Want more fitness advice? Visit Answer Fitness!
"If you are going to win any battle, you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do... the body is never tired if the mind is not tired." -- General George S. Patton, Commander, Third U.S. Army, Normandy.
"Toning and cutting" your thighs requires two things: adding muscle to your legs and reducing body fat levels.
If you are muscular, but still carry around a fair amount of body fat, you won't see much definition underneath that fat. On the other hand, if you have low body fat levels, but very little muscle, you'll just look "skinny fat" -- which probably won't give you the kind of curves, definition and "cuts" that you consider "looking toned."
So basically -- you need both.
Since it's generally difficult to spot reduce fat, if you have excess fat in your thighs and butt, you'll need to reduce your overall body fat levels. You'll also need to add muscle. Doing both simultaneously can be difficult, since losing fat requires that you reduce calories somewhat, and gaining muscle requires that you increase them a bit.
The best approach is to make sure you are eating a clean, healthy diet that avoids junk food and fast food and includes lots of lean protein, complex carbs and some healthy fats from things like nuts, olive oil, avocados and fish. This will discourage you from putting on excess fat and help fuel your weight training.
Strength and resistance training is key here. As people have already pointed out, squats, lunges and deadlifts are excellent lower body exercises that will work your glutes, hamstrings, quads (front of your legs) and even your calves. Train your legs three times a week (along with some upper body exercises to keep you "proportioned.") Try going a little heavier than you are used to -- work out with a weight that causes you to fatigue in the 6-8 rep range, which will encourage you to build muscle.
Expect to see your scale weight increase slightly as you put on more muscle. Don't be too afraid of "bulking up" -- even if you gain some weight, within a few months, you'll find that you have also started to reduce your body fat in the process, and you'll look much more lean and "toned." Use the mirror as your gauge, NOT the scale. The bathroom scale is not a good gauge of body composition.
Here are some links to get you going. Please pay special attention to the first one on what "body toning" really means -- it will elaborate on some of the things I discussed above and will prevent you from getting frustrated in the gym with workout routines that are generally ineffective at getting lean and "buff."
The other links will give you some basics on diet and weight training.
Best of luck Sanitha!
