely busy and the request to see one was put in months ago, so it hasn’t really been on my mind.

I tend to forget to ask medical professionals important questions and end up talking about other things. I’d rather not have my appointment be unhelpful and waste anyones time so I’d appreciate what I should be looking for and asking about.

Thank you!

After neglecting my body for years, I’m finally making changes to live a healthier life by counting calories and taking daily walks. I’m so proud to say that I’m finally actually LOSING weight. This morning I weighed in to see I have lost 4 lbs so far! I know it isn’t much compared to the total amount I want to lose (~120 lbs), and it hasn’t been that long either, but after gaining constantly it is such a relief to see the number go down.

Unfortunately, though, I have become a bit taken with weighing myself a few times a day, which I know doesn’t help me. I think I’m so excited about my new habits that I believe the scale will magically change to a lower weight within a couple of hours, or I want to make sure that I haven’t gone back up. I know fluctuation is normal, but how do I prevent myself from feeling disappointed when it happens? How can I keep myself from constantly checking when I’m feeling so excited? Thanks :)

I’m trying to lose weight and I’m confused about how calories and meal timing work.
For example, if I eat oats at 8 AM and then eat 3 eggs with roti at 11 AM, will that affect my weight loss? Does it matter that I’m eating two meals in the morning, or is weight loss more about my overall calorie intake and the type of food I eat? Since i don’t get time for lunch cause of my shitty college timing ! If I eat healthy, clean foods and stay mindful of my calories, can I still lose weight while eating breakfast early and having another meal a few hours later?
I’m trying to understand whether what I eat, how much I eat, or when I eat matters most for weight loss.

26F/ 5'8/ 289 lbs.

The goal is to lose about 100 pounds. Im only a couple days in and im struggling, I like food too much I guess. Im still staying in a deficit, and we've been going to the gym and walking for an hour on a treadmill (about 3 miles) which isnt crazy, but I've delt with some mental/physical health challenges over the past few years and didnt move much, so its a good start.

Ive been doing some reading and im scared that im simply not going to lose weigh, and that I'm just going to be a ball of lard forever. Especially considering most of it was put on because of medications. I feel like I need to starve myself of go on a GLP-1. Which, the first option isnt healthy and the second is too expensive for me, as well as not ideal.

But im also scared ill give up if I dont start seeing a significant change.

I struggle with my food choices as im, admittedly, a little bit of a picky eater. My doctor says to eat what sounds good in moderation, but im struggling with that.

Any and all advice is appreciated, as well as reccomendations for some other workout things that could help.

Hi team Euro accountability, I hope you’re all well! For anyone new who wants to join today, this is a daily post where you can track your goals, keep yourself accountable, get support and have a chat with friendly people at times that are convenient for European time zones.

Check-in daily, weekly, or whatever works best for you. It’s never the wrong time to join! Anyone and everyone are welcome! Tell us about yourself and let's continue supporting each other. Let us know how your day is going, or, if you're checking in early, how your yesterday went! Share your victories, rants, problems, NSVs, SVs, we are here!

I want to shortly also mention — this thread lives and breathes by people supporting each other :) so if you have some time, comment on the other posts! Show support, offer advice and share experiences!

Hosted by u/Gatita_Gordita.

I have a week free trial that I started today and had a really good time. I’m 227lbs and considered obese (def got a fat belly going on). I mostly just want to know if anyone has lost weight from it?

I used to go to Planet Fitness and lost 65lbs in 6 months and also ate 1500 calories a day but this time I don’t want to count calories because I get really neurotic about it and obsessive, I plan to cut my meals in half instead. Planet Fitness and regular gyms are way too boring for me and I can’t stand figuring out my own things to do, I feel like when I go to PF I just go and stare at the clock most of the time but today I actually had fun working out

Context: I am 32F, 5’9”. I lost 28kg (62lbs) in 2018-2019 and have managed to keep it off since, and now I hover between 58kg and 60kg (128-132lbs).

My issue is that I am sick of tracking. I’m scared to stop, but it makes me miserable. It’s tedious and takes up so much time. I stopped tracking for a week around my birthday in August and felt happier and lighter (mentally). I did not gain weight that week. But I’m scared to stop for longer.

I actually think I should probably gain a little bit as I would like a bit more muscle. I do strength train 3 times a week and have seen progress since I’ve started but maybe eating more would help me look stronger. I do eat 90-130g protein a day.

Tips on how to stop tracking without freaking out? I’m scared of going above 60kg.

I don't know if anyone else feels this way, but weight loss is genuinely so confusing and frustrating to me.

For context, I'm 22f, 5'2 and around 60 kg. I've been trying to improve my eating habits on and off for about two years now, but I feel like I've made almost no progress.

I know consistency is important, and I'm not going to pretend I've been perfectly consistent for those two years. But I do go through periods where I genuinely put effort into eating healthier, reducing my portions, and being more mindful of how much I'm eating, only to see barely any difference on the scale.

For example, this past month I was eating less and making healthier choices, and I went from 60 kg to 59.4 kg. I know 0.6 kg is still progress, but it felt so discouraging considering how much I was thinking about my food and trying to make changes for a whole month. Then my eating habits became a bit irregular again, and now I'm back to around 60–60.5 kg in the mornings. I don't weigh myself every day, so I'm not sure how much of that is normal fluctuation.

