I am single no local family, I do have a dog
. When I retired in Feb 2016 I was at 270 lbs over the next 8 months i dropped 60 lbs. I attribute it to mostly riding my bikes and less to cutting back the eating and drinking. 2017 and 2018 where complete disasters for me, I went back up to 240. Since the end of Feb this year i am back down to 220 lbs. This time it is more diet than riding. I do ride 4-5 times per week but the intensity is not as hard as it was in 2016.
I cut my meals in half and started keeping a rough track of calories. I rarely eat out and very few processed foods. A lot of fruit and veg, grilled meats. Half a sandwich, one slice of bread, for lunch instead of 2 slices. One thing that made me very happy recently was I found a couple of non-alcoholic IPAs that are not bad. I remember trying NA beer a while back and it tasted pretty bad.
I read some of the "Biggest Loser" cook books and they recommend you limit your calories per day to 7x your weight, and yes as you get lighter the amount goes down as they claim it is harder to lose weight the lighter you are.
If you don't cook your own meals and eat out a lot it will probably a lot harder than what I have experienced. I do have days where I get hungry.
If for no other reason lose the weight so your thighs don't hit your stomach when riding in the drops
Good Luck.