Can anyone explain what's happening here?

[33by33]

Hi! So I've been on Fast 800 for just over 4 weeks. I haven't been religious about sticking to 800 calories but I do only eat in an 8 hour window and it's always between 800 and 1200, I log everything. I haven't had any pasta, no white rice (and only the odd spoonful of wholegrain rice), no UPF products at all, the odd slice of wholewheat sourdough bread. Mostly it's been oily fish, vegetables, skinless chicken, omelettes etc. All measured, except non-starchy veg. I usually follow the meal plans from the book pretty exactly. I also try and get at least 6000 steps a day and I run 5k twice a week.

In the first week I lost 3kg, then for the next 2 and a half I just gained and lost the same half kg the whole time, which was so frustrating. Now in the past few days it's been dropping off again - I'm apparently 0.6kg lighter this morning than I was yesterday.

I am really confused? I was so ready to give up a few days ago, I can't see anything I've done differently that's causing such fluctuations.

For reference I'm 32, SW 102kg (224lbs), CW 93.2kg (206lbs). I lost the first few kgs before I started Fast 800 over a few months of basic calorie counting, I was 98.6kg 4 weeks ago when I started Fast 800.

Any ideas what's going on and how I can end this cycle of loss followed by long plateau?

Losing weight is not 100% about food, but it is true that you can't outrun a bad diet.

If the OP is eating 1,000 calories a day and her TDEE is 1750 calories (I don't know that it is, but just using this as an example) a day at the level of exercise she is doing (which is practically sedentary at 6,000 steps a day) then she will lose weight at the 750 calories a day - approximately 1.5lbs a week (not linearly, but on average over time)

If she adds on another 250-500 calories in exercise then the loss will increase by 0.5-1lb a week.

My TDEE is about 1650 calories a day being pretty sedentary. To lose weight I eat around 1500 calories a day and I also add another 700-800 active calories a day, which gives me a weight loss of about 1.75lbs a week.

I could come down to 1,000 calories a day and not do the exercise at all and still lose weight, but I like my food and want to eat 1500 calories a day and the exercise I do are my hobbies so do them regardless of diet or not.

The problem isn't what you're doing, it is that your expectations are way too high. 5kg in 4 weeks is very rapid weight loss, a plateau is a minimum of three months of diet/exercise compliance without any weight loss, not a couple of weeks.

Weight loss really is not linear and what you do on a Saturday will not show until a few days later. I’ve tracked for 18 months and there is always a delay in seeing results, frustrating but a plateau really is a stall lasting 4 weeks or more, you have lost weight in the past few weeks, just slower than you would like. You will see results and fluctuations so don’t give up. Agree with you don’t eat back your exercise calories but factor in more activity like walking - a week of fast paced walking 5 miles a day really shifts my weight rapidly against just going a couple of times.