I've been calorie counting myself. I stepped on the scales a while
back and it shockingly said 238 lbs. That's higher that I had ever
been in my life, so I've relegated myself to 1800 calories per day.

Doesn't matter what I eat. I can have a burger if I want; milkshake if
I want; 5 Mountain Dews per day if I want. The only catch is I look at
the Nutrition labels on the back of EVERYTHING (and I only eat at
restaurants that publish their Nutritional Data). I do the math to
figure out the # of cals in everything I eat, then write that down.
Once I make it to 1800 - time to stop eating for today. I can still
drink all the water I want (and if I get REALLY hungry I can eat dill
pickles as they have almost no calories).

I've managed to get down to 228 lbs now. It's slow going (weight
usually drops off at around 1 to 2 lbs per week), but given that I can
satisfy any craving I have, it makes it a lot easier to stick to.
Though it's a ways off, I'm hoping to get back under 200 lbs (haven't
been there in about 8 years).

Of course this is all for piloting too. I've been looking at various
homebuilt airplanes, and quite a few of the single seaters that I'm
interested in (namely the Nieuport 11/17 replicas) don't look like they
would lift me + full fuel off the ground . I'm hoping to improve
that situation LOL.