Originally Posted by Stutz101

Ladies, I see that the two posters who answered are men and I think the perspective from a woman is a little different, especially from a woman who, like you, didn't know what or how I should be weight training (only knew that I should). I highly recommend getting to a gym and signing up for a few sessions with a personal trainer. Seems like a big expense at first, but if you think about it as an investment in yourself and your future, it's not so bad. It helped having someone teach me all the machines and free-weight exercises and pushing me to increase weights or reps when it was time. It always kept me challenged. I've gone from meeting with her twice a week to only once a week (doing the other two sessions/week on my own).

Since I've been going (about 7 weeks now), I've noticed that my shape has begun to change and I can tell that my muscles are toning up under the fluffy outer layer of fat. Weight training for toning and upping my metabolism and cardio to shed the fat. It's a two pronged approach to losing the weight.

Exercise is important and if you aren't used to doing it (I've never exercised regularly prior to now), then it can seem a little intimidating and overwhelming. I know that I felt like I didn't know if what I was doing was right - enough exercise, too much, wrong kind? Who knew? It seemed like everyone knew about these things except me! So I hired someone to teach me - now I feel like I know what to do, how to challenge myself and keep it interesting.