I have been eating well and really pushing myself excercizing 4-5 days a week and doing pilates 4-5 days too. For over a week the scale has not moved. I have lost 5 pounds and am trying to lose another 12 by mid June. I know I must stay the course, but man is this discouraging. I am going to add some more cardio to try to kick it up a bit and hopefully that will be enough to get the scale moving in the right direction.

Have you thought about adding some strength training? I hit a plateau and nothing seemed to be working I added weights to my workout 2 days a week and I have started losing again (I haven't checked the scale though but I did have to throw out last years summer shorts!)

Good luck!!! You'll do it!

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I Never Go by the scale anymore ,
Only by the way my jeans Fit!

Its Inches that Matter , And alot of times Fat turns to Muscle which Weighs More.

It's hard to not get discouraged but keep pushing on.

I agree - try adding some strength training and step away from the scale. Look at other non-scale victories - how do your clothes fit, are your rings looser, etc.

You can do this! DON"T GIVE UP!

I agree with this and with 2bearsmom. You have most likely plateaued and it sounds like you know how to kick that up a notch!

I also think adding more weight training would help too!

I guess I should have been more clear. I do a lot of strength training, 3-4 days and I do push myself, even more lately. I know I am lacking in cardio (only do about 2 days of that). My clothes are still fitting the same and the scale isn't budging. In the past it has been fairly easy for me to lose weight. Ever since I hit my 40's it has been much more difficult, especially this past year. I just can't stand it.

My dh goes through this, especially when he's deployed. He finds that even though there are gyms and he works out when he can, if he doesn't get his cardio in on a regular basis, it doesn't help his cause. He starts feeling "fluffy".

If you are strength training that much, and only having two days or cardio, you could either up your time and intensity in your cardio days, or add one more. OR if you like kick boxing or boot camp classes, you do tie in both cardio and endurance and strength training into one class. It will cut back on the amount of time you would spend in the gym weekly!

Or again, you've plateaued, and you need to change things up a bit. Try something completely off the wall: a spinning class, kickboxing, yoga, pilates, etc and see how your body feels doing something like that. It may just need a push to re jump start and to get out of its rut!

Are you mixing it up? Your body just may be so used to whatever routines you are doing it is on auto pilot. Like Christy said, throw in something off the wall a time or 2 and change your routine days (reverse cardio and stregnth training days) and don't do the routines in the same order.

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I can totally sympathize with your frustration. The scale is a biiatch! It definitely sounds like you need to burn more calories with cardio.

I agree with the more cardio - your metabolism has more than likely adapted to how much you're eating and how many calories you're burning. Cardio is great for you alone, but combined with weights is great - I have heard a lot of people recommend doing that, even though I don't combine them myself.