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A few tips, from personal experience:

1. Losing weight can be very difficult, based on your body type, lifestyle, level of dedication to weight loss, and so forth. Building muscle only takes effort (you could look at the industry’s best pre-workouts here) and commitment and maybe supplements. Basically, diets can be a struggle and aren’t always successful, but having muscle tone will improve the appearance of your body no matter what you weigh. Finding an exercise plan that will build muscle tone and sticking to it will produce results like a flat tummy and nice legs, no matter what clothing size you happen to be. Exercising also gives you the perfect opportunity to wear some of the best exercise clothing on the market, like this compression sports bra and a lovely pair of pants to go with it. If you’re going to start exercising, you may as well do it in style, right?
2. If you do diet or exercise, don’t base your success on the scale. Start taking your measurements and recording them every two weeks. I really stress this because when I began exercising, I started to lose hope when the scale said I wasn’t losing weight — but then I started taking measurements and realized that I was losing inches, especially around my waist.
3. Work on your posture and the way that you carry yourself. It’s amazing how doing something so simple can have such an effect, but standing/sitting with good posture will make you look thinner, especially in pictures. A friend of mine recently got an online yoga certification and she’s been telling me about the benefits of good posture and how it can relate to self-confidence. You may not think posture affects you or your mindset but it does. If you want to improve your posture or even build your inner strength, visiting a yoga class may be a good option for you.
4. Don’t try to make your body fit into clothes — find clothes to fit your body. Stick with outfits that you feel confident in.
5. Focus on your best assets and work it. It’s completely possible to be AND feel beautiful without losing an ounce. It’s easy to stop caring about your appearance when you’re unhappy with your weight — but loving your hair, taking good care of your skin, accentuating your best assets etc will do more for your self image than just simply losing weight ever would

— k., responding to the post “Your Call: How Can I Feel Good About Myself After Gaining Weight?”