Sounds like your doing pretty good...loosing those inches are a huge thing!!!! Yeah it takes a bit for your body to react...also i would get rid of the diet free cola and drink water water water...i know it's made a huge difference in me. Also u wanna make sure and your not starving yourself by not having any less than 1200 calories a day..any less than that i think delays your weight loss even though most people think otherwise. You can do this though..were all here to help :)

muscle weighs more than fat so you are loosing fat and gaining muscle that is why the inches are showing and not the pounds dissapearing. Hang in there you are doing great.

The fastest we to lose fat is to work or involve more of the bodys 600 muscles simultaneously. The next thing is to understand the roll that oxygenated blood cells play in burning your body fat. finally make sure your daily water intake is optimal. I can assist you with reducing your gym and workout time and you'll achieve greater results. let me know if this helps, if you need more detail send me a message.

Sounds like you are doing everything right except eating too few calories.
Too few calories will slow your metabolism as it will adjust to burning a smaller amount of calories. So it is catch 22.
Eat an abundance of healthy foods until you are full. Food combine too if you can. Protein with veg OR carbs, like brown rice, with veg. Protein and carbs never together. This ensures optimal digestion making you FEEL lighter after a few days and makes sure no undigested food is left in the gut. Always eat fruit on it's own.
Doing this I have lost 20lbs in about a month or so and only started excercise this week.
Don't lose heart though, adjust your calories up and stick at it! x

I second everything that thinkingthin said. It doesn't sound like you are eating enough. Try adding more protien into your diet like chicken or tuna, low fat cottage cheese. You might what to record your calories for a few days to see how much you are taking in.

Diet soda is BAD, unless you think formaldehyde is a good thing. Drink purified water. Skip the eggs, pork skins and wienners. Animal fat is bad for many reasons. Change artificial sweeteners. Aspartame is probably the worst product that was ever put on a grocers shelf. Sweet-n-Low causes cancer and Splenda contains chlorine. Stevia is the only sweetener to use. Bread is not bad as long as it is whole grain and preferably organic. Salad is very good but don't use salad dressing with aspartame, slenda, sweet-n-low OR high fructose corn syrup. high fructose is a fattening agent. It sounds to me like your exercising has been totally resonsible for the weight and inches that you have lost so far....keep up the good work.

Thanks everyone for the support. Thanks for the ideas. I will have to try some of these ideas. I will tell you the results.JJflash I looked in the herb sweetner that you suggested can't afford that sweetner. I will pick up my water intake though. I know that I need to drink more. Thanks again all.i have been told to that I might need to eat more protein from firends as well. I will start a food diary. And add up my calories thankstauruslady1.

I read your reply and interestingly enough this is the advice most people give out about what affects metabolism, however the truth is its not just the food neccesarily tho eating more often 6 to 8 times per day, (smaller meals) consisting of protein and good carbohydrates will assist. The real fat burner is Oxygen! If you get a full daily amount of Oxygen (due to sedentary lifestyles most people are shallow breathers) and also sufficient water for cell transportation, you can eat pretty much what you like, and still burn a tremendous amount of body fat. Burning or should I say turning stored fat back into glycogen is the real key to fat reduction, this will also reduce your desire for food, because your literally eating the stored food reserves of the body (Fat is the gellatenous state of glycogen)! Note most overweight people are very efficient at storing glycogen. The bodys way of breaking down fat is through oxygenated blood. when you work a muscle the first thing it needs to activate is some type of concentric and/or essentric movement. The second thing it wants is more oxygen, to break down that stored energy!
If your having trouble maintaining a good body fat to muscle ratio, I'd suggest you examine how deep you breath when you do resistance excercises. Resistance exercise by the way burns fat both during your workout and many hours after your done.

Check out local grocery stores for Stevia. H.E.B. in TX is a third cheaper than Walmart was.
$5 for 100 packets. Sugar is better than the other artificial sweeteners FOR DIETING. I just drink purified water refilling bottles in Walmart. Do not drink tap water.

Food for thought:

Eat 3 small meals and 3 snacks and choose lean protein, fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables, and limited use of whole grains (pasta and bread). For snacks, higher protein like protein bar (watch calories, protein level and sugars), limited nuts, vegetable or fruit serving.

1,200 to 1,400 calories a day should allow for weight loss ... not enough calories to gain, yet enough calories to keep your body from going into "starvation mode". In starvation mode, your body is trying to make you tired and hold onto the calories to preserve life ... it's really a good thing. By realizing this and eating more calories, this should help.

Now, as far as the aspartane .. have to agree that it may not be best for a person, however, I chose to attack one battle at a time. First healthier eating (with aspartane to control the calorie content, then you can slowly wean its use as your taste buds change away from sweets).

Exercise .. is a must .. however, our bodies adapt quickly to our activities. Be sure and change either your type of exercise, the intensity of the exercise or the length of the exercise to keep your body in a state of confusion. That is when it is most efficient as it is unable to adjust to the changes. You will then receive the full benefit of your efforts.

Water, water, water ...

Hang in there! You're getting it! You REALLY CAN SUCCEED!!!

Many hugs .. Ranae

i have the same problem and understand exactly how frustrating it is, all you want is to see that scales go down but they dont. If you have lost all them inches then well done you. My instructors at the gym say they can see a difference in my physique and so do my family and friends but i can't and no doubt you can't either but dont panic i am told it does eventually start dropping off, i have been at it 3 months and have lost just 4 pounds so i can emphasise.

I am confused at what you want to accomplish. A number on a scale really means very little; I never weigh myself, and my trainer weighs me only every 2 weeks to check my BMI along with my weight.

If you have lost inches then that means you have lost alot of fat. You should be proud of that accomplishment. By losing the fat, you are likely also freeing up the fat's grip on your internal organs.
Congratulations on the fat loss.

So the number on the scale is not as low as you like. Well, it's likely due to the fact that your exercise has eliminated fat and replaced it with muscle. Fat takes up more space than muscle, but muscle weighs more than fat. Another reason for you to increase your weight training is that muscle burns fat faster, so you want to have more muscle to lose weight faster.

Now, your diet needs some fixing. You say you are not eating much; that's the opposite to what you should be doing. As has been said by others, you want to be eating a little something every 3 hours. Try 3 meals and 3 snacks. Make everything healthy foods though; not those junk snacks. Cut out those sodas; regular and diet are all bad. Find another beverage like real fruit juice.
If you do need a sweetener, you really should take a closer look at Stevia because it's something like 100times sweeter than sugar and has ZERO calories. It may look expensice, but instead of using a teaspoon, you would be using something like 4 teeny grains. It really is super super sweet and a tiny box lasts forever!
Speaking of drinking, how much water are you drinking? You should be drinking half your body weight in ounces. A person who weighs 150lbs should be drinking 75oz of water. Water helps you lose weight faster, so don't say you don't like drinking water because it's good for you. Geen tea is good and herbal teas are also great. They are more fruity and really don't need any sweeteners at all.
where are the fruits and veggies in your diet? You did not mention any in your foods. And what about protein? Get rid of the weiners and eat chicken, fish instead.
cut out all the breads, rices, potatoes, and pastas for a couple weeks as those starchy items pack on the weight.

Too often, people go on crazy diets and may lose "weight" but then they go back to their old bad eating habits. Of course the weight comes back too.
You want to make good healthy permanent changes to your eating habits and forget about "dieting".
A slow weight loss and large fat loss from exercise and healthy eating is exactly what you want.
Instead of wondering how come the numbers are not falling quickly on your scale, you should be patting yourself on the back for a job well done.

keep up the good work and continue to make healthy changes to your eating and exercising.