Why can I not lose weight? 😫

I’m SO frustrated and I do not know what I’m doing wrong. I can’t even remember the last time I was able to lose weight. The last 4 weeks though I have felt like I’ve been doing everything right and the scale is STILL not budging. I didn’t take before pictures but my clothes are still fitting the same so I know I’m not losing inches either. I just don’t know what I’m missing or what else to do. It’s really messing with me mentally.

I’m 5’9ā€ and I weight 173 pounds. I have always been very muscular in my lower half so I’ve never been ā€œlight weightā€ even in my slimmest days. I weighed probably around 155-160 when I was in the best shape of my life so I know that anything below that is not likely at all and I’m fine with that. But WHY am I stuck at 173? It’s like my body is refusing to drop a single pound. I’m truly looking for insight from anyone that can help me understand what I’m doing wrong or what I should change.

This has been my regimen the last 4 weeks:

Food: I do 16:8 intermittent fasting and my eating window is from 1-9pm. I only drink water and black coffee outside of that window, I do not eat breakfast, for lunch I do a 310 meal replacement shake that’s roughly 150 calories. I will have 2 mid-afternoon snacks which is usually a handful of dried fruit and nuts or cucumbers, carrots, and a scoop of hummus. For dinner most nights I will do either grilled salmon, Mahi Mahi, or chicken with brown rice or quinoa and a green veggie of some kind. If I want something sweet for dessert I’ll do pineapple and strawberries or I’ll treat myself to a skinny cow ice cream bar (100-150 calories). I will usually have one cheat meal on the weekend.

Exercise: I workout at least 4 days a week, usually for an hour. 20 minutes spinning, 20 minutes brisk walking my neighborhood, then 20 minutes HIIT. I burn roughly 400-500 calories on those days. The other days I will do either yoga and/or walking the neighborhood so I’ll burn 200-300 calories on those days. I am physically active nearly every single day where as 4 weeks ago I was not working out at all.

Areas that bother me the most: my lower belly is BY FAR my biggest enemy and I want to slim and tone my arms and thighs and tighten up my bum.

I drink a ton of water everyday, I don’t drink sodas or tea, I don’t drink much alcohol at all, and I do black coffee. My thyroid is fine, hormones are good, I’m not on birth control, and it’s been almost 10 years since I had my daughter so I can no longer use the ā€œbaby weightā€ excuse.

It doesn’t matter how many different people tell me ā€œthe scale doesn’t matterā€ ā€œstop looking at the numberā€ ā€œit’s all about how you look, not how much you weighā€. It matters to me. I don’t want to weigh 173 pounds. I’m 5 pounds under my husband. That BOTHERS me. I do know that 4 weeks is not a lot of time and I have no plans of stopping, but don’t you think I would see at least ONE pound dropped or feel my jeans loosening up at my waist even just a tiny bit by now? Please tell me what I’m doing wrong. I’m on the verge of breaking down because I feel like I’m working so hard and nothing is happening. 😭 Open to any feedback/recommendations!