I Think I’m Accidentally Body Recompositioning

To begin with: hats off! At your age, I resigned myself to being obese instead of engaging in anything other than spasmodic short term attempts at getting some random "exercise" or weight loss in.

You are entering this with a commitment to progressing over a year or two... which is approximately 21 to 22 months more than anything I had the foresight to consider at your age!

So don't be a me who resigns to being obese and out of shape till you wake up at 48+

Now. Some things for you to consider: even what you're doing now is yielding results: your clothes are fitting better. And I bet you already feel stronger too.

But let's move on and consider: Optimum direction of effort, Big bang for your bucks, Pacing, and least and last... motivation.

You're talking about losing weight (70lbs). But you're mostly describing (and based on the observation that people talk the most about what they consider to be most important) you're putting most of your effort... into exercising.

Exercising is very important. And I will come back to it. But weight management is purely a numbers game. Truly. The numbers have many "gotchas" and potential issues. And the approach to hitting them is far from easy and is also full of issues and "gotchas". BUT. Longer term. Your weight 100% changes on the actual effective balance of Calories In vs Calories Out as counted by your body!

You mention staying in a deficit and focusing on protein. But in trying to lose 70lbs (actually a bit more than that) but in trying to lose a lot of weight my own paragraph regarding what I was doing re my caloric balance would be the 60+ words you used to describe your exercise. And my discussion re my exercise would be the 12 words you used to describe your eating!

Exercise is independently good. Exercise does increase calories out MAYBE. Certainly while exercising you burn more calories. But there may also be a compensatory reduction in calories out during the rest of the day because you're now a bit more tired which would decrease the net effect. NOT saying exercise bad. To the contrary. But trying to lose 70+lbs on exercise is a hard path to follow!

That said. with 70lbs to lose and a real deficit in the 250 to 500 Cal range (0.5 to 1lb a week range)... after three months you should have noticed some movement to your scale.

It may help you a lot to plug your numbers into happy scale (iphone) or libra (android) or trendweight or weightgrapher or similar, or into a spreadsheet that considers weight as a moving average.

Now. Your exercise. I will let others comment more. But to me it sounds a bit fragmented.

I am not sure how much time you're actually spending on all this over your 5 to 6 days a week. There may be ways to design a program that maximizes the benefits you get out of your gym time investment. I don't know if you had help in getting your current program designed... and I do not know enough to tell you if it sounds right other that it sounds a bit... unfocused to me!

Long term you have to be doing things that you believe you have the time and inclination to keep on doing. i.e. you should be looking for ways to lose weight and to exercise that you will keep doing afterwards when you're trying to maintain the new body you've created. Which is why I "freeze" when I see someone talking about needing to be motivated to do what they're doing now. If you need motivation it doesn't quite sound as if you've found your long term solution yet.

Do consider that many people don't actually need to go to a gym to get some basic level of cardio in. Even moderate things such as walking (especially if you're carrying your groceries!) can be "elevated" into basic cardio. And then there are clubs, groups, activities, a lot of stuff that is physical that can be done both in and out of the gym. It ALL counts. Some, of course, more so than other.

Anyway. To your "burning" question: it does sound like you may still be eating a few too many calories to notice the consistent weight loss you seem to be looking for.

Given your age and the fact that way too many people try too much, burn out, give up and enter into a negative cycle, I really do like the fact that you appear to be taking a longer term view and are willing to go at it with a slower pace approach.

But still a 0.5 to 1lb per week of body weight reduction would have you losing a good 6.5 to 13lbs over the three months. And if you're not hitting that level of weight trend change you do need to look into your caloric intake and whether you can reduce your count of calories in while still getting nutrition and satiation. Everything you eat or drink counts.

I hope to see you many posts and your successes over the next few years!

Cheers!