I've found that whenever I'm running or using the elliptical after a point my feet start to hurt really bad. It's kind of like a stinging sensation on the underside of my foot, that area of tissue right below the toes. I usually push through it but I am constantly readjusting my foot and trying to find a point where it's more comfortable. It gets to unbearable points sometimes and I'm just wondering if there's anything I can do about this...

could it be your shoes?

Short version: Agreed, look at your shoes.

Long version: Both feet in the same place says that it's not some acute-type injury-- you don't mess up right and left identically at the same time.

Then, running and the elliptical use your feet differently-- impact versus non-impact, and strike-roll-push off versus static foot use. So it's probably not that you're doing something specific in some odd way (say, clenching your toes when you push off or whatever).

That leaves shoes.

That said, google around for ball of foot pain wrt running. ISTR I've seen it talked about somewhere but I have no idea where.

It could be metatarsalgia, but that usually affects older people whose foot pads have thinned with age.

Do you wear high heels a lot? Do you have wide feet? Do you have any other problems with your feet, like flat feet (pronation), bunions, or hammer toes?

I have morton neuromas, and they cause acute pain (stinging/burning) in the ball of the foot. They are most often located between the fourth and fifth metatarsal (your big toe is the first), but mine are located between the second and third, and when I'm standing on the ground barefoot, it feels like I have a marble between the toe joints...it's so big you can see it. Neuromas are benign tumors that are formed from nerve tissue that has been irritated to the point of inflammation, so much that it forms scar tissue. They are located on the nerve that sits between the toe joints.

You could have them already at your age. When I was a kid they didn't have many wide shoe stores and I had wide feet, and was always cramming my feet into shoes that weren't wide enough. By 18 I had bad bunions already (which just made my feet wider and the shoe problem worse). My toes were always being squeezed together and irritating the nerves. Now the meuromas have spread my toes even farther apart, and I've been living in flip-flops for 20 years because I can no longer wear shoes.

Neuroma's can also be caused by pronation (flat feet and putting more weight on the inside of your foot) or supination (high arches and putting too much weight on the outside of your foot), although more often from pronation. I have supination.

I am not suggesting that is what you have, but if getting a good pair of workout shoes does not solve the problem, you might want to see a podiatrist before you develop serious problems that might affect your feet for life. If you do have neuromas, you may need special orthodics or insoles, to prevent them getting worse. Once they are bad enough, the only real cure (if it works) is surgery.

I sincerely hope it's not anything like neuromas.

When they are stinging does it hurt more to squeeze your toes together? That's where the neuromas are located...on the nerve between the joints of the toes. Look up Morton's neuromas on Google...Lots of info out there.

Good luck...foot pain can be debilitating. I often can't stay on my feet for more than a half hour now and can only wear flip flops. Don't ignore your feet. They are so important.