what am I doing wrong?

Watch, not swatch.

A lot of people find they lose more weight when they eat more. I don't understand why, but it happens.

This is all in my opinion. I am not an expert. That said, I suggest the following:

I know you want to lose weight and be healthy and I am familiar with that battle myself. I agree with what Stumblebee said about salt intake and water retention. You can log that on MFP and see what you are at. You are getting pretty good burns. I would suggest that you change your macros to 50/30/20 and see if that helps. (Protein/carbs/fat). That seems to help a lot of people. Set your calories at 1500 and see if that helps. You would be amazed at what changes you will see when you change things around. Also, make sure you drink half your weight in ounces of water per day. Since you are at 290, I would say 145 would probably be good to start. Your body needs the water.

I hope this helps. I wish you luck! You can add me if you like.

Even with medication, hypothyroidism = slow weight loss. That said, 1.8 pounds a week isn't bad. Is that your typical weekly loss?

If you eat soy products, try cutting them out. Doesn't work for everyone, but it helped me lose weight a little more easily.

And yeah, try upping your calories to, say, 1500 a day for a week. If you gain, go back to what you were doing.

It can be aggravating to see the scale move slowly. Especially when you are working hard and trying to be diligent. Hang in there! As said before 1-2 lbs a week is a good, and healthy rate of weight loss.

That said, make sure you are counting and measuring everything you put in your mouth. Every splash of milk in your coffee, every piece of fruit, every half teaspoon of butter to fry an egg. All of it. Including that meal out on your *free* day. You will likely be surprised how a couple hundred extra calories can slip into our daily intake if we are not counting. Also, it is possible that your burn rates may be a bit high. I understand from doing some reading around here that MFP tends to overestimate those figures.

I suspect your weekly *free* day with a meal out is working against you. May I suggest that you cut that back to once a month? If it's an unbreakable tradition with friends and family to go out for a Sunday meal each week, then maybe have the Eggs Benedict (my personal favorite, and a huge splurge) once a month and have a lite selection from the menu every other week. Let the treat be that you are out with good company. And count everything you eat on Sundays. To still lose nearly 2 pounds and have a splurgy Sunday is still good.

Don't compare yourself to others. Ever. In any department. There will always be people ahead of you and behind you. Best of luck to you.

I have a lazy thyroid for which I'm taking medication for.… I only lost 1.8 lbs this week. My problem is my weight loss is slower than my not so heavy friends' and I'm really frustrated.

"Only" lost 1.8 lb. this week?! A healthy weight loss is .5–2 lb. per week. You're doing great!

MFP has a Hypothyroidism and Hyperthyroidism group:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/forums/show/770-hypothyroidism-and-hyperthyroidism

I have Hashimoto's (autoimmune thyroid disease) and take Synthroid. My endocrinologist told me I could lose just like anyone else, but it took me a year to lose 20 lb. Those of us with thyroid problems lose more slowly than most MFPers—so be patient!

My Fitness Pal. . .

I've been working hard at losing weight. I only had 23 lbs to lose. I've lost 13 so far since January 1st. I agree with everyone here about their suggestions. One thing I've learned about myself on this journey (believe me that I've tried to lose this 20-23 lbs numerous times for the last 10 years) I needed to stop looking at what everyone else loses compared to what I'm doing, stop doing what I know, and appreciate the hard work I've been doing. I eat 5-6 times a day, I don't do the same exercises everyday (muscle confusion), I don't eat the same thing everyday either and I take electrolytes. I notice I tend to get comfortable with doing the same thing everyday and I think that is what works against me. Our bodies get used to this. We don't like outside change and