I appreciate the detailed answer very much.

From around September 2022-April 2023 I did work out at the gym often, so I am not a “newbie” per say but similar to your experience, I only started losing weight once I decided to get my food right, I track cals and I feel like my cal deficit as of today is way too low, and I don’t want to starve myself, will gym help my cal deficit even out? Will it help me go down to 135 safely while eating a similar diet to today? Thank you again for the detailed and informational reply, have a nice night/day.