Over-Exercising

I have also dealt with similar frustration. I have found that my diet was mainly to blame -- I'm now focusing on quality calories, fewer carbs. Also age and hormones may have a huge effect on your weight loss. I am only just starting to see results after a couple of months of hitting it hard.

I have been so disappointed recently. I've been working my *kitten* off for over a month now, eating between 1200 and 2000 calories a day and burning between 1000 and 2600 most days;

Personally I wouldn't worry about going into starvation mode unless you were eating under 1200 a day. Here's what you need to do.

Set your goals to lose 1 pound a week. There's no need to go faster and that will probably allow you more calories during each day.

Be as honest and as complete as you can with your calorie intake. If you have a smart phone download the app and you can scan the barcode on your food. If not jot it down and do a search for it later when you can get on the site. Most people typically eat the same things week over week. You'll get to the point where you're just hitting check boxes for food selection. MFP will push your most common foods to the top so they're easy to find.

Be totally honest about calories burned. Most machines and even MFP tend to overstate the calories burned during exercise. You'll burn about 6 - 10 calories a minute depending on the difficulty. At 10 calories a minute you'll be sweating a nice amount.

Eat back calories burned but obviously if it's not working then you'll need to lower your estimates because something is calculated wrong. Calories in minus calories burned equals your weight.

Try reducing your carbs and keep your protein intake to at least 1 gram per pound of your weight.

Fall in love with strength training. It's what makes you look awesome instead of just skinny and it will keep your metabolism running higher, reduce muscle loss from cardio, and make you feel better over all.

That's all there is to it. Losing weight is mainly about a calorie deficit, not how much cardio you can do in a day. There is no need to do hours of cardio a day unless your training for a 5k or some type of marathon. I just do 30 minutes 4-5 times a week but I also do strength training 4 nights a week. Losing the weight has been really straightforward. I just follow the MFP suggestions on calorie intake and it works.

Get plenty of rest, and drink lots of water. Take a day or two off each week and skip the exercise. Just eat good those days and your body will thank you.

Thank you everyone!

I know on my exercise log it says I only do cardio, but every time it says circuit it is a half hour of strength training and I have noticed a little difference since I started.

Excellent. One word of caution on calories from strength training. That's very subjective and depends a lot on the weight, intensity, and rest time between sets. I wouldn't trust a HRM to give you an accurate calorie reading for this. Maybe take what they say and cut it in half. Personally I don't log any calories for strength training. I think it's one of the biggest mistakes people make here. If I'm losing too fast I just add a tad more on strength days.

-Yes I have to be cautious about weight loss. Men or women with good body composition can rip through calories easily. If I drop below 2500 I lose weight. Remember that when you're thinking about investing time in cardio or more time on weights. One will burn calories for 30 minutes, the other will build muscle that continues to burn calories even when you sleep.