Can I gain muscle(or at least stop losing muscles I have) at age 33 by going to gym and targeting weight loss?

Question

I'm 33 years old now. 3 years ago I had good muscular body with 65 kg weight and used to go gym regularly.

Three years ago I got married, and my life got changed. I gained 15 kg weight, huge belly fat. Also thanks to my software IT job, now my weight is 80 kg.

Now I'm thinking of joining gym to lose weight. My aim is to lose at least 10 kg.

But my friend suggested me that, it's better that I start running every morning on roads/garden rather than joining gym which is going to cost me 4-5% of my monthly saving. And in India, even good gyms have really dumb, 10th class pass trainers, who don't even know spelling of diet and believe in spot reduction. So it's useless to join gym for trainer's help here.

But I'm worried that, only running+dieting is going to reduce/lose my muscles as well, for which I have worked very very hard in last 3 to 6 years by joining gym.

Still I think joining gym will help me build muscles or at least not lose them.

So is it worth for me to join gym and exercising Strength+Cardio+Diet to gain muscle or at least not lose them?

Answer 1

If you want to become more muscular, you'll have to lift weights. Cardio won't do that for you.

But if you have all the muscles you want, and just want to lose fat, then you can focus mainly on cardio, but there should be a weighted component to your training if you wish to keep all the muscle mass that you have. But if you just want to maintain, and not grow the muscle mass, you really don't need to go to the gym. You can get a good maintaining workout program by just using bodyweight exercises.

See also: What exercises should I perform to reduce fat on a specific area of my body?