A woman's body has a tendency to store fat around the buttocks, hips, and thighs. Actually, this is the way your body prepares itself for childbirth. Still, the fact remains that you cannot look elegant and graceful with a body that is not much-in-shape. You need to have a well-toned and lean body to look attractive and appealing in this beauty-conscious world. Moreover, a slim and toned body may signify sound health. In order to remain healthy and fit for long, you need to work for it. For Beginners As a beginner, your priority should be to help your body adapt to regular exercising, without getting injured and avoiding muscle cramps. You need to adopt an exercise routine that slowly adjusts your body to the groove of new changes in your weekly routine. Start exercising for 3-4 days a week. Select a suitable time of the day, preferably, early in the morning. At this time, your body utilizes fat for energy generation. Therefore, you will be directly targeting the fat stored in your body. The time period of workout should be at least 30 minutes. Any good workout routine begins with a warm-up phase (approximately 5-7 mins), followed by a strenuous exercise phase (approximately 16-20 minutes), and ends with cooling-down phase (approximately 5-7 min). For warming up, either take a walk or perform a few stretching exercises. You will feel hot and limbered up, which indicates that your body is ready for the next phase. In the exercise phase, the best workouts are the cardiovascular exercises. These workouts make your body work vigorously, thereby making you burn more calories. Swimming, cycling, jogging and running, skipping a rope, and various aerobic exercises are some examples of cardiovascular exercises. According to fitness experts, performing any cardiovascular workouts for half an hour, burns approximately 110 calories. Choose any of the above-mentioned cardiovascular exercises, and start with 20 minutes, and gradually increase the time span. When you have sweated it out for about 5-10 minutes, you are ready to move onto the final phase of the workout routine. For cooling down, you can walk or perform some moderate stretching workouts. Do it till your heartbeat returns to normal. This should hardly take 5-6 minutes. For the Experienced If you have been exercising regularly for over a year now, you must have noticed that the exercise routine that you have been following, has stopped benefiting you the way it used to, in the earlier stages. This is because your body is now accustomed to your regular routine, and it does not take it as an extra work-load any more. This surely hinders your weight loss and fitness goal. When it comes to fitness, consistency and variety are the key factors to be focused on. You have already developed consistency. Now, it's time to bring some variety. Set a new challenge for yourself. Include a few difficult exercises in your routine. Increase the time-length of previous exercises. Include a set of crunches, push-ups, lunges, pull-ups, dips, and so on. Include weight training and/or weightlifting exercises, as they are perfect for body toning and re-shaping. Let the warming-up and cooling-down phases remain as they were. You need to introduce changes in the strenuous exercise phase only. An efficient workout is the secret of health and fitness. When you are healthy and fit, you will find a glow and radiance in your skin and your body will be in perfect shape and size.