I'm about 6'1" - 6'2" and at my heaviest, I weighed 289 pounds. In high school, I think I weighed about 250 or so. I played on the offensive line on the football team. But after school, I wasn't working out every day any longer and my weight rose rapidly. Like probably millions of other people, I started diet and exercise only to give up and fall back into my bad habits after a few days. But then, I got a new job and things started looking up for me. It wasn't any one thing, no single experience that made finally go ahead and follow through with it. I just decided one day that I'm going to lose the weight and that time, I stuck with it, now I'm 165 lbs (I was at 175 in less than 5 months). This is what I did and of course, before anyone points out what an idiot I am, I am in no way recommending this to anyone, this is just what I did to lose weight:

I cut calories dramatically and started walking. My target was to eat less than 1,000 (on some days, I would be just under 500) calories a day (from healthier foods, fast food and junk food were completely out) and to walk at least 1 mile every day. At 305 lbs, I was in no shape to do much more than that. Eventually, I started adding exercises at home, and I got a pull up bar, which I use, it's not merely decorative. As a result, I developed odd eating habits that I still pretty much have. I space my meals about 8 hours apart (a light breakfast and an evening meal with maybe a light snack in between if I'm feeling like I need it). I'm not a vegetarian, but in losing the initial weight, I ate a lot of boca burgers for my evening meal (they were easy to make and the vegan ones were pretty low calorie and I like them), so I've fallen out of the habit of eating meat regularly, pretty much now eating meat only when I'm not eating at home. Also, I only eat when I'm hungry. If the evening meal time rolls around and I'm not really all that hungry, I'll just have a light snack. When I go out, I eat "normally" and don't usually order anything out of the ordinary, although from time to time, if a restaurant or bar has something like a black bean burger on the menu, I'll order that instead of a regular burger. As a rule, I try not to eat at all (at least for 5 hours or so) before any strenuous activity, but I've been that way since we had to run in PE after lunch in junior high and I wasn't not feeling well after that. 

The ultra-low calorie part is where I know I'd get criticism (if anyone bothers to respond to this), hence the earlier disclaimer. It's just that I had read that 3,500 calories roughly equaled 1 lbs, so I strove to create the largest calorie deficit I could while getting enough energy to live normally. I realize it would considered unsafe, at the time, I just decided to trust that my body would tell me if I was overdoing with the calorie cutting. 

Best Advice For Health:

I think the best advice I can give is to be healthy. I was at my heaviest while attending school to be an actor. I had just gotten done performing in November of my freshmen year, and during reviews, one of my teachers said, "That was so great Patrick, too bad you'l never get to do that role in real life." I was taken aback and asked why, and she said, "Don't be silly; fat men aren't leading men." Well, I decided to make a change then, and I started doing the stationary bike everyday after class for an hour and I stopped drinking soda. Maybe I could've done more, I dont know. In November (at my heaviest), I weighed 295 lbs. By May, the end of the school year, I was only down five pounds. I was pretty unhappy with my progress and went into overdrive, which in retrospect, was a bad idea. I started doing P90X. I was doing the "doubles" schedule. I was dieting pretty hard too, at about 1700 calories a day. I dropped about twenty pounds the first month. Not good enough. I started running too. Two weeks later, I had lost another twenty pounds. Still not good enough. Started dieting harder. 1200 calories a day. Two weeks later, another thirty gone. Still not happy. I started running twice a day. Uh-oh. So, for the last month of p90x, I would wake up, do p90x cardio, then eat a lil bit, then run, and have a protein shake, then lift weights, then protein shake, then run again, then protein shake, and sleep. In my final month I lost fifty pounds, for a grand total of 120 lbs in 90 short days. I was down to 175, but it was not a healthy 175. My heart rate dropped to about 49 bpm (which would've been great if I was a marathon runner, which I am not), my blood pressure was dangerously low, my blood sugar and insulin response was messed up as anything, I looked like I was dangerously thin (think Jared Leto in Dallas Buyers Club (maybe not that bad, but my friends did start calling me skeleton)), I had lost most of my lean mass due to unhealthy dieting, and my heart had shrunk slightly, which is a bad thing. The worst part, my weight had become an obsession. I didn't stop dieting, I started running more, and I kept losing weight. I tracked everything I put in my body. My social life suffered. I struggled with bulimia and anorexia. Losing weight is one of the best things I ever did for myself, but looking back two years later, I wish I'd taken my time. I did irreparable harm to my body. They say you should lose a pound or two a week, I did about ten times that. There's a reason that's the healthy suggestion. Always remember that it's just as unhealthy to starve yourself as it is to over-indulge. Work to be healthy, not to look a certain way. Have a goal in mind (a healthy one!) and when you get there, stop.

I met a girl who backpacked everywhere and i got caught up backpacking with her. I just walked everywhere with her and i got to the point were i could survive twelve miles of walking. I lost about 60 pounds and gained a massive amount of muscle without working out in a gym at all.

Nature's the real gym. Eat well, drink a lot of water, walk everywhere, rave in Berlin for 3 days every weekend.

Healthy Diet In College:

I'm in college now, and honestly...it's tough. I find that sticking to small changes help a ton when they are easy and fast.

• Instead of soda, get flavored waters or one of the many kinds of flavor drops for when regular water just won't fly. 
• If you have a freezer, get frozen chicken breast pieces that you can pop in the oven/microwave with olive oil and a little spice if you want. Frozen veggies are a great thing to have too! Pair some chicken and veggies with your Easy Mac or left-over pizza for a more nutritious meal.
• If you don't eat fruit often, keep dried fruit on hand. It will stay good for longer and you can grab it for a healthy snack. My favorite is cherries! Or nab an apple or two from the dining hall for a snack later on in the day.
• Make use of mircowave cooking! Many meals can be made by thowing things into a bowl and using the mircowave to cook them. Look online...there's tons of resources out there.

