No changes despite effort

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this calorie-counting thing, and my regret is that I didn't learn about it sooner. I can admit that I've had some misconceptions about it, and I only got around to learning about it because I couldn't understand why I gained weight despite eating well.

I'm in my early 30s. I want to get rid of the flab around my belly that I can't seem to get rid off for years. I exercise regularly. I don't eat junk food at all or drink soda/soft drinks (ie Coke, Pepsi... any flavoured drinks), mostly out of habit, so I do not develop a taste for them at all. In short, I drink mostly plain water. I have green tea in the morning, and my shake usually involves either rice milk or almond milk. I measure my food using digital scale and measuring spoons and cups, so I think most of my calories are accounted for. I'm accustomed to having fruits and vegetables in my diet, so I don't think I'm lacking those. Sometimes I indulge in chocolate and ice cream (hey, I'm human!), but since I started calorie-counting, I made sure that I don't go over. Sometimes I don't even eat them. The most I've had was, what? Once? Twice a week?

Thing is, I'm really unhappy about this extra flab around my belly, which I can't seem to get rid off. I've been an avid gym-goer ever since I started uni about 5 years ago. I still go to gym now, but because I've relocated, the gym is now too far for me so I do most of my workouts at home. I've recently started the Insanity programme. I also do strength trainings three times a week, along with Insanity and yoga in the evening twice a week. Apart from looking to improve my stamina and strength (because they're my weakest points), I also want to lose this annoying fat. I can see that my arms and legs are toning up, but not my thighs, bum and belly areas. A friend of mine who's into fitness said I seemed to be doing everything right. So why can't I lose this fat?

Last year, when I started to be train more regularly, I could definitely see some changes. I could fit into my jeans with ease. But since Christmas, the fat came back with a vengeance. Also, a lot of things were going on at that time, so I couldn't exercise regularly. At one point I couldn't button my jeans, and around Feb ago I ripped a pair at the seams. So after I moved, I started to exercise regularly, but it's harder since it's too far, so I started to look for alternatives I can do at home. I tried to get back to running, but oddly, I developed a serious case of excruciating shin splints a couple of months back, so I had to stop running. Which is too bad, because I think it did help me a lot last year. I've had gait analysis done (apparently I'm a neutral) and invested in a new pair of shoes with support, so I will have to see if this will make any improvement.

To keep track of any changes I may experience, I weigh and measure myself. I am 5'3. I don't know how accurate is the weighing machine they have at the gym, but according to it, the first time I weighed myself there, I was 57.2 kg. My BMI was 23.5 and body fat percentage was 32.5%. My measurement around the waist is 33 in, and it's still the same after all those exercising. My jeans are no longer as tight as they were three months ago, but I still have muffin top when I put them on. After close to a month of exercising regularly and monitoring my calories, I went back to the scale and was shocked to see that not only my weight increased slightly (57.3kg), my body fat percentage also increased to a whopping 38.3%. However, my BMI seems to decrease to 22.6. My bf said that the gym's scales is not accurate, but I'm still rather alarmed. I know that measurement is more accurate than weighing scales, but since even my measurements don't seem to change either, I feel so bummed. I did take pictures and I honestly don't see any changes. I'm seeing all these people doing Insanity and reporting about seeing changes after like two weeks, and even after one week!

Also I have a question for people doing Insanity: Is it normal to lose steam by the second/third week into the programme? I don't seem to burn as much calories as I did in my first week of insanity. Is it true you can burn up to 600 calories in one session? Because the most I could burn is about 250-300 calories. Do you eat by the calories dictated on MyFitnessPal or the amount recommended by Shaun T?

Sorry for the essay.