I've come to the conclusion...

katiejarr

Have you tried Yoga? Im 51 and Ive been doing yoga for over a year now and I love it. Its a great work out for the body and mind...I have developed muscles in my arms and in my legs! It is a hard work out but its wonderful for muscle tone. I also highly recommend free weights, not the machines, use the computer and Google examples of using free weights and print it and bring it to the gym to guide you your first few times...and see if your town offers Yoga classes, you will love it!

DakotaKeogh

Lots of good advice posted already. You're in a tricky place. You want to keep the pounds where they are. But you want to tone up. What you need to do is shift your focus from what you weigh to what your percent of body fat is. As you exercise and tone up you'll be in a trade off between fat lost and muscle gained. I'd strongly recommend getting measured in an immersion tank, which is the most accurate method. Or you can just get a scale that measures it. Pick a body fat % goal with advice from a trainer or your doctor. Forget the pounds for now. When you reach the body fat goal, and if you think you look right, then you can look at the pounds. That's what you should weigh.

Good luck!

ldrosophila

First congratulations on reaching your goal!! You should be so proud! Second time to start the next stage in your fitness getting that body toned and sleek! Congratulations if any one can do it you can. You've already accomplished something that many others fail at.

HappilyLifts

I have done things the other way around. I am building muscle and looking better, but haven't really lost any weight because I put more effort into the gym than my eating habits. See pics below, evidence of what strength training can do I think.


Changes in my body shape were achieved by a small amount of HIIT training and body weight or dumbbell exercises over a period of 6 months (just this year, I rarely exercised before, and when I did, it was for about one month prior to having to wear a bikini!), 3-5 days a week, for up to 45 minutes a session.

With regard to knowing how much to lift, my trainer advises 3 sets of 12 reps. The first set should be managable, the second set should be a little harder, and by rep 8 of the third set I am struggling to keep good form. By the time I can accomplish all of that third set it is time to move on (usually about every 6 weeks).
When I started out I was using 2 and 3kg dumbbells for tricep and bicep work and 40on the leg press machine. I also do alot of bodyweight exercises like planks, squats and lunges.

One other thing, I have learnt to largely ignore the scales and use a tape measure to guage progress....my tummy has shrunk from 111cm to 97cm since February when I started doing more strength than cardio yet I have only lost 5-7 pounds in this time. That's my two pennies worth.

You've done brilliantly with your loss. Go you, you'll soon be where you want to be!

Sorry, no idea to make all three pics visible but you can right click and select View Image to see all three.

iRebel

...that I went about this weight loss thing ALL WRONG. The majority of my weight loss was done without exercise. I am now "skinny fat". It feels hopeless and I feel that I'm obsessing. I like the number on the scale and want to stay there. However, I really need to tone up. What to do, what to do?

Let me stress that IT IS NOT HOPELESS!!!! :happy: You have done at least 85% of the work by just losing the weight! If you want to build muscle, and firm up- I highly recommend Jillian Michael's 30 day shred followed by her Ripped in 30

I tried the 30 day shred but found it was too hard on my knees. It was recommended by my PT that I stop. I have given thought to doing it again but leaving out the jumping jacks. Jump rope and squats didn't seem to bother my knees.

yeah, I only use it for the weight lifting and abs part, sometimes. get your cardio however you want, but remember: muscle comes from lifting.