Back in the Saddle

I am 28 and have been out of the gym for about 4 years. I’m 5’7", weigh 235, at 27% bf (classic endomorph). I’ve been back in the gym for several weeks now, basically working out everything every time at medium weight and doing cardio before and after. I’ve also been reforming my eating habits. I was eating Lunch and a big Dinner and that was it. Since I’ve started working out again, I’ve dropped soft drinks entirely, drinking water all day long. I’ve started eating 3 small meals + 3 small snacks (apples, shakes, pineapple, etc) during the day day. I’m estimating my caloric intake at about 2000 calories a day. Things seem to be progressing along nicely. In a few more weeks, I think I’ll have my metabolism ramped up and be ready to step things up to the next level.

Given that info, what do you recommend I do to maintain my current weight, while getting my body fat % down to something reasonable?

bro, you’re carrying around 64 pounds of fat. there’s no way you will stay at your current weight and get lean. concentrate on losing the fat for now, then you can worry about bulking up.

… agrees strongly with Diesel. You wont lose more than a few pounds of fat while maintaining weight (ie building muscle) and the sooner you get on a serious diet the sooner you will be in shape (health and looking good nekkid wise). Its your choice but here are my views - sorry but the fact it will take a long time for you to get into shape so make the mental commitment soon cause 1-2 pounds per week is the maximum fat you want to lose if you are at all interested in keeping muscle. Read the “diet manifesto” and the dont diet posts here, stick to low GI carb at all costs (maybe 1 piece of fruit a day) and try to have at least 1-2 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight and good fat (eg flax) 15% of total cals each day.

Okay, so I’ll shift the focus for now to all out fat loss. What do you think would be a good target weight / bf% to shoot for?