I will let you know that first week of counting calories should be nothing more than a log of breakfast, snacks, lunch, dinner etc. You want to get a stable reading before you cut the calories way down. If you go to low you will notice a significant drop in energy and you will crash by the end of the day.

I almost cried (not really, but you get the drift) when I realized that a candy bar and a soda was usually over 500 calories. Almost 1/3 of what you should be eating in a day. Yikes!! You will also want to get a base of how many calories that you burn daily, this can be found on google I am sure. That way you know where you need to get down to.

For significant weight loss you will want to take in less calories than you burn. Intake vs. Output and all. If you just cut down the total number of calories that you are in taking you will lose some weight, just not as much. Please note that you need to step down gradually. If you go from 3000 to 1500 calories in like two days you will be miserable and will just want to sleep.

Try to get around 15-1800 calories and you will be in good shape in no time. Pun intended.