You have lost the weight. The number on the scale is right, your clothes fit — and still you are not happy with what you see in the mirror. This is perhaps the most underestimated part of a programme, and the part about which the most nonsense is sold.

Shape does not come from removing fat

First, the misunderstanding: you cannot spot-reduce. A hundred crunches will not make the fat on your stomach disappear. Where your body releases fat is determined by your genetics and your hormones — not by which exercise you choose.

What does determine your shape is what sits underneath. Fat is a layer; muscle is the relief beneath it. If you only lose weight without training, you remove the layer and there is little shape left. That is precisely why people end up "thinner but not firmer" after a strict diet.

What I train for shape

For most women it comes down to three areas:

  • Glutes. Hip thrusts, split squats, deadlifts. This is the largest muscle group you have and the difference it makes to your silhouette from the side is bigger than anything else.
  • Shoulders and upper back. Lateral raises, rows, presses. Slightly broader shoulders make your waist look narrower without losing a single centimetre. That is not a trick, that is proportion.
  • Core — functional, not cosmetic. Planks, dead bugs, loaded carries. A strong core gives you posture, and posture changes how you look more than people think.

About your skin: the honest version

This is where I make no pretty promises. Whether your skin follows depends on things you only partly control: how much you lost, how long you carried that weight, your age, your genes, whether you have smoked, how fast you took it off.

What you can do: lose slowly rather than fast — it genuinely matters. Build muscle so the space under your skin is filled again. Enough protein and water. Your skin also simply needs time: you will still see change six to eighteen months after your weight loss.

What you cannot do: train away loose skin after major weight loss. At ten kilos you usually get a good result. At thirty kilos or more something often remains, and then a conversation with a doctor is a reasonable option rather than a failure. I would rather you know that in advance than train for months on an expectation that does not hold.

The trap of this phase

Many women stay stuck in diet mode after losing the weight. They keep eating in a deficit, get more and more tired, and wonder why their body no longer changes. Building shape actually requires eating enough. You cannot keep dieting hard and build muscle at the same time — certainly not once you have been training a while.

The step I take then is a period of maintenance: eating at your expenditure, training hard, and leaving the scale alone for a bit. That feels frightening after months of losing. It is almost always exactly what needs to happen.

What it costs in time

Visibly more shape in your glutes and shoulders: expect three to six months of serious strength training. Skin adapting: a year or more. It is the slowest phase of a programme and at the same time the phase where the result finally becomes truly yours.