no. i have no idea how to go about deciding on a diet or exercise plan.
The first thing you need to do is find out what your calorie maintainance level is. This is your BMR (Basic Metabolic Rate). Here's a link to a BMR calculator:
Then figure approximately how many calories you plan to burn from exercising. Plan on 300-600 a day. Add that to your BMR.
To lose 1lb of fat you need to expend 3500 more calories than you take in. So to lose 1lb a week, you'd need to subtract 500 calories a day from your BMR+exercise cals. So if your BMR+ exercise cals = 2800 calories, you should eat about 2300 calories a day if you want to lose a lb a week. To lose 2lbs a week, 1800 calories a day. But whatever your BMR is, don't go below 1400cals a day if you're female, or 1600 if you're male. I weigh 230lbs, and my maintainance is around 2500cals with my exercise. My target calories are between 1500-1800 a day. I try to mix it up a bit to keep my body from getting used to a certain number. Some people think you have to eat 1200 calories a day to lose weight. The thing with that is your body will adjust to the lower rate, and then you'll hit a plateau and stop losing. The only way to start losing again is to eat at maintainance until your metabolism adjusts back to normal.
The reality is, you can eat any kind of food you want as long as you stay within your target caloric range. However, stay away from a high sodium diet. That will make you retain water, making it harder to lose. So all the frozen lean-cuisine type meals should be eaten minimally--that goes with fast food as well. Even a McD's salad has almost 2000mg of sodium in it--that's incredibly high. There are all kinds of recipes and nutrition info here to help you.
As to exercise, the trick is to do something you like--you're more likely to stick with it that way. Also, encorporate strength-weight training in along with cardio. This will burn calories and keep you from losing muscle. Muscle burns calories at a higher rate than fat does, so you want to retain your muscle and lose fat.
If you have any questions, there are always lots of people here willing to help. Start a journal, and start reading and posting in other people's journals. It's a great way to get and give support to others who are going through similar struggles you are.
Best wishes!
