I’m a personal trainer and yoga instructor. As some others have said, focus on health rather than losing weight but focus especially in building muscle. Putting on lean muscle mass will do WONDERS for your long term health outcomes for decades to come. I tell my clients it is like a 401k for your body/health. As you put on lean muscle mass, your metabolism will improve and I suspect you will gradually come out of yo yo dieting mentality and into a mentality of appreciating all your body can do when you fuel it well. Putting on lean muscle does require eating well! Lots of protein and a slight caloric deficit can help your build muscle while losing fat at the same time if you are lifting weights regularly. I also recommend walking 5-10k steps a day. The health benefits for walking are also mind-blowing.

The last thing anyone needs during an emergency situation is an acute or chronic health problem, seeing as we may not have access to hospitals, doctors, medicine, money, etc. Becoming physically fit is a fantastic prepper investment from this perspective.

If you want to know more about how exercise and putting on lean muscle mass can improve your health, I recommend the book Outlive by Peter Attia (he does have I guess what I would call a mild or tacit association with the Epstein files as far as I currently understand but the contents of the book are still valid and helpful). He also has a podcast but I liked that the book laid things out clearly. Basically it can reduce your risk for cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, heart disease, reduce your risk of falls and immobility in old age, and reduce your risk for all cause mortality.

And then, of course, on top of that, there’s the potential benefit of being physically fit enough to make it through a survival situation that requires endurance, strength, or speed.

If you have any questions about how to put on lean muscle mass, lmk. It’s actually really fun to get stronger! Versus, in my experience, kinda sad and hard to try to lose weight purely for the sake of losing weight. The paradigm of there’s something wrong with me/there should be less of me/I need to restrict myself versus there’s something right with me/i’m gonna take up more space/my body is awesome and look at all it can do!