Lose weight but stay curvy

Unfortunately it varies from person to person how they will look after weight loss. I tend to gain and lose pretty evenly across my body, so when I change weight I am just a slightly larger or smaller version of the same figure. The plus side is I know what I will look like, the down side is it takes a pretty decent weight change to notice much of a change for me.

There are other people who tend to carry their weight in one location or another, so losing weight can drastically change their figure.

Since it sounds like retaining muscle mass while losing is important to you, make sure you don't try to lose too fast, and are lifting weights as part of your exercise routine.

I'm maintaining now, but when I was losing I chose to focus more on fat loss and monitoring my measurements rather then scale weight. I had no idea how I would look at said weight so I just kept going until I was happy.

Unfortunately you can't spot reduce and your body shape and where you store fat has a lot to do with genetics, but I kept working hard and hoped for an hourglass figure.

I strength-trained often and made sure I was getting enough protein. I didn't do any extreme exercise or had a high calorie deficit and I lost weight on the slower side because I didn't want to lose muscle.

The cool thing for me is that I lost a lot in my belly. So even though I lost a lot in my hips too, my smaller waist gives that illusion of what I want. Also I went from a DD cup to a C, so I didn't lose too much there, but with the strength-training I didn't experience much sagging with the weight loss. Actually they are more fuller if that make sense.

I did reach my goal of having a solid curvy body with a little visible muscle. I'm 5'11 and maintaining a range of 165 - 170 in the spring/summer and 170 -175 in the fall/winter. 170 pounds is my sweet spot though.

Good luck and congrats on your progress!

Edited to add - Sometimes clothes can be a pain. I have to get a lot of non-stretchy clothes tailored to fit my figure and I'm almost always in between sizes. A small is usually too small in the bust area, but fits perfectly in the waist and a medium fits great in the bust, but way too big in the waist.

Also it's tough to find jeans and pants off the rack without having that "gap" of extra material around the small of my back. With all that said it's totally worth it to me.

I'm 5'11 and in 2011 I weighed 193. Was in a TIGHT 14. Was too vien to go by 16's. Decided that was enough. But honestly I thought I needed to lose maybe 20lbs. That a size 10 would be the smallest I'd ever get in. I told myself, I'm tall, I have wide hips, etc. I learned along the way that I look amazing at 150. I wear a size 6. I'm not too small, I still have plenty of curves (I wear a size 32G bra with 40in hips).

I think your goal to get to 200 is commendable. But I think you'll need to lose more. You'll need to see what your body fat % is when you get there. Good luck!