Losing Weight

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Hey! So I've lost about 25 lbs so far, and am still losing a lot because of decent diet. I'm about to have my schedule open up and will be planning to hit the gym when that happens.

Are there any specific exercises to help target the weight in the thighs, hips, and stomach areas? These are the areas I'm most concerned with getting a more visual result. Thanks.

You can't target specific areas of fat/weight. That's a myth.
You can only target your muscles. It's called toning and helps to provide muscle definition.
As for the weight/fat, it will shrink/disappear over all of your body as you continue burning more calories than you consume.

We're given two lives to live: The first to learn from and the second to live with what we've learned.

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yah you can't get rid of fat from a specific area unless you use liposuction but that's not worth it if you are trimming down on your own but...
you can increase the muscle mass in your thighs which will help them to look better
hips and stomach your basically stuck because the muscles there arn't going to get much bigger, they will hypertrohpy but are relativly 'thin' layers of muscles compared to the way your thighs are so those can get shapelier from lifting with relative ease

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If I may ask. What kind of decent diet are you on?

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Crunches and planks are awesome for the core. There are about a million variations on each exercise. For me the key to weight loss was cutting the carbs, I've just started eating carbs again,

Muscle mass is denser and burns fat even when you are at rest, so make sure you do some weight training along with a cardio workout. For increasing metabolism, I would work larger muscle groups, like leg muscles and glutes. Upper back muscles are a large muscle group too. If you are looking to flatten you belly, do some chest muscle exercises too. When these muscles increase in size, they will change the balance of your look. Your upper chest will become larger than your belly and improve your profile.

One of the most important things though is not to go by weight alone! Muscle mass weighs more than fat, so you will get to a point were you are not loosing much weight. This is because your muscles become your weight. Go by body mass instead. You will still be making gains though. Go by your clothing size more at this point!

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what diet methods are you using
I generally count calories but have not yet really looked at what I eat as far as cutting bread or anything
I will probubly do that later but right now simple calorie counting is doing well for me at about 5-10 lbs per month

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I'm doing Weight Watchers. The weight loss rate is fine, I'm just looking for anything to help with the toning (translation: make the fat less obvious) in certain places, if possible.

I have just started the Paleo diet. Its a great way to lead a healthier lifestyle.

Cutting carbs and sugars, as well as processed foods.
(Below is the source where I learned about it). It is rather lengthy but has a lot of good information.

The Beginner's Guide to the Paleo Diet | Nerd Fitness

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Personally, I think doing something a little more dynamic and interesting is better, like pilates or belly dancing!

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An important thing to remember is that the more msucle groups you are working at a time, the more difficult and effective that exercise will be.

Body composition I think is quite an effective indicator of health. It is more difficult to measure though. BMI does not account for muscle, so its usually a bust for most PEOPLE overall.

Balance is also important. Balance can be absorbed in multiple different fashions. There is pulling versus pushing exercises, open-chain versus closed-chain exercises, agonist versus antagonist exercises...the list goes on. Some guys do mostly lifting (I hate to do nothing but lifting myself; I even prefer having a thicker lower body to upper body anyway) split each day by muscle groups; legs on mondays, chest on tuesdays, shoulders on wednesdays, arms on thursdays for example (That was completely arbitrary and not though out in any manner by the way). It's for more advanced guys though, its pretty heavy on your body. If you've never done any strength-training program before, it's best to start one at 2 or 3 times a week working everything each time at first. You want to get to know your musculature and build some strength before you really begin to push your limits (if you so wish to).

Hope that was helpful.

Edit: to the person who wanted it I mean...

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Just found the documentary "Fat Head" on netflix. I am quite curious...

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I joined a boxing club last year. My poitically correct explanation is that I like the atmosphere, the workouts are intense, and I enjoy being physically fit. My body is more dense, more coordinated and more energetic. I have regained some of the explosive body power that I enjoyed in my 20s and 30s, and some of the body pain I havce been suffering from due to age and arthritis has improved or completely gone away.
My real explanation is that I like to beat the crap out of stuff. I have no interest in the mamby pamby fitness program (although it is good) because I go to a boxing gym to beat on things. I was a fair boxer in my 20s, but now in my 50s I have a very effective arsenal of very good punches, a strong balanced physique, and the patience and maturity to develop my boxing style the way I want to. I love to go in on saturday mornings to spar and strap on the head gear and bust people all up in their face! Boxing is a great sport and I don't mind getting hit once in a while. It's entirely worth it.
Oh yes...I've lost a few pounds without changing my diet.

All about the carbs

No exercise program will work unless you commit to it long term, and if you do commit to it long term most any program will work. Look for big movements, multi-joint movement, compound movements that engage as much of the body as possible. For example, instead of sitting at a leg curl machine, do squats. Instead of sitting at a lat pulldown machine, work on pullups. Instead of sitting at a preacher bench, work on chin ups. Instead of sitting at a pec-deck, work on dips and pushups.

From my own experience, high intensity intervals work best. Keep pushing your limits.

It's been shown that most people quit because they don't see results, and most people don't see results because they don't push themselves hard enough. Not that you should work yourself to injury, but you do have to work hard at it.