For the people who work out like crazy and are not losing

It can alter the results yes, this is part of the reason why caliper measurements are not totally accurate. It would depend entirely on the amount of loose skin of course, and the location of said loose skin. There are many places you can measure bodyfat from so usually as long as you are getting 4 decent landmarks you can get a close approximation of bodyfat. Here is the link I use to get an approximate bodyfat %. http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/BodyComp.html The main thing is to see the inches coming off and strength going up. If you are stalling in the strength department then you may need to evaluate your diet and caloric intake.

Number 1 thing is to switch your way of thinking in terms of "weight loss" you need to switch that to I want to shed fat, these are 2 very different goals, shedding weight can actually meaning shedding muscle which depending on how lean you are can happen very easily if you cut cals to drastically. This means that you need to focus on biofeedback, not the scale weight. If your strength is going up then you are adding muscle despite what the scale says. I have said time and again that steady state cardio is probably the worst thing for fat loss, it has numerous problems for both men and women including promoting stress hormone release causing the body to hang onto fat. If you do cardio do HIIT, steady state is a waste of time for fat loss unless you are obese. What you want to pay attention to is:
1) Do I feel tighter/slimmer in the mornings
2) Are you feeding your body to refuel post workout, post weight workouts you want simple carbs not complex carbs for best results.
3) Eat enough to allow your body to fuel the need to to grow muscle, you need cals to build muscle and to shed fat. Think about it, to fuel the body will give it reason to shed the fat, not fueling it will give it reason to hold onto the fat.
4) How are your energy levels? Feeling sluggish? Do not go low fat, you need to eat healthy fats to shed fat, low fat diets are not good for you on any level.
5) Carbs can be your worst enemy or your best friend depending on application. Use them towards your goal.
6) Ditch the diet myths, real science is what you want to pay attention to, leangains.com is a good place to start. Many diet mantras and must do's have no scientific background or studies to prove them right, you need to cut the diet hokum and get to the bones of what really works and what does not.

I'm just discouraged. For the past week, I've been recording every morsal I eat, staying within my calorie guidelines, eating healthier, exercising every day but after an initial loss of about 3 lbs, I seem to be gaining about a half a pound a day to the point that I'm just about back where I started. I don't want to give up,but I don't see the positive benefits. My job doesn't allow me to exercise more than about 30 minutes of walking per day so my only option is to further reduce the amount of food I'm eating each day. I'm 5'7" and started at 150 lbs. I'm trying to lose about 10-15 lbs but not having much success. I'm not sure what to do from here.

Weighing in daily is probably 1 of the most counterproductive things for overall success in terms of fat loss, and if you are stalling then there can be many reasons as to the reason why if you log accurately. Eating the exercise cals can lead to muscle gain in some ppl, others are more sensitive to carbs. It really would depend on what your daily routine/diet is like. You can shed fat without cutting cals though as cutting cals is not the sole means of shedding fat. I ran into that wall where no matter how much I cut cals I was losing just as much muscle as fat so I stopped cutting cals and turned to other methods. I am currently on Carb Nite Solution by john kiefer and it is working. Once I am done that program I am going to use his newest diet carb backloading to stay lean and maximize muscle gain.