Theres going to be a lot of rambling here, since I don't know what is important. I have a TL;DR at the bottom, for those in a rush. I am not a fitness buff. Actually... I hate every aspect about it. I love eating food that taste great, and a lot of it. Working out is about the most boring, repetitious, mind numbing activity I can think of. I feel like a minimum wage factory line assembly worker, but my body is the product.
When I was younger, I was blessed with a drive for an active lifestyle, and probably some decent genes. I remember getting recruited for the power lifting team (which I hated) wrestling, football, all of it non-stop because I was at least in the top 5 of my class, athletically speaking. I enjoyed the sports I wanted to play, but was more interested in Music and my other... More nerdy hobbies.
I was a decently buff, 8 packed nerd. When it came time to join the Air Force, my lazy recruiter didn't want to do the paperwork required to get me tape tested and waivered because I was 20 lbs over my height/weight limit to join... With 8% body fat. Parents were awesome, got me a gym membership, and it took me 10 minutes to finally convince the physical trainer why I needed to lose weight.
Ten years later, the story is different. No height/weight requirement needed while in the air force, just a tape teat, run, pushups and sit ups. So after joining the air force, I stopped nearly all physical training, and was able to ride the residual effects of my previously active childhood/young adulthood for about 5 years when my tape test started to get close to busting. My body style still has some residual effects. I'm very stocky, larger chest, shoulders, and a neck the exact same size as my head. Though that last one is probably genetics. I've always had that, as well as my dad and brother.
Advance to today. I'm watching my diet again, working out again, and having results. 2 years ago, I weighed 225. A year ago I started taking fitness seriously at 215-220 lbs. Today, my scale bounces on 200 lbs. But my question comes to this. I'm not AS concerned with weight loss as I am with trimming up. My body style is kind of between Mesomorph and Endomorph. I'll always be bulky and always was. So I assume I'll get back to that, god willing.
At what point should I no longer care about my actual weight, and focus (at least mentally) on muscle build? This is more of a motivation question. Falling below 200 lbs has been a huge driving force for me to stay motivated. My long term motivation with fitness is to increase my stamina, and be aesthetically pleasing. But for now, I need more immediate goals. That carrot at the end of the stick, if you will.
I know I have a ways to go. Still a bit of a tire around my gut when I squeeze it, and my abs still yet to show themselves, other than when I purposefully flex. But I am starting to get great compliments. People saying that I'm thinning up, comments about my waist, ect. But I know my plateau is coming, and weight gain, due to muscle mass is a year or two away unless I really turn the afterburners on. But I don't know how to define that switch, and what to make as a goal to keep me motivated every morning.
Some considerations: I travel A LOT for work. Spending 2 months at a time away from home, and during these trips, I have no access to BMI machines or other high techy things to help me track my progress. All my goals need to be tracked with stuff I can pack in a single suitcase. I'm 5'8", currently 200 lbs. When I joined the air force, I squeezed through the hight and weight requirement at just under 180lbs with, what I remembered, my physical trainer saying was a very low body fat that he was starting to get concerned. Wish I remembered the % number, but it wasn't my focus then... I just needed to weigh less than 180 lbs.
And the last time I used one of those machines, I weighed 217, and I think my % was around 20? I'm excited to get home and use it again to get my updated numbers.
Sorry if you feel this isn't a question for this sub, but I think it's an important step to consider in weight loss. When should weight loss no longer be the primary goal?
TL;DR: considering my long term goal is to have better stamina, and generally aesthetically pleasing, at what point should I move on from this subreddit into a different subreddit based on muscle gain? What short and midterm goals can I set for myself when weight loss is no longer a primary focus?
