what should be my total calorie intake?

[First6]

Ignore the bmr it doesnt matter.
Your height, your weight, you should aim for 2500 a day.
cardio cardio cardio and some weights with compound movements to stimulate muscle retention.
Lose the fat, then up the calories and gain muscle.
You can try it any other way you want (most of us have) but you will be working harder and longer to achieve the same result.

[40plusnewbie]

Ignore the bmr it doesnt matter.
Your height, your weight, you should aim for 2500 a day.
cardio cardio cardio and some weights with compound movements to stimulate muscle retention.
Lose the fat, then up the calories and gain muscle.
You can try it any other way you want (most of us have) but you will be working harder and longer to achieve the same result.

I know I should be doing cardio, first and foremost for my general health (cardiovascular fitness) and also as it's a fundamental component of wt loss, particularly in bb'ing where we are often shooting for lower fm than many athletes.

My issue with cardio: 1. I don't like it (except for sex so when i convert my prop powder I'll be banging the wife 4x/day and will be getting plenty of cardio).

My concern with fat loss (after the first 15lbs given my current frame and musculature) before adding in a good ammt of lean muscle is that I am tall and have very broad shoulders and look lanky if I go below like 225lbs given my current physique. When I had a little less muscle I had dropped down to 217.5 and needed to go back up as I was looking too lanky even though I didn't have low bf. This is really why I prefer the gradual loss of fat while adding in lean muscle mass. I can easily diet down to 220 or whatever. I used to be 300lbs and dropped 50lbs pretty quickly with only dietary changes and no exercise at all. If I had the ammt of muscle on my frame that you have on yours I'd be quite happy to drop my bf down to 15% but I start to look sickly, because I am mesomorph with very broad shoulders and not a lot of muscle for my size. If I do things right I'd be able to get up over 300lbs and have low bf because of the size of my frame but until I put on more muscle I don't want to loose too much fat and look sickly/lanky.

Don't you think I'll be able to put on muscle continuously if I work out consistently and intake enough protein while using some of my fat for fuel but not 'focusing' on weightloss/fat loss? Recently I've been focusing somewhat on growing out my abs and obliques, they are covered by fat but certainly not invisible. I think I'll get there (where I want to be with my physique) and maybe my plan is sub par but I'm not convinced that it is. Will it really make that much difference if I focus on wt loss and go to 225 within the next ~few months as a first priority?