As a college student who aspires to maintain a healthy diet in face of the many un-healthy behaviors of my peers, I have embraced preparing and eating vegetarian dishes. Not only are legumes and beans packed with protein and carbohydrates, they are significantly lower in fat and cost than their meat-based counterparts.

Adding half a cup of red lentils to a can of store bought vegetable soup is quick, affordable, and tasty. Likewise, black bean and corn quesadillas can be whipped up any day of the week with canned goods and frozen products. At the end, my stomach is stretched full and copiously happy.

It's possible to eat healthy while using a meal plan.

• Stock up on veggies and fresh fruit from the salad bar. You can add them to meals or eat them as snacks.
• Have a salad with every meal. Eat it first and you'll be less likely to eat that second slice of pizza.
• Follow these rules 80% of the time. You're a kid so have fun in college! Don't miss out on having pizza with your friends or indulging once in a while. You definitely deserve it. I missed out on a lot of things I regret because I was scared of the "freshman 15 
• Have deli sandwiches instead of always going for the fried chicken or burritos.
• Drink water the majority of the time: it's free and extremely important to your health. Save the liquid calories for that weekend jungle juice. 
• Try to stay away from pop. It's just sugar and chemicals and terrible for you. You're mom isn't gonna be there to make sure you have a glass of milk with dinner.
• Make sure you have some healthy snacks on hand. It'll save you from a midnight junk food run when all that's available to buy are candy bars and packaged cupcakes. 
• If you're gonna have ramen try to add some veggies and/or protein. Straight carbs and sodium does not a healthy dinner make.
• Get creative with what they have to offer. I used to buy premade chicken ceaser salads; I'd eat the salad with one meal and then use the chicken to make chicken quesadillas or to add some protein to microwavable pasta dishes.
• Take advantage of the cafeteria's salad bar if it is available. 
• See if your cafeteria will allow take out, so you don't end up eating an entire pizza in one sitting. 
• Don't be afraid to look like a weirdo grabbing free fruit from the dining hall. I've grabbed armfuls of apples before, and was set for a week. Plus if you're already paying for a food plan, snagging a couple apples won't hurt . 
• Try to avoid drinking too much soda, drink water and take advantage of water fountains when you can, and watch your alcohol intake, one beer can be the equivilent of a medium size amount of fries from McDonald's. 
• Also, if you want to grab a bottle of gatorade or something, take a reusable water bottle and fill it up in the dinning hall instead of buying one. 
• Look up healthy recipes for college students online, there are about a billion articles for cooking in your dorm room/ exclusively with a microwave. 
• Make sure you eat protein- this includes eggs, nuts, and some beans too. (Also, it's super easy to cook an egg in the microwave, just make sure its scrambled before you heat it, so it doesn't explode.
• UY TUPPOWARE! It helps with portion control and you can get two meals for once in the cafeteria! I constantly took stuff to class when I knew I was having a long day, and I didn't have to use a meal swipe or pay extra for it. 
• Just because a product is there, doesn't mean you have to buy it. I got into a bad habit of buying a pint of ice cream at least twice a week my freshman year because hey, ice cream is delicious! and I can get it with meal points! and I never get to eat Blue Bunny! and mom and dad can't tell me what to eat anymore,

Healthy Diet in School:

I am still a little upset about the healthy choices at my school. They become repetitive, and I end up buying a lot of food and spending my work paychecks on food instead of using my meal plan. I am an RA, and I know it seems counter intuitive to spend money on food when I am given a free meal plan with my role, but I honestly need to buy foods sometimes in order to avoid the repetitive health food offered at my school. Usually, there is a grilled chicken option and salad bar and the two buffet style cafeterias, and there are a few good healthy snacks and sandwiches at some of the to-go stations, but other than that, I usually bulk up on fruits and veggies at the supermarket. I buy protein powder and mix it into my oats. Cellular is the best tasting flavor to mix into your oats!

• I consume buckets of tea. But if you're not into that, water is free and much better for you than soda or juice. Chances are, you'll get a free reusable water bottle in college somewhere.
• Frozen vegetables/fruit can be very inexpensive, taste good and are easy to prepare (microwave meals!)
• In the dining halls, hit the salad bar first. If you fill your plate with salad (and high-protein toppings, if available), you have much less space for fries. Then fill your other hand with water. Now you have to go to a table before you can pick anything up. Consume salad and water before getting anything else, because you're already there. This makes it a lot harder to gorge on less healthful foods. 
• As other people mentioned, take fruits/vegetables/other nutritious portable foods out of the dining hall. Voila, you have an apple for midmorning hunger. I like to take the paper to-go cups and fill them with cherry tomatoes, spinach, sunflower seeds from the salad bar, etc. (And recycle the cup later.) 
• Try making your own breakfast to avoid eating sugary pastries and bacon every morning. I cook eggs in the microwave, and have some of those fruits and vegetables I got from the dining hall earlier. Oatmeal is an easy microwave breakfast. Yogurt is easily kept in a fridge. It's one meal that you can cook for yourself even with the barest of facilities, and is usually cheaper than buying main meal ingredients. 
• I have friends who use rice cookers, slow cookers etc. to cook all kinds of food in their rooms. This can be cheaper than a meal plan if that's an option, and cooking for yourself is almost always better for you.

Always eat breakfast!! I usually grab a cliff bar because they're yummy and easily protable so you can run to class while eating. Also cut out things that are bad for you (like soda or alchohol) during the week and treat yourself (but don't binge!) on weekends. Remember the 80%-20% rule.