My end goal is to keep going at least 2x a week until the end of May, then we'll see how I feel about the results and if it's worth it to keep going.
Based on what I've read, +20lbs of muscle is possible in the 1st serious workout year w/ Creatine supplements.
~10lbs is more likely without supplements.
After just 2 months I can see clear gains on muscle groups that otherwise see no use, so it's already paying off in terms of that. Plus I've recently been able to go from brisk walking on the treadmill to actual running, so something is affecting my body positively. I want abs the most, but floor exercises are my absolute least favorite type of exercise so I guess abs will always be a dream.
It happens, but it happens slowly. Real slowly.
I've been going through this for the past 3-4 years. To lose weight, you *must* track what you eat and eat a lot less than you think (Idk your stats, but likely under 2000 Calories/day). You get 100% of your calories through eating and expend only 10% through exercise (the other 90% are expended by normal bodily functions you can't change), so exercise alone will never work unless you naturally have no appetite, in which case you probably wouldn't be trying to lose weight anyway.
Also, you have to pick either losing weight or building muscle as a goal. If you're on a caloric deficit, muscle is very unlikely to grow because you don't have spare nutritional resources, and you won't have the energy to push yourself as hard as you need to in workouts. That said, you can still gain some strength through neurological adaptation (nervous system efficiency and motor unit recruitment). I'm not trying to kill your motivation; I just don't want you to fail because you set conflicting goals. Caveat: There are a lot of if's, and's, and but's in fitness and nutrition; however, the effects of these things are usually negligible or require extreme diligence to work, so what I'm saying may not be technically correct in every single case, but it is *practically* correct.
For me:
I spent 2016 losing weight. I spent 2017 trying to build muscle and strength slowly and then saying screw it and just gaining all the weight back so that I could rapidly gain strength (because I was trying to go the powerlifter route). I spent 2018 being injured and making no progress. I spent 2019 losing the weight (and most of the strength) again. I plan on spending 2020 doing what I initially intended on doing, gaining strength and muscle slowly on a slight caloric surplus (maybe alternating strength and hypertrophy blocks) and also taking supplements this time. I still have another five pounds or so that I want to lose before that.
I also thought of the horrible idea of running at least one mile every day, basically as a way to keep myself running since I've been slacking off. In 2019, I ran a half marathon in April, trained for a 100 mile bicycle ride (but only ended up doing 75 miles), and then trained up to running eight miles again for another half marathon in the fall that I ended up not doing. I am going to do the half marathon again this April but I want to improve my time, which I think is possible since I'm already in some semblance of shape and weigh less. I think I can also do the 100 mile bike ride this year since my main challenges in 2019 were salt depletion and butt pain from the saddle.
