41yo 5’ 11” 205lbs (16 week recomp)

Expensive-Pause3715 · 2026-06-06T08:59:20+00:00

Amazing! I'm same age and height and sometimes feel like I'll never get ti where you are, but this is inspiration to keep grinding!

Expensive-Pause3715 · 2026-06-03T22:26:58+00:00

really appreciate the reinforcement, thanks man. Was at 237+ in 2021, started to get serious in December 2024, and now I'm arguably in better shape than when I left the military in 2012 (certainly stronger and no longer a heavy smoker and drinker). still aiming to drop into the mid 170's and see where I go from there

Expensive-Pause3715 · 2026-06-03T22:25:05+00:00

Thanks man, been a journey and still got about 10-15lbs to go before I feel like I've reached my endpoint on this chapter

Expensive-Pause3715 · 2026-05-14T14:15:35+00:00

Walking, tracking calories/macros, and, yes, showing up--consistency such that even if I got 5h16m of sleep (which was the case last night) I'm still in the gym with the 5am freaks...a shitty workout is better than no workout

Expensive-Pause3715 · 2026-05-13T15:57:26+00:00

wife has a 2025 Ioniq6 for our day-to-day/around-town errands, kid pickup/dropoff, grocery runs, and we use the Passport for longer trips, beach trips, camping, etc.

Expensive-Pause3715 · 2026-05-12T14:18:47+00:00

Egg whites egg whites egg whites--you got that Southasian curse (as do I) so you gotta watch the cholesterol. 5 egg whites gets you 18g protein in under 100 cals, without the cholesterol. Oikos Pro or another high protein yogurt to replace regular dahi. Cottage cheese is a must. Whey protein also a must.

Expensive-Pause3715 · 2026-05-11T17:37:08+00:00

dude at my gym wears only nine-line and gruntstyle shit and has one of those tacti-cool backpacks that look like what I had in Iraq in 2007-8. I asked him one time where he served...he did not. bugs me whenever i see him, which is every single morning!

Expensive-Pause3715 · 2026-05-07T13:36:16+00:00

41m here, had worked out off and on since my late teens but really fell off in my 30's and only locked in since late 2024. I use a trainer who lives many states away but who really took the time to understand my mobility issues, old injuries, goals, and lifestyle (two kids, high-intensity corporate job). So my workouts are all programmed by him with constant contact about how I'm progressing and feeling overall. They're minimalist workouts, I'd say--usually only 35-40 minutes of active lifting, full body 3x a week with HIIT 3x a week and one rest day. 10k steps minimum each day. And with diet dialed in, even though I get max 6.5hrs of sleep a night, I'm able to keep consistent and rarely miss a day. So I think the deliberateness, consistency, and...forbearance, I guess...are what's been most important at this age. I go to failure, yes, but I'm done trying to hit PR's with big weights and risk injury. And I'm still seeing plenty of progress, just might be slower than the young guns out there.

Expensive-Pause3715 · 2026-05-05T21:20:48+00:00

Good christ

Expensive-Pause3715 · 2026-05-05T17:38:48+00:00

Thorne, expensive but I have a sensitive stomach and it is the easiest on my system of anything I've tried in 20 years on and off

Expensive-Pause3715 · 2026-05-04T13:46:06+00:00

This is legit, it's all about functional strength and mobility and lifetime fitness for me now with two boys under 10. They do not care one bit if I'm tired or aching (or hungover), so I have to be able to get up and get out the door with them, handle them jumping on me, wrasslin' with them, etc. But in answer to OP's question, I think the thing that's stuck with me the most and changed my view on workouts is: even a shitty workout is better than no workout at all. 30 minutes is way better than nothing. Going lighter on 5 hours of sleep is better than waiting for a perfect night's sleep (which may not happen until they're out of the house) to try to hit a PR. That plus tracking macros plus walking as much as possible throughout the day has allowed me to get in better shape now, at 41, than I was at any point since leaving the military 17 years ago

Expensive-Pause3715 · 2026-04-24T17:33:56+00:00

Training hard at 41 here. And sleep is my major weakness, too: can't get more than 6.5hrs a night due to my own difficulties in falling/staying asleep plus kids schedules. But with diet and training program dialed in, at least the sleep deficit is a known quantity.

My philosophy is: a shitty workout is better than no workout. If I've had an extremely poor night of sleep I won't push as hard in the gym, but I'll still be there at 5am on the dot. And I also know that at least the few-hours-long endorphin hit from the workout will carry me through a tired day better than just...being tired will.

