New to the gym, what exercises are best??

nmn2

So I have been working out at home and finally joined the gym, today was my first work out! Yay! I still have quite a bit of weight to lose and my worst area that I want to mainly concentrate on is my hips and thighs. I was wondering what the best machines are to work those areas and how many reps and how much weight should I use when I do them?? I did quite a bit of exercises today but I don't know if I used the proper amount of weights with it and if I did enough reps to make good progress. This will be the first time I have ever gone to the gym and tried any machines because I always felt stupid because I don't really have any clue what I'm doing so I want to change that now. Any thoughts and advice are greatly appreciated!

grantdumas7

Your best bet may be to hire a personnel trainer or watch exercise videos on youtube. I would also primarily use free weights. This is where a P/T or youtube or both will help. There is no set amount of weight to use. Use a weight that allows you to hit the required number of reps safely and without cheating. Don't stress so much on rep ranges. In general 1-5 is for strength, 6-12 is for hypertrophy (muscle) size and anything over 12 is for muscle endurance. But these don't always have to be the case.
Most importantly weight/fat lose comes from eating at calorie deficit.