Laurie, I've been kicking your problem around in my head all day and don't have answers, but several thoughts.
First, I believe with all my heart that weight training is a crucial part of weight loss and is an absolute wonder for women generally. I just can't see a way that weights would be what's holding back your weight loss. I doubt that you've built pounds and pounds of muscle that would cancel out fat loss on the scales -- it's hard for a woman to add even five pounds of muscle in a year (unless you're deadlifting 200 pounds and eating fish and green beans six times a day, the way a woman bodybuilder would who's training for muscle gain
). And there's no other mechanism that I'm aware of that would make lifting weights stall fat loss.
So what else could it be? Maybe your eating plan? If you're not losing weight, it means that your calories
in are equal to your calories
out and you're maintaining. Do you count calories or do a different plan? Are you as scrupulous sticking to it as you were in the beginning? Have you reduced portions/calories as you've gotten smaller? Most of weight loss comes from what we're eating, so I'd take a look there first to see if that could be the reason for your stall.
As for your exercise program, I echo what Midwife said about cardio. I'm not sure how intense the cardio is that you're doing (do you use a HR monitor?) but often you can cut back on the time if you increase the intensity. Take me, for example. I lost my weight doing an hour of steady state cardio on the elliptical every day, moderate intensity. I've since discovered that a half-hour of high intensity intervals will give me the same results in half the time.
Can you tell us a little more about your hour weightlifting sessions? Are you following a plan? Are you changing up your exercises on a regular basis? How many exercises and sets would you typically do in a hour? An hour seems a lot to me because I can get through 5 - 6 different exercises, 3 sets each, in half an hour with 15 - 30 second rests between sets. And, as Nelie says, it's important to keep challenging yourself with new exercises and increasing weights to keep your body from adapting to your routine. If you do kickbacks one week, for example, swap them for overhead extensions the next. Keep it different and keep it challenging!
Like I said, just a few thoughts. I'm just having a hard time seeing how weights could be slowing you down (maybe it's my bias!
) Keep in mind that lifting weights does a lot more than just helping you be tight and toned when you reach goal -- by maintaining and even increasing your muscle mass, you're keeping your metabolism running high and making it easier to lose and maintain weight. Studies show that when we lose weight without working to maintain our muscle mass, that up to 40% of the "weight" we lose is muscle. And muscle is precious since it's the calorie burner in our bodies!
Hopefully there's another answer and we can get you back on the losing trail!