there are many different approaches to accomplish your goal, but they all boil down to "eat less, move more" (as bonaparte mentioned!).

of course, you want to be as effective as possible in the way you go about "eating less and moving more".

there are a number of folks on this forum who are willing to share helpful information (as well as a few idiots! ). but ultimately, it is up to you to decide your course of action and then implement it.

just get going with some kind of plan and then "tweak it" as you go. sounds like this is exactly what you are doing. you'll be fine!