Give it to me straight.

[locutus24]

So, to make a long story short, I'm slightly overweight and my body isn't the best. I've made attempts before to rectify this but I've gotten sucked into the whole "lifting for numbers" thing and the last time I was 'serious' with my weight lifting, I was doing stronglifts 5x5. For me, the progress was actually really good and the best I'd ever personally done, but the squatting every day was fucking killing me and to be honest, my workout partner at the time has god-tier genetics and never had to worry about bulking, cutting, or if he would make gains. He is 100% natty but is also just a natural chad-tier athlete so even though my body was shit I got sucked into caring about numbers and stats. Then I had nasal surgery which put me out of the gym for a month (it was pretty involved and I didn't want to bust open my nose while trying to do heavy-for-me squats). That + a really shitty commute to a stressful ass job has put me out of the gym permanently. 

I'm 5'8 and around ~165-170 lb and honestly, I'm tired of carrying my gut around. It isn't massive but it doesn't look good and I always feel so bloated. I need to get my diet in check obviously but can you guys recommend any kind of good routine for losing weight?

I -seriously- only care about losing weight, looking good/decent, and having a flat stomach. I don't even care about abs really. 

Are my goals possible without resorting to killing myself with squats and deadlifts all over again? Because at this point if I have to re-start on them my numbers have literally tanked, hard. Personally (and I attribute it to genetics 100%) I've never been naturally strong. So for me my strongest squat was 315 for 5x5, but I know if I go back in the gym there's no way I could do over 95lb again. And at this point, I just don't care about the numbers. I just want to look and feel good. Could I just take up running?

Any suggestions?

Hey,

To lose weight means to eat less calories than what is required to maintain your current body weight. Figure that out and for a period of time eat less than maintenance. 

If you don't care about numbers then just pick some basic exercises that are compound based and progress with them as you did before, but don't overeat and go to form failure, meaning you stop lifting when your form starts to deteriorate. 

Rep ranges, schemes are arbitrary and up to you. Pick whatever allows you to progress with weight, but don't change it too often. If it starts working and keeps working then stick with it until it doesn't. Cycles are needed to keep increasing the weight. Read NattyorNot's articles on cycles. Don't try and do linear indefinitely as your body will fatigue quickly and will not be able to keep up with the weight. Your body will complain and force you to cycle down. 

If you want to lose weight first, then just lose weight. Or you could lose weight and exercise, but it won't lead to any muscle mass gains. Rather it will preserve whatever your current strength levels are. 

For exercises, there are many to choose from. It's up to you. Isolation exercises can be helpful too. Just give you an example: Front upper body: bench press, push ups, and dips are good. I personally prefer dips! Upper back: rows (DB or Barbell) and chin ups (weighted if you can do 15+). Legs: Squat, leg press, and running could help too. Etc. Mostly quoting what TruthSeeker has already mentioned on his many blogs. 

Actually if you just want to lose weight then eat less calories and do sprints or runs each week. Maybe try it for 6 weeks or something and then look at your body in mirror and check your weight to see if you like what you see.

That's about it.