I weigh 230 lbs. and am 19 years old.?

You really need to loose a lot of weight. 230 might not sound like a lot, but for only being 5'3" that is significantly overweight. You should set an ultimate goal of losing about a hundred pounds. That would put your BMI at 23. If you want to just be on the line between a healthy weight and overweight, you could lose about 85 lbs. Don't get too focused on that, though. Just worry about loosing 20 lbs at a time. A healthy weight loss would be about 5 lbs/month. At that rate, you could lose 20 lbs in 4 months and a hundred lbs in less than two years (about a year and 8 months).

I know exactly how you feel - I used to be about 75 lbs overweight. Now I'm down to 190 lbs at 6'1". It can be hard at first, but you just need to make it a habit. Remember, if you are like I was, you have been gaining weight and living unhealthily for many years now. There's no quick fix and it requries patience. Your body may resist loosing weight at first, but if you are consistant for a long time, you will loose weight. It gets easier as you go. There's no one thing to make you loose weight. You need to do a lot of things - eat healthy foods, eat less food, exercise often, be consistant. Do that nonstop for a year and see what happens. I would be utterly shocked if you didn't loose any weight.

Try eating around 2,000 to 2,500 calories per day. Remember, 1 lb of fat is equivellent to 3,500 calories. If you need to loose a hundred lbs, then you need to burn 350,000 calories. If you eat 480 calories less than what your body needs every day for 2 years, you will loose a hundred lbs.

Good luck!

How much time are you spending on the treadmill and elliptical and what intensity? If you're just doing 15 min "strolls" on the treadmill, that is not going to do much for weight loss.You need to get your heart rate within the range and keep it there for at least 20 mins.

Also, for eating healthy and counting calories, instead of stressing over the number of calories you're taking in, just relax and let your body tell you what it wants (of course, healthy food only). Once your body's relaxed, then you'll start losing weight. Doing too much too soon actually causes your body to stress out and when it's stressed, it'll hold on to weight.

I actually wouldn't do all that crunches right away. Your abdominal muscles might not be strong enough to take all that work and you might end up hurting yourself - and then get discouraged. Instead, just work on cardio activities that also helps you strength your abdominal muscles (ie. power walking, swimming, etc.) Once you feel your abs are stronger, then do the crunches.