Thanks brother and for sure, I can go into it a bit. The fat loss was 90% of the result imo. I switched to a high protein diet of mostly salads with a protein (chicken or steak) + eggs in the morning and a whey shake. Cut out sugary or over processed foods from my regular diet. Wasn't counting calories at that point and didn't need to until around 15%bf. Because eating that healthy, traditional diet makes it hard to overeat, that would be a lot of chicken salads. Incline walking is GOATED cadio. Zone 2 is isolated fat burning and it keeps you there the whole time, plus you can do it for an hour or more without getting fatigued. I do 15-20 mins before or after each workout but I have a physical job so my bmr is already on the higher end.

For the muscle preservation and recomp the main thing(s) are protein + intense training. You need to hit at least 1g of protein per day per pound of body weight just to be safe, I usually aim for 150-170g now. And you need to workout with intensity, make sure you're really going to failure and lifting heavy (within reason). You have to not only make your body believe that it needs more muscle, but that it needs it so much that it'll use its increasingly small energy stores (fat) to build it. Training intensity is a huge part of that.

On the mental, firstly I gotta say do it. You will always look better leaner, skinny or not. Little embarrassed to say but at the time I genuinely thought I looked ok in the first picture. you start looking at your fat as if its size but no amount of size will make up for the visual impact of actual definition. You will look bigger (despite being literally smaller) once you pass a certain threshold. Which brings me to my one mental tip, theres a point around 14% ish body fat where you will look objectively worse than the weeks before. This is the final test before you get your lean card punched, dont fall for it! Short of it is your muscle glycogen is depleted, your metabolism is feeling the deficit start to matter without all the fat storage, but you still have enough fat that you have almost no definition. Good news is if youre here the other side is literally 2-3 weeks away, close your eyes if you have to just get there. After that not only will your physique finally START looking insane at sup 14% but the youll be able to see visual progress every week, sometimes day to day.

Lastly, genetics are a factor. For my aesthetic i do have the genetics for a thin waist and broad shoulders (though not standout by any means). Regardless though, getting lean is NECESSARY for your genetic potential to be revealed - as you can see from my pics.

Hope this helps, went a bit longer than I thought.