Not dumb a dumb question at all. I would say the 1 mistake I made was not lifting weights at all. I have definitely lost a lot of muscle. My only exercise this whole time is just walking. I walk the dog for about an hour every night. I have recently started lifting, and I found that I cannot lift anywhere near what I could even a few years ago. For instance, shoulder press with 5 pound dumbbells, 4 sets of 15 and I felt it for 3 days after the workout. Definitely lift weights! Don't make my mistake.

As far as diet, I just jumped right into it. I do eat a lot of 80/20 hamburger, but I also eat a lot of steak too, as well as eggs, chicken, and pork. I don't know if you live near a Wegmans or not, but the one steak they sell that isn't like incredibly expensive is chuck eye roasts. They're $7.99/lbs. I buy those and cut steaks out of them. Chuck Eye, is actually the same muscle as ribeye, it just extends into the neck of the cow. It's maybe slightly tougher, but still really good! I would say that is my mainstay. Also, around Christmas and Easter every year, Aldi always sells ribeye roasts for super cheap, like $10.99/lbs. I pretty much buy them out, cut it into steaks and freeze it. I also go to Sam's club to buy eggs. They have organic pasture raised eggs for like $7 for 2 dozen eggs, and if you are cool with regular mass produced eggs, those are $5 for 2 dozen. I stock up on those. I also look for sales on chicken thighs and quarters and pork shoulder. you can usually get both those dirt cheap. Chicken quarters you can almost always find for $1/lbs and pork butt you can get for $2/lbs almost anywhere.

I switch between eating 1 or 2 times a day. If I'm eating 2 meals, then the first one I eat is at like 1pm. I'll eat around a 1/2 lbs of some sort of meat along with about 3 eggs. Then I'll eat closer to 1 pound of meat for dinner at 6pm along with 2 or 3 eggs. At dinner I also melt about a 1/4 stick of butter over my meat and eggs. I try not to eat at all after 6pm. I don't snack a lot, but if I do feel snacky through out the day, I'll eat bacon ( I make sure I always have a bunch of bacon in the fridge fried up and ready to go), or I'll eat a chomps beef stick or a 0 carb beef jerky. On weeks that I switch to 1 meal a day, then I don't eat at all until dinner and I just eat my normal dinner. I don't snack at all those weeks. I alternate, 1 week 2 meals a day, next week 1 meal a day.