Try the southbeach diet and I do the body by glamour workout program. Its really helped me. If you have a problem area then find excersises for the area and do them extra and with more reps. This works for me but in my opinion and through all the articles and books I've read this is really what you have to consider before any diet or exercise program.
Body shape: there's apple, hourglass, pear and ruler. I've been told and have taken quizzes that I'm both pear and hourglass. My measurements now are 34C-26-37. The reason my chest is now 34inches is because I've been doing pushups since this november every day and doing to sets of 50 reps. I know my waist will be at 24 when I work it out a little more.
check your ancestery and family body shapes: my greatgrandfather was a full-blooded cherokee and I have Powhaten on my mothers side, not mention irish, english, and israeli-german. Most of my ancesters are native american. This means I have the TRIBAL BOOTY or ghetto booty. A butt that brings J. LO to shame. Any one who comes from a tribal ancestery (native american, central american, hispanic, or african) your more than likely going to gain the most weight in your butt. So find a diet thats right for that and do extra excersises that will help that area. For me its jogging, squats, and kickback with weights. As for my family, on my mom's side they all have the Tribal booty and are either overweight or small in their upper body. On my mother's other side there all pretty little. On my dad's side everyone has an athletic build and are naturally muscular. The women all have huge breasts. One side is tall and the other is both short and tall.
Remeber to check your BMI for your healthy weight.
You might have to try different diets to find one that works: I tried Atkins,Weight Watchers and South beach. Atkins didn't work, Weight watchers I lost 15 pounds then put them back on, and on South beach I lost 73 pounds and hopefully counting.
When it comes to excersise you need to at first take it easy. Try 20min. of moderate to brisk walking for 1-2 weeks until it becomes easy. Then try to move up to brisk walking or jogging for 45min. but slowly do so. In between try intervals, like walk for 5 mins at a speed of 3.5 mph then the next 5 mins at a speed of 3.8 mph. Keep doing this until it gets to difficult or your too out of breath. Then slowly go down in speed in intervals. you should always do a five min warmup and 5min cooldown. THen try and find a strength program that works for you.
If you want check out the body by glamour workout at
www.glamour.com and to find your BMI and body type try
www.ivillage.com
Hope this was helpful