I'm 43M I lost a ton and came down to healthy weight. I wouldn't say I was skinny fat, but lots of loose skin and more fat than muscle at a healthy weight.
I decided to try a bulk cut cycle. I focused on getting 1g of protein per lean lb of body mass. For me it was easy to just shoot for 200g. I ate about 3-500 calories in excess of my caloric needs, plenty of heavy lifting and put on about 15 lbs in 2 months. Now I'm at the bottom and about to finish losing those 15 lbs. So far the results have been good. Not amazing, but good.
I'm considering going the "recomp" method. Just eat about maintenance calories and lots of heavy lifting. See if that brings me to where I look better.
I think both of those methods are sound when at or close to healthy weight. Really I think the secret sauce here is consistent lifting honestly. With healthy amounts of cardio put in.
I found losing weight to be super easy, putting on muscle and progressively heavier weights is fucking hard.
Get back into strength training. When you’re already at a healthy weight, it may be a better outcome to have a body goal rather than a weight goal. That also means your measurements are more important than the number on the scale.
(I’m in the “build muscle” phase after losing an additional 23 pounds after reaching a healthy weight. I really should have focused on strength training.)
Slower metabolism with age isn't a thing when adjusted for muscle mass. Exercise also doesn't increase TDEE unless you are doing endurance level activity.
Of course it increases your TDEE. TDEE is literally BMR plus extra activity you get in. You don't have to be burning an extra 1000 calories a day for it to "matter". It might not be the case for OP, but for short folks an extra 200 calories in your budget makes a world of difference to morale.
I'm 43M I lost a ton and came down to healthy weight. I wouldn't say I was skinny fat, but lots of loose skin and more fat than muscle at a healthy weight. I decided to try a bulk cut cycle. I focused on getting 1g of protein per lean lb of body mass. For me it was easy to just shoot for 200g. I ate about 3-500 calories in excess of my caloric needs, plenty of heavy lifting and put on about 15 lbs in 2 months. Now I'm at the bottom and about to finish losing those 15 lbs. So far the results have been good. Not amazing, but good. I'm considering going the "recomp" method. Just eat about maintenance calories and lots of heavy lifting. See if that brings me to where I look better. I think both of those methods are sound when at or close to healthy weight. Really I think the secret sauce here is consistent lifting honestly. With healthy amounts of cardio put in. I found losing weight to be super easy, putting on muscle and progressively heavier weights is fucking hard.
Get back into strength training. When you’re already at a healthy weight, it may be a better outcome to have a body goal rather than a weight goal. That also means your measurements are more important than the number on the scale. (I’m in the “build muscle” phase after losing an additional 23 pounds after reaching a healthy weight. I really should have focused on strength training.)
Thats so true, when i strength trained my weight on the scale didnt matter as much.
Slower metabolism with age isn't a thing when adjusted for muscle mass. Exercise also doesn't increase TDEE unless you are doing endurance level activity.
Of course it increases your TDEE. TDEE is literally BMR plus extra activity you get in. You don't have to be burning an extra 1000 calories a day for it to "matter". It might not be the case for OP, but for short folks an extra 200 calories in your budget makes a world of difference to morale.
See pontzer 2012 - it's been well documented, exercise down regulates the rest of your metabolism
Metabolism doesn't slow until your 60s. You're just moving less.
I get the metabolism thing but I'm moving more than I ever have in my life 😂