Too fat to recomp?

There really isn't a "too fat to recomp", it's actually easier when you have plentiful energy reserves.

The reason people say that recomp "should" be done at or close to, their goal weight is that most people have aesthetic goals that include visible muscle definition and having higher body fat levels stops that showing.
e.g. if I recomp at 20% body fat I would need to use tape measurements not the mirror to track progress, at 15% every small increase in muscle/reduction in fat shows - more definition, vascularity, separation.

I hope you will continue to train whatever you do with your weight but as regards losing weight you have every option open to you from a diet break at maintenance for a while if you are tired of dieting (or forever if you are truly happy at your current weight), recomp with a very small deficit, lose weight faster but with the probability that gaining significant mounts of muscle gets harder the bigger and longer the deficit.

Yes of course gaining muscle and losing fat will help you progress towards the look you seem to want but at higher BF% it's just a lot more subtle and takes a long time to actually see changes. If looks are what drives you then the saying that "if you want to look like you have gained 10lbs of muscle then lose 10lbs of fat" holds very true.

@springlering62: Wow! I've seen you before of course, but that contrast is striking. You look like a healthy fit gym lady in photo 1, and an athlete 20 years younger in photo 2. Amazing!

OP, endorsing springlering62, I think there is no "too fat to recomp". There is only (potentially) "still too much fat to allow the recomped goodness to show". I accidentally recomped while obese (i.e., much heavier than you), losing a couple of pants sizes, but staying at obese BMI. I don't have a good "before recomp" picture, but it would be underwhelming: Fat before, fat after - maybe just slightly mooshier looking before. Getting close to a decade later, staying very active that whole time, I lost a bunch of the fat. It turned out that there were some kinda cute li'l ol' lady muscles hiding underneath. I'd pretty much guarantee there was no meaningful change in muscle mass (positive or negative) during the fat loss.

Sadly, I didn't get the anti-aging facial effects that springlering62 did (maybe I need more Pilates/yoga? 😉), but that change (obese post-recomp, thinner a year-ish later) looked like this:



That's mid-180s (at 5'5", so BMI 30 point something), to lower 120s (BMI 20 point something). ( Weight loss probably started with BF% somewhere in the 30-40% range, as a wild guess, maybe ended in lower 20s percent? (After photo is age 60, I'm 65 now.)

If you want to *be* muscular, lift**. If you want to *look* muscular, lift . . . and decide whether you need to lose a bit more overlying fat in order for the muscle to show as you like. Any order can work (though with your goals, like others I'd urge slower loss, plenty of lifting/protein/overall nutrition, if you go with choosing some loss up front - sounds like you're heading in that general direction). I didn't lose weight with the goal of looking more muscular; it was just a side effect. If I cared about appearance, I'd lift more. 😉

** Lifting is not what I mostly did to gain muscle, but lifting is the most efficient way for sure.

@AnnPT77 rows. As in rowing on water. In boats that move. Quickly. Don’t be fooled by her Internet Auntie wiles. She’s moving plenty of weight, just horizontally and generally the splashy variety.

She is absolutely dead on about this, though:

...there were some kinda cute li'l ol' lady muscles hiding underneath...

When some of the fat finally started to dissipate, there they were. I was as surprised as she seems to have been.

I hope you’ll try something you wind up loving as much as we do and come back and share for others!