181 today, so the downward trend continues and the 170s are definitely reachable by the end of the month.
To back up
@HMP on not getting idle... People either don't understand, or vastly underestimate how essential this is to weight control. Being active isn't about "burning calories" so much as it is about "controlling your hunger". You do not have to make your activity into a significant calorie burning event. All you need to do is "be active". Move. Walk. Stand up when you would normally be sitting. Take the stairs instead of the elevator at work. That's it.
Physiologically, when the body is active it doesn't feel hunger. It's when you stop doing things, sit down, rest, etc. that your body shifts gears and says "Hey! Now would be a good time to eat!"
This is what's so bad about a sedentary lifestyle. It's not the "lack of exercise" that gets people, it's the deprivation of the major means of controlling your hunger.
Split out, there are a couple ways to lose weight: reduce your calorie intake and burn more calories. Of the two, taken singly, reducing your calorie intake will produce the quickest results. Combined, even better. But trying to do it by exercise alone is very much more difficult.
Why?
Because it takes a lot more time out of your day and requires more physical effort. If you don't moderate your diet in conjunction with all that exercise, you may find yourself not making any headway at all.
Cleaning the house or washing your car will burn about 300 calories in an hour. Jogging will burn about 700ish, or 400 more. But to totally screw that up, all you have to do is drink a 20 ounce soda and you've added almost 300 calories BACK.
Add to this the fact that weight control is more than just a balance of calories in and out. Your body's ability to burn calories changes for a number of reasons. One, of course, is due to activity. Be more active, burn more calories. Another has to do with general health. A person may burn more calories if they're sick and the body is fighting off an infection with a burning fever. Eating a balanced meal which gives your body all the nutrients it needs changes how it processes and stores it. An unbalanced diet also changes the way the body processes and stores what you eat. Losing weight means your body has to work less to maintain its health...and will also burn fewer calories because it's not carrying around all that extra weight.
The long standing rule of thumb about weight loss is 3,500 calories equals a pound of weight loss or weight gain. It's not a hard and fast rule, but as general rules of thumb go, it's a decent guide.
SO...let's put that rule of thumb into practical practice with some real world math.
If you cut back 500 calories a day in your diet, that works out to a 3,500 calories deficit in a week, or a one pound weight loss per week.
BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!
If you're a wee bit more physically active every day (not talking about "working out"), that not only adds to your calorie deficit, it helps control your hunger. Simply being more active at work when you would normally be sitting at a desk can burn 300 calories. An hour of good housecleaning, the same. Washing your car/truck, about the same.
What this means is that simply be being a bit more active, you can easily burn another 500 or more calories a day then you were. Instead of a 3,500 calorie deficit a week, now you're talking about 7,000 a week (or more). Now your weight loss is looking at maybe 2 to 3 pounds a week.
ALL WITHOUT HAVING TO DO STRENUOUS EXERCISE LIKE JOGGING, WEIGHT LIFTING, ETC.
THAT'S what it means to "change your lifestyle". Working out is great for any number of reasons. But simply controlling your diet and being more active is the foundation required to achieve, and maintain, a healthy weight.
