Losing weight and eating a balanced diet..

Ok first of all am not sure if this thread fits in this sub-forum I just thought it relates to the health part of it..

Recently I have realised my weight is going up, I was 9 stone last month and I checked today to find I am now 9 stone 7 pounds.. and I am 5'4 in height, Shocked. I know some may think this is good for weight but, I am starting to get a muffin top, am only 17(well in a week I am). After I had my son (2 and a bit years ago) I never really loss the excess baby fat. All my life I've never really had a balanced diet, my parents never really did push for healthy eating. So eating all the sweets, chocolate and general unhealthy food has caught up with me. So today is the day I've decided to lose weight and begin a balanced diet. I am just wondering if anyone has any tips/advice on this. I would be grateful if anyone knows of useful sites to visit,ect. I went to look at weight watchers and slimming world but they are so expensive, maybe its just me. Thank you for reading :)

Whilst I'm not saying don't eat a balanced diet, calories is all that really matters for weight. The actual foods you eat may be OK, but if you excessively eat anything you'll gain weight. So basically, know what you're eating and it might help to plan in advance what you meals are. I typically plan 4 days of meals for every shop I do which not only gets me thinking about what good ideas for meals are, but also saves me money as I make sure to use up all I buy as much as I can. Obviously exercise helps a bit too, but you can't out exercise a bad diet as some people like to say.

As far as actually eating healthy, I would say don't bother with Weight Watchers and Slimming World or any of that as I'm pretty sure it basically puts calories in to points. You can find a lot of subreddits (reddit.com) which are focused on losing weight, diet and food in general if you're really struggling.

i use myfitnesspal its an app where you can add what you eat and your exercise and it will tell how many calories you use kinda find it helpful because it made me realise how much i eat and realise that i eat loads. according to my sister a good way to lose weight well fat is to build muscle as it muscle uses more energy so my mum started doing more weight training and in about a year shes gone from a size 20 to 14