What works for breaking plateaus varies from person to person and even from time to time. There isn’t any doubt that if you fast for a week you’ll lose weight, the problem is more of if it will stay off. You just need to experiment a bit and be patient. Sooner or later if you keep the pressure on the weight will drop. I would check though to make sure you aren’t overeating as that could stall weight loss for a very long time. Since you’ve lost 40 pounds your food consumption should have gone down some, probably naturally.

I just had a two week break from my fasting routine and I was concerned I would put on some fat, but it didn’t happen, if anything it seems I lost more fat. Sometimes just changing something for a while will work.

Currently I prefer 36 hour fasts. Once I got used to sleeping through the second night, it because really easy. That third 12 hour period probably burns more fat than the 24 hours before it. However there are a lot more benefits on the hormonal level. I’m trying to build lean body mass and I found that 36 hour fasts work great. I also had success with 60 hour fasts but found longer fasts not as productive. However most people are more concerned about losing weight, for me that is just losing some fat, but I don’t have much I can lose anymore. In general the more fat you have the more you can fast, but it may take some training.

For you I would just consider maybe trying 36 hour fasts. I would also take a critical look and see if there isn’t more processed foods you can cut out of your diet.

Personally I like fake sweeteners, especially the ones that are more than 100x sweeter than table sugar because so little of them is needed. However I have found that my consumption when way down for months at a time this year, like zero. It wasn’t because I decided to avoid them, I just didn’t crave them. I have found the regular fasting is pushing me more to whole unprocessed foods naturally. However we are all different. I’ve also lost more than you did. I started at 106kg and today was less than 79kg. (233 lbs to ~173lbs, so 60 lbs) It has taken me six years to lose it mostly because I’ve been trying to build more muscle. I’ve likely lost over 75lbs of fat but have been putting on some muscle.

Along the way I’ve experienced many plateaus, the longest one being 2 years. That one I broke by cutting almost all refined sugar out of my diet. It was my daily ice cream bar that did me in, even though I was consuming less than 2000 calories a day. After making changes in my diet, mostly cutting out processed foods my daily calories when up and I started losing fat. It isn’t always just the amount that is eaten. I actually lost a lot of muscle while on the 2 year plateau but now have been fasting over 2 years and rebuilt a lot more muscle mass than I lost.

I wish you success. Just keep at it. This is a great forum to get lots of support and ideas.