How much exercise is necessary?

I work out two to three times a week in my gym for approx. 1 hour, sometimes on eliptical, sometimes group circuit training. I am also fairly active on a daily basis, cleaning the house, walking to the store, walking around campus at school. I am wondering what is an ideal amount of exercise to lose weight when following the recommended 1750 calorie per day intake. I want to lose 15-20 pounds in the next two-three months. I am 5'5'' and 165 lbs. I have not been losing weight and have been doing this for two months. Any advice?

It's likely that your diet is the culprit, not your training. Could you perhaps share some of its details with us?

maybe you're eating more than you think you are.  that was my problem for a very long time

I am in the same boat. Im 5'5 and 155lbs and want to lose about 20lbs before the end of Feburary.

I usually eat around 1300-1400 calories a day and work out twice a week with a trainer (just started this month) and twice a week on my own, usually doing cardio.

I havent seen much of a change yet (considering I JUST starting this new routine) But I was kinda wondering the same thing, is this enough to reach my goal? Should I be eating more/less or working out more?

I have been trying to lose twenty pounds now for about three months. And so far no luck.  I started going to the gym six days a week for an hour, I did this for two months and nothing.  I then realized that maybe I was eating too much and started counting calories, I try to keep it about 1200.  I then stopped  doing the cardio because I felt like I was wasting my time killing myself every morning and started weight training. I've been doing that for about a month, four days a week.  I have noticed a slight change in my inches but nothing in weight loss.  Its so frustrating trying to find what works best for each person. I am still trying to find mine.  In the past I have always starved myself to lose the weight which is not healthy and ruins your metabolism.  So I have heard that the real truth is its, 95% eating and 5% exercise to lose those stubborn pounds.

*groan*

Always it's the same thing:  "I'm starving myself and working out and I'm not losing weight."

The answer, as they say, is in the question.

Take your total daily burn, subtract 500 from it.  If that is under 1200, reset to 1200.  ADD BACK IN THE CALORIES YOU BURN DURING EXERCISE.  Unless you are really exercising a lot, my experience has been that a deficit larger than 500 is really unpleasant and unsustainable.

DO NOT GUESS about how much you are eating.  If you are unsure, MEASURE IT.  Get a little postal scale and weigh your food if that is easier.  1 cup is a lot smaller than most people think.  A lot of people way underestimate their portion sizes and thus end up eating a lot more than they think they are eating.  There are also other people who err the opposite way; they are so fearful of gaining weight that they overestimate their intake and end up driving themselves into starvation mode.

After measuring for awhile, you start to get a feel for how large portions really are, and you get better at estimating it.  It pays to recalibrate your guesstimation every now and then by measuring, though.

Once you get to where you really *are* eating enough (and you know because you measured it), then you'll know if you got it right based upon what the scale is doing:  a 500 calorie deficit should net you a pound per week of weight loss, but you have to watch out here:  your weight can fluctuate by several pounds each day, based upon water retention and <cough> "throughput" </cough> (or lack thereof), so it's possible you'll catch yourself at the light end one week and at the heavy end the next.  Don't despair--watch the trend (I weigh myself daily, so that these fluctuations average out more quickly--I like to track the trend on the Hacker's Diet website, because it pops out more starkly and I know the math the author used, but I still use calorie count to track my intake and my burn rate).

("Throughput" note:  every day, a typical adult eats and drinks THIRTEEN POUNDS of food and liquids, and excretes about the same.  Of course, you use the bathroom more on some days than on others, leading to an imbalance between input and output.  This imbalance is *FAR* larger than any fat gain or loss that you experienced on any given day--even on an extreme diet or after an extreme pig-out, the most fat you'll gain or lose in a day is a few tenths of a pound.  So don't despair if you step on the scale one day and you're three pounds heavier than you were the previous day; just watch the *trend* and see if it's going in the right direction.)