Toning up muscles and burning fat both lead to a leaner body and a sleeker look. You need to maintain an adequate level of nutrition when you exercise, so do not cut back drastically on calories. Keep enough fuel in your body so that you keep your metabolism levels up, enabling you to burn fat while you build lean muscle mass. Exercise is essential to build muscle, but watching how many calories you eat and maintaining a healthy diet helps. Women naturally have fat stores in their hips and thighs, but abdominal fat is potentially harmful to your health as its presence indicates an increased risk for high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Swimming is a good exercise to improve your overall fitness, but myths abound that you cannot lose weight swimming. There is no magic to the formula for weight loss, though — if you burn more calories than you eat each day, you lose weight. Swimming burns a great deal of calories, but it does not leave you worn out like some other forms of exercise.

You might spend hours swimming or running, but you still do not have the curves you hope for. Weightlifting is a good way to get cardiovascular exercise, and it tones and builds your muscles. Weight machines offer controlled, smooth resistance, which helps avoid injury. Free-weights are good for building the smaller supporting muscle groups that machines do not target. Join a friend when starting a weightlifting routine to keep you motivated and on track.

Your instinct as a mom is to feed and indulge your kids, but too much of a good thing leads to weight gain. Overweight kids suffer health issues and problems with self-esteem, so keeping them on a healthy track is the best form of love. Changing eating and exercise habits involves the entire family, and forming a plan of action gives you the best change of long-term success.