I have almost always been pretty reasonable on diet and fitness. The only time I wanted to lose some weight , which had gradually accumulated over 25 years and then increased a little more dramatically than ever in a brief time , it came off very fast. I went form 218 to 185 in a matter of about 3 months but I was pretty fit underneath from the start and I am 6’5″.

If you are not fit underneath the flab you should be more patient while you build a better diet routine. I do think you can do it with just diet ,like some have mentioned, but exercise helps deal with aging in lots of ways.

Exercise gently and if you have any intention of going harder do it very gradually, over a year or more, not months. Connective tissue take a lot longer to get injury proof than muscles do. Cardio comes along pretty fast so it’s easier to work harder than what the body can really deal with from and injury point and with becoming fatigued in general, like Brian mentioned.

I do a lot of different type exercises, cardio 4 or 5 times a week, weights or body weight routines two or three time a week and I work out pretty hard. If I washed 3 cars I might call that an exercise day though. I keep a log. Usually 45 min to 1 hour ,but I run or bike longer than that sometimes. I take days off if I need to turn away from fatigue, or just because. I take a month or so off once a year.

I bought treadmill sometime last year. I really like it, use the elliptical sometimes but it’s my least favorite.. I do backwards running and walking on steep incline and side stepping and soccer/bask ball type drills on the treadmill besides normal running. It is making me pretty fit.