This time last year September 2025 I was 249 pounds. Now I am 215 pounds. I lost 35 plus pounds of fat in a year and I’ve added tons of muscle. Even though the scale is lower, I am not just a skinnier version of myself. Adding muscle through weight training has increased my baseline metabolic rate, improved my mood, and the muscle gives me shape. Only the last 3 months have I added cardio into my training. I walk at zone 2 heart rate on the treadmill after my lifts. For a 43 year old that is 106 to 124 bpm. I don’t exhaust myself running sprints, Hyrox, group fitness, or HIIT workouts. I don’t beat myself up at all. The walking at zone 2 is at a conversation pace. It’s easy.I am able to recover faster from zone 2 cardio than beating myself up and torture my body through those crazy sprints and workouts people do. Main thing that has helped me is doing cardio and lift sessions that don’t beat me up. Since I am not a bodybuilder I don’t take my sets to failure. On my last 3rd set of an exercise I will stop until I have about 2 to 3 reps left until failure (but I don’t go to failure). I lift this way so my sessions don’t beat me up. I still give my muscles reason to grow since I am consistent at the gym 4 times a week. Since I don’t beat my body up I can recover faster meaning I will be able to go to the gym the next day and crush it again. I can do this on repeat.

First line treatment - Aim for 30 minutes, five to seven days a week. I prefer strength training, but also need to mix with cardio and flexibility. Also really hard until you develop a routine.