Another thing I struggle with is exercise. It's not that I'm completely against working out, and I actually would love to become more active. But I've noticed that whenever I try to incorporate a structured workout routine into my weight loss efforts, I start feeling overwhelmed by the pressure of having to do something every day or every other day. Eventually, it makes the whole process feel exhausting, and I end up giving up on everything, including the eating habits I was trying to improve. Instead, I try to focus on improving my diet instead of forcing myself to exercise.

The most frustrating part is that I feel like I've been stuck at essentially the same weight for two years. I keep trying, getting discouraged by the lack of visible progress, stopping, and then eventually trying again. It's become a cycle, and I genuinely don't know how to break out of it.

I know weight loss takes time, and I know I'm not going to see dramatic results overnight. But it's hard to stay motivated when even the smaller changes don't seem to be adding up to anything.

Has anyone else experienced something similar? How did you manage to make progress without becoming overwhelmed by the whole process? I'm not looking for a quick fix, just something that feels sustainable and doesn't make me dread the process.

Anyone familiar with making gains and getting results for like 2 months or so only to quit and lose all your progress or set back even further?

For about 10 years or so I've had this loop, sometimes quitting longer, sometimes saying consistent longer, but always falling off at some point. Then I'd look for the next "thing" (I've tried keto, IF and multiple other restrictive diets) which just threw me into the same loop again.

After years on end I decided to take things 1 step at a time, which finally turned into something that worked. Now 3 years after that decision, I'm going to the gym 4x a week consistently, manage to stay around 15% BF while feeling good, eating out, having fun, etc.

I've really learned that sticking to the few proven basics does so much more than a fancy stupid ass program or supplement. Those just try to leech money off of you.

Start with what you can "easily" manage, it should almost feel too easy. Even if it's starting with only 1 or 2 workouts a week with only tracking calories by guessing/eyeballing. Once those become your "new normal", the next step for an extra workout session and more accurately track your calories and even protein, becomes a lot smaller.

Don't drive yourself crazy; pick something basic you can hold onto and trust the process. Over time results will show up!!!

I’m 31F 245lbs wanting to build strength. I’ve lost 35lbs through calorie deficit, and although that’s working for me, I can tell I’m losing muscle too. I really want to get into strength training, but the decision fatigue is REAL. The idea of going somewhere and receiving a structured workout is super appealing to me. Orangetheory is not as expensive as personal training in my area, but it’s more hands-on than navigating a gym myself.

That said, I find the idea of my heart rate being known by others during my workout sort of invasive, especially being heavier than others. But I know that’s the point… has anyone tried it before, especially around the beginning of your weight loss journey? What was your experience like?

Thank you!!

Edit: wow, I wasn’t expecting so much input! Thank you all for your perspectives. I think I’ll give it a shot!!

Hi everyone, I’m looking for honest experiences from women who have lost around 30–40 lbs, especially in their 30s.

I’m 34F, 5’4, currently around 154 lbs. I gained about 35 lbs to get my cycle back after years of under-eating and over-exercising. I’m grateful my cycle are consistent for the past year, but my confidence has honestly been at an all-time low and I really struggle with how I look right now.

I used to be around 124 lbs and my goal is to get back to around 120–130 lbs. I’m extremely worried about skin laxity after losing the weight, especially in my breasts, stomach, arms, thighs, and face/chin area. I’m not talking about major loose skin, but more looking softer, less firm, and crepey.

I’ve been lifting consistently since July 4x week, eating at least 130g protein daily, taking a collagen supplement, staying hydrated, and trying to lose slowly while preserving muscle.

I would really love to hear from women with similar stats who have gone through a 30–40 lb weight loss. How did your skin actually turn out? Was it better or worse than you expected? Did it improve after maintaining your weight for a while?

I know genetics play a huge role, but I’ve been worrying about this constantly and would really appreciate realistic experiences. Thank you 💙

HI! for reference I’m 26F, 70kg & 168cm tall. I am overall quite well proportioned.

I have struggled with consistant eating and exercising for the past 10 years. At 16 I weighed 58kg and gained weight as I got older and have yo-yoed between weights for years. I have gained about 8kg in about 7 months for a variety of reasons and really want to lose overall weight.

I specifically want to lose fat & gain muscle. I’ve heard the best way to do this is a maintenance or surplus but I’m not entirely sure? Should I focus on a calorie deficit first to lose fat then work my way up in calories to a maintenance to gain muscle?

Ontop of that I really struggle to workout my daily colories. I understand my BMI, however I have a job where I stand 8 hours a day, mainly moving my upper body around. I also go for a 45 minute walk most days. Not currently weight lifting but will be starting.

How do I measure my maintenance here? I asked ChatGPT and it said around 2400 which sounds extremely high, I usually go to 1500 when I want to lose weight but as I’ve said I’ve struggled with slightly disordered eating and bad habits for ages and find I’m always too tired to excercise

Any tips? Really want to do this right and make a good sustainable habit out of exercising but want to make sure I’m not wasting my time by eating the wrong amount!

Thank you :)