What am I doing wrong?

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It sounds like you’re losing 1 pound a week, which is pretty good!

Typically men and also people with a lot more weight to lose will lose at a faster pace, at least when they’re starting, so don’t compare yourself to them. For women in that weight range, 1 pound a week is right on track!

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Your body can gain or lose 5lbs of water pretty easily - and it’s really hard to know if its doing that. So you need more data to know if this is a real plateau or you’re actually just not seeing the weight loss.

Edit - also a pound a week is pretty close to ideal. It may be slow, but it’s sustainable and more likely to stick.

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Unfortunately if you are ingesting the same amount of calories and burning the same amount of calories then your weight will be about the same. IF is not magic. Fasting is a tool to help us control our eating, reducing calories by not eating or snacking all day. For instance, I skip breakfast and lunch but then eat my regular, or slightly larger, dinner. So my calorie intake is overall less because of those missed meals.

But if my breakfast and lunch were say 500 total calories, I can’t then eat dinner plus 500 more calories.

But don’t give up. It does work. Just don’t go crazy in your feeding time.

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It doesn’t sound like you’re doing anything wrong. It takes time, two weeks is nothing and it’s great that you’re already experiencing improvements. Keep it up and congrats! :)

If you haven’t lost any more in 2 more weeks I suggest evaluating your fasting window to see if it isn’t clean (could something be breaking the fast), or gradually increasing your fasting time may work. Everyone is different. I personally never lose quickly myself and need at least a 19 or 20 hour long fast to begin losing at all. Some people do everything right and still don’t lose weight until months in because their body is healing before dropping the weight. Just some things I’ve learned along the way, been doing this on and off since 2019 and I love it.

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First of all, 1lb a week is great!

Depending on where you are in your menstrual cycle, you may be holding on to extra water. The week before my period, my weight always goes up a few lbs, even when I know I’m in a calorie deficit. Then a day or two after my period starts I lose 5 lbs overnight. Some people don’t even weigh themselves when they’re premenstrual because it can be distressing to see the numbers go up when they’re doing everything right.

I saw in another comment that you don’t count calories. Just know that you will not lose weight without a calorie deficit. However, if you can lose a lb a week without counting, more power to you!

Congrats on your NSV’s as well!

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A few things:

1. I think the fact that you’re losing weight more slowly is good! Slow weight loss usually sticks! Don’t be disheartened, a pound a week is solid especially at your weight. Heavier people lose weight more quickly, and you’re not very heavy.
2. When people eat less or go fasting, they generally also burn lesser during the day. So you might see that you’re more static. So that can explain why you’re not losing weight as fast as we expected to.
3. You need to ensure there is no noise in your weight measurement. It’s actually easy to get a wrong. Here’s what I do:

Weigh myself First thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before consuming any fluids.

Reasons:

1. ⁠A glass of water can add half a pound. If you don’t have a dump, your weight can be a pound heavier
2. ⁠If you weigh yourself at noon instead of in the morning, your body can weigh 1-2 pounds lesser.
3. ⁠Your weight can fluctuate by a couple of pounds on consecutive days.

So there can be significant sources of noise, so it’s best to measure everyday and the average of the past few days will give you your weight. I posted by weight measurements for the year here:

https://medium.com/@rsub/i-have-eaten-once-a-day-for-the-past-9-months-heres-my-experience-45f903cb4ac8