Want to cry!

Have you measured your waist, neck, arms etc? That should tell you if your are gaining muscle/ losing fat.

Plus at your height, I'd guess 144 pounds isn't too far off a healthy bmi (cue lots of bmi-h8ers....), so it gets more and more difficult to lose weight.

Don't want to minimize your concern, , , but I imagine 90+% of the women on MFP would LOVE to be 5'5" and 144 lbs.. Don't be too hard yourself. Just stay the course!

I repeat: you're training right now. working out more than your body can handle, so it's holding on to everything. don't worry about it right now.

When you decrease your training, your body should go back to losing. Also, drink ALL the water.

Also: after reading how much you work out, are you leaving your body a rest day where you do little more than walk? because if you're not, it's not recovering from all you're putting it through. You need to let it recover, even if it feels like being lazy or quitting. Hell, you should even be giving it a cheat day where you don't count calories (or if you do, don't restrict, go at least 200 over) but I feel like that would give you a heart attack.

Don't want to minimize your concern, , , but I imagine 90+% of the women on MFP would LOVE to be 5'5" and 144 lbs.. Don't be too hard yourself. Just stay the course!

im 5'1'' and 144 right now..this is seriously nothing to be so sad about..im tired of people being in healthy range thinking they are too fat..try being 50, 80, 100, or more pounds overweight, then want to cry

Just because she's a different size than you, a size you consider more appropriate or better, does not mean that she's not freaking out right now. Don't trivialize her because of your own situation.

I'm 5'5", and at 144 lbs, my body fat % would be considered underweight (not that I've seen that number in a LONG time, but just thinking back to the day...). My goal "weight" is one at which I am in the middle of the healthy BF% range. I don't care AT ALL that at that weight I'm still considered to be overweight according to BMI. BMI is a ratio, and I feel it is too simplistic to be accurate.

Check your body fat % and quit worrying about the number on the scale.

looking thin and being light are not the same thing.

you are thin if you look thin. chuck the scales in the dustbin if they are distorting your perception of yourself.

Fit, strong, healthy women weigh more than sedentary, weak women (same is true of men)

In everything other than body fat, heavier is healthier. More muscles, denser bones, are much healthier than wasted muscles and brittle (not dense) bones. Too much body fat is unhealthy, but as long as your body fat percentage is in the healthy range, heavier is actually healthier, as it means healthier bones and muscles.

Also, women's muscles don't "bulk up" - they get firmer, denser and stronger. To actually increase muscle mass as a woman you have to eat at a surplus and train extremely hard, i.e. not something that happens by accident.

Here's a pic of Camille Leblanc Bazinet - she's 5'2" and weighs 126lb, i.e. right at the top of the BMI range for her height. She looks pretty thin to me...

Read this: http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/

Staci weighs 142. She's tiny and only 5'4..

Track your progress through photos, measurements and how clothes fit. Give the scale the boot. Or the finger.

I'm 5'5. I got down as low as 125. I'm currently about 140 and wearing the same clothes I bought when I was 15 pounds lighter. I understand it goes against everything we're taught, but ignore the scale.

I totally understand! People on here don't understand that a couple of extra lbs on someone who is not used to having them, is just as big of a deal as someone who has 20+ lbs. Keep doing what you are doing and really focus on your water & diet after your race. I gained 10lbs during a 12 month period and it drove me crazy. I was working out 6 days a week. Running about 25 miles and hot yoga at least 3 days. I tried switching it up for 6 weeks with body pump style classes and TRX. It did nothing. I got hurt and started just using weights at home, planks, push-ups and PT to slowly get back into running. I totally cleaned up what I thought was a clean diet and watched my calories. I lost all 10 lbs in just under 2 months. I swear a lot has to do with our diets and cutting all processed crap out! Good luck!

So multiply that 20 lbs by 8 or 10 and just imagine what some people feel about that as an extra load and what it does to your health. Self imposed certainly but some of us are not perfect and would as I said, love to be only 10 or 20 Lbs over. I could even live with that without crying from where I am now.

However, your situation is different. Surely you're disappointed by a gain as well? She stated before that it's the heaviest she's ever been. Would that not discourage you had you been working out as she has? Try to understand her situation more than relating it back to your own because they are most certainly not the same.

And likely, at the height and activity level, she's not even close to 20 lbs over, so your insensitivity is merely adding insult to injury.

Don't want to minimize your concern, , , but I imagine 90+% of the women on MFP would LOVE to be 5'5" and 144 lbs.. Don't be too hard yourself. Just stay the course!

im 5'1'' and 144 right now..this is seriously nothing to be so sad about..im tired of people being in healthy range thinking they are too fat..try being 50, 80, 100, or more pounds overweight, then want to cry

As a currently obese person I agree totally with this remark. If I was 10 or 20 lbs overweight I would be in heaven!!

ditto