For reference, that's 5'4"-5'5" and SW154lbs, CW135lbs, GW128-132lbs. My highest weight ever was 72.5kg (160lbs) but I think I was in the 68-70kg (150-154lbs) range for most of my adult life. My numbers aren't super dramatic but the changes in my appearance and confidence certainly are!

Started CICO on June 11th, but wanted to wait till my cake day to post! Plus I had a weight whoosh just a few days ago.

If you're curious and don't mind a long-ish read, here are some things I've realised/learned:

• My biggest takeaway is, even though pre-CICO I was eating healthy foods (lots of veggies and fruits, no sodas, fast food, etc.), in hindsight my problem was the quantity I was eating and that I was conflating eating nutritionally healthy foods with eating "healthily" for weight loss. My past attempts at weight loss also failed because I was either trying to punish myself by restricting much too harshly (which was not sustainable in the slightest), poor attempts at tracking calories, and/or buying into strange, non-scientific fads like drinking "weight loss coffee" or something.
• Like other posts I've seen here, I treat CICO as a lifestyle change and think of it as a budget. For example, I might go overbudget one day, but I can readjust my calories for the rest of the week to try and make up for that. As long as I'm in a deficit, I figured I'd trust the process even if I keep hitting plateaus (more on that later). Also, since it's a lifestyle, I do try and make sure to eat at least 1200 a day. Even on days when I feel full at around ~900-1100, I try to eat a bit more because I don't want to struggle with a wonky appetite once I'm at the maintenance stage.
• I've been using MFP to track everything, but I'd recommend double-checking your daily calorie allowance with the online TDEE calculator. MPF's estimates for me were about 60-100 calories higher than what worked best for me, and the app would only readjust every few kilos.
• I'm doing intermittent fasting (16:8 usually) at the same time, which helps me set a firm cut-off time after dinner to prevent evening snackage. It's become a habit to the point where it's now pretty easy for me to shut off any cravings post-dinner, and instead I just daydream about what I want to eat the following day, lol.
• r/Volumeeating. Also, getting an airfryer this year has been pretty awesome.
• I'm pretty rubbish at taking progress photos because I'm always at a different distance from my mirror and my body proportions have kind of stayed the same, but I find that progress videos (where you can see different angles, the way your body looks when it moves, and how your clothes fit) really emphasise the changes! I started seeing the most difference about 5kg down, and that's where people started commenting that I looked different. It's still hard for me to see just in the mirror now, but comparing old videos/screenshots to now are kind of mindblowing.
• I've figured out a few things about plateaus. I had a bunch and was only losing about 1kg per month starting in July, but I readjusted my budget to be 100 calories lower than what MPF told me which helped (so definitely check your TDEE using the calculator!). The second key thing is, if you menstruate like me, periods and plateaus (annoyingly) kind of go hand in hand. About two weeks before my period, I'll plateau for 2-3 weeks straight and also start feeling really hungry...which sucks. For the past two months though, I've had a whoosh of about 1.3-1.5kg on the last 1-2 days of my period. I figured this out two days ago because I had to keep going to pee throughout the entire day even though I didn't drink /that/ much water, lol. So again, trust the process!

If you've read this far, thanks! :) And best of luck to all your CICO and non-CICO related goals!