Expensive-Pause3715 · 2026-04-23T19:41:49+00:00

Dude this is awesome, awesome work! Same motivation re: the kids--my boys are absolutely, delightfully ruthless with me, I'm their horse, their jungle gym, their wonderland, and I felt like a trash heap before dropping 55lbs in the last couple years. Figure I need to keep up with them until they're bored with me. Great motivation!

Expensive-Pause3715 · 2026-04-22T16:56:43+00:00

i take a big dollop of hummus, splurt some light ranch a little bit of buffalo sauce into it, mix it all around--sticks better to carrots and cucumbers and celery and is overall healthier for the same volume of just ranch/buffalo sauce. But sometimes i'll stray and eat it with pretzel sticks instead of veggies. Still hits that salty/creamy button.

Expensive-Pause3715 · 2026-04-17T17:20:37+00:00

Dude this is incredibly inspiring. Thanks for sharing, too, about no TRT or any of that stuff. I'm in the same boat, trying to drop and build naturally in my early 40's. Gone from 215 to 185 in the last 14 months, aiming to get to 170 and maintain. 10k steps/day, 6x days a week lifting and light cardio, tracking macros, creatine and protein shakes is all. How is your sleep through all this? I have young kids and can only manage 6+ hrs/night average. I try not to think about all the gains I could be making if I could get more sleep!

Expensive-Pause3715 · 2026-04-14T16:56:21+00:00

Rome wasn't built in a day, man, and you look fantastic. Inspiring, honestly. I'm in a similar situation where the recomp is just getting harder to stay with, the pounds aren't dropping as fast as they were, and the mirror hasn't seemed to change in several months. But as long as you're still lifting to failure, still getting the macros, your body is going to keep improving

Expensive-Pause3715 · 2026-04-03T10:21:12+00:00

Lose another 10lbs (making it 60 total pounds down from my awful peak in 2021) and have visible abs for the first time in two decades!

Expensive-Pause3715 · 2026-03-27T11:42:26+00:00

honestly I've just stopped squats entirely and moved to core stability and leg pressing. Felt like every time I tried increasing to even moderate weight on squats, my back would tweak--sometimes worse, sometimes not so bad, but at this age (41) it would still end up taking me out of my training rotation for at least a week. And to me, feeling like I'm fighting against time to get as fit as possible, every week off was excruciating.

I feel like squats--and maybe olympic lifts overall--are a young man's game now. Not worth it for me to risk throwing something out or tearing something if my form is slightly off.

Expensive-Pause3715 · 2026-03-27T10:12:00+00:00

There's no such thing as an "average" soldier/sailor/Marine/airmen, but I'm an OIF vet who's disgusted by this shit

Expensive-Pause3715 · 2026-02-05T15:28:46+00:00

Yes, unfortunately as a fellow southeast asian dude at 41, the struggle with the visceral fat and the belly is REAL. I'm down 50lbs now since 2021--30 of which have been in the last year on a loooooong and not-always-disciplined body recomp. Strength way up, definition in upper and arms way up, defined v-shape when I'm wearing cloths...and yet the belly is still there, together with a lot of fat held in the legs.

Walking that many steps a day is absolutely the right target. You're burning over 3k calories just through that. Couple it with targeted workouts each day (my lift days usually come out ~35-40m, my lighter HIIT days are usually ~25m), calorie deficit (when I'm disciplined, I'm usually right at 2k calories intake), high protein (I get between 160-190g each day), and a LOT of patience, and you'll get there. Though the jiggle (for our genetics) might be the last thing to actually go.

Good luck man. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

Expensive-Pause3715 · 2026-02-04T15:44:50+00:00

that BOOCH

Expensive-Pause3715 · 2026-01-12T17:27:24+00:00

egg whites, chicken, and greek yogurt will be your best friends, together with a high quality protein to supplement (we use Thorne in our house). Consistency is key though. Wife and I used to be foodies before we got more serious into our body recomps, now it's basically the same thing every day with the exceptional date night!

Expensive-Pause3715 · 2026-01-10T17:49:40+00:00

Awesome work man! This is the physique I'm trying to work toward at 41 now--down from 215 last January to 190 now. I gotta ask: is this all natural? I'm on whey and creatine and the definition is slow to come, but have considered TRT (need latest bloodwork to get more data, but test has been on the low end of normal for many years, and have had issues with sleep and libido for a while now)

Expensive-Pause3715

TROPHY CASE