There is no "quick" or "easy" in getting back to a healthy body. You weigh nearly 200 pounds. What you're doing is definitely BENEFITING your body, but your benefits are hidden under a layer of fat. (I don't mean that in a "mean" way, but in a realistic way.) Every time you work out your body is burning fat and muscle. Every time you work out you're also building muscle. So as the fat shrinks over the top of your muscles, your muscles are growing under you fat. Soon, but not REALLY soon, you'll see the benefits.
It also sounds like you're a pear shape. Unfortunately that's just plain genetics. You can't spot-reduce in those areas. You can build muscle, but again, the fat on top of the muscle will take time to go away. But when it goes away, you'll have a good strong body underneath all of that.
So you say you're working out, what else are you doing? If your only reason for working out is to lose weight, you're probably fighting a losing battle. Yes, you should include exercise in a weight loss program, but exercise should also be a means to achieve optimal health. You are DEFINITELY working in that direction and you should feel good about it, not despair that you're not seeing the scale move.
You should be trying to hit about a net of 1200 calories a day. That means if you exercise and burn 400 calories, you should be eating about 1600-1700 calories. Are you limiting your calories and eating high quality, low fat foods? If you're not, all the exercise in the world isn't going to help. I think a lot of people get a misconception that if only they work out, they will lose weight. You will build muscle, stronger bones, a stronger cardiovascular system, and reduce some incidences of certain lifestyle related illnesses. But if you're working out and burning 500 calories a day and then eating back those 500 calories the weight loss won't happen.
I would suggest you take a week and journal what you eat on a food journal site such as
Free Diet Plans at SparkPeople. It's free. You can get an idea of how many calories you are eating. In addition, try to identify how many calories you are burning by going to a site such as
Free Calorie Counter, Weight Loss Calculators, and Weight Loss Tutorial | CaloriesPerHour.com or investing in a good heart rate monitor. You may not be burning as many calories as you believe you are. (I find clients OFTEN over-estimate how many calories they are burning.)
This isn't intended to discourage you from exercising. Exercising, unless done to seriously extreme levels, is ALWAYS beneficial to your health. But you can't depend on exercise alone to transform your body overnight. You need to pair it with a good healthy diet, limiting calories, and monitoring other aspects of your health.
I do get how frustrating it can be. It feels like it takes so long. I was much heavier than you are at one time and I did it through limiting calories, cleaning up my diet, and exercising. I hit my goal of -102 lbs in 2002 and since then have continued to keep it off doing the same thing; limiting calories, cleaning up my diet (it's not perfect...yet...okay, it will never be perfect), and exercising. I journal every day. It's the only way to REALLY tell if what you're doing is the right balance.
ETA: Okay, that is totally funky. My links to Sparkpeople and Caloriesperhour turned into clickable "advertising" type links. Oooohh...technology!
