Seeing no results at all.

Hi Mel, I think there may be a few things going on ... hopefully this helps! ;-)

First, if I'm understanding you correctly, you say you're body fat percentage has been declining. That's a great sign that what you're doing IS actually working. You may be seeing less than desirable results in your midsection, but that's likely because you just had more fat to get rid of in that area, that's all. Unfortunately, we're not able to choose the order in which our body chooses to siphon off fat - what a deal that would be! So, rest assured you ARE seeing results, just not those you want to see in the mirror (yet!).

I also think you should continue to internalize @Dragn77's advice - I think she's right on with body image ... we all have our own personal concerns and pre-occupations.

Also, I don't recall if you mentioned what kind of strength training you're doing, but I'm imagining it's rep-intensive instead of weight-intensive. Sometimes upping the weight can help with body composition - particularly for women. Check out Geo Antionette online and look into her workouts ... pretty serious weight bearing exercises, and she looks incredible. She's also super-tall, but the changes in her body from doing deadlifts and exercises like that are evident. Just be sure to find a plan that works for you based on what YOU are looking to achieve. All of this stuff is really individual in nature ... so you need to listen a lot, and chose what works for you. Heavier weights may help.

Also re: exercise, your HIIT is clearly helping you burn fat - and, it might also be getting in the way of your strength training gains. Again, read up on existing advice for women (and for women of your age and body type).

One final note ... your calories do seem a bit on the low side. For me, MFP has my calories almost exactly where I know they need to be from experience for me to lose weight based on a fairly sedentary lifestyle. You however are super-active, so I'm surprised you're calories are so low. Perhaps you're telling the system you're looking to lose weight, and that's why - not sure. If you live anywhere near a place where you could get a free evaluation from a registered dietician, I'd recommend doing so to see if you're on track. It may be that with your calories being so low, your activity so high, and (I'm guessing) a good, mainly vegetarian diet, you're just not ingesting the nutrients your body needs to actually gain muscle weight, so you start seeing the body composition changes you're looking to achieve. Good luck, and keep us posted!

atypicalsmith wrote: »

C'mon, people, this is a nearly porno advertisement. I couldn't click "flag" because he/she managed to cover it up.

WTF?! you've never seen real porn, haven't you?