What exercise gave you the most noticeable difference?

[HelloVeritas]

In my 50's, menopausal, on HRT, low energy, loss of fitness, weight gain etc blah blah blah!

I need to start an exercise routine (I do a brisk walk with dogs everyday but it's not enough). I want to lose weight but to also massively tone up. Bum, tummy, thighs, arms - everywhere really.

I am going to start couch to 5k again and see where my running gets me (managed a slow 10k once but menopause has massively affected my energy levels). Have also drastically reduced alcohol intake and tackling portion sizes and carbs.

But I'd love to hear what's working for everyone else and what you did to notice the most difference.

I keep hearing about the benefits of weight training and would love to give this a go but feel quite intimidated by the thought of turning up at a gym (I really am very out of shape).

Inspiration please!

Spin classes and kettlebells, not at the same time obviously.

Running is brilliant if you can tolerate it, I bloody hate running 😀

I swim (open water, cold water, all year round) and do strength/conditioning with a PT. I am a huge advocate for both for physical and mental well-being.

But the biggest change to my body was from diet: cutting carbs, sugar and alcohol. Sorry!

It is important to enjoy whatever exercise you do or you'll not stick to it.

I love running (and am reasonably good at it) ....but I don't think life would be worth living without carbs and chocolate....🤣 I could probably live without alcohol though

I think my figure is probably testament to my love of carbs rather than my love of running!

I lost loads of weight through swimming. I only did breaststroke but put real effort in for 30 mins about three times a week.

Briskly walking a dog for 30 mins morning and evening with weighted bands on my wrists and legs kept weight off.

When the dog sadly got too old to keep up, I hired a rowing machine and did 20-30 mins a few times a week. This really kept me slim, but I would caution you to get a trainer to show you good form. I didn’t bother and used online videos instead and managed to hurt myself in the long run.

I've just started to get into a regular routine for first time ever really.

I started with swimming as I love swimming and just did that alone a few times a week. I started to build strength, fitness, tone.

I've now moved onto building in strength- I'm with Better You and have done the Body Conditioning (great, lots of weights) and LBT (all over workout, tonnes of squats) classes. I think I will stick with them on repeat for a bit until I get bored and then maybe move onto more gym based stuff. I quite like someone else doing the thinking of what exercises to do and I just follow and reap the results.

I'm also still doing a swim and I also do a spin class - if you don't like running, spin is excellent for legs and cardio.

For me cost and timing are quite key, there's no point trying to do a class at a really inconvenient time, whereas I can do a spin class then a lbt class back to back on a weekend morning and it gets it all done. The membership includes swim, classes and gym, so fairly economical.

I love PPs suggestion of getting some nice gym wear, doesn't need to be pricey but pick colours you love.

Doing HIIT workouts was what transformed my body.

At the start if my "fitness journey", I would just run. I ran a lot. And it helped with weight loss, but the weight came back quickly if I stopped for a few days. I was in good shape, but nothing like I am now with HIIT workouts.

With HIIT, it burns calories for much longer after your workout and there are normally a lot of strength and bodyweight moves which really tone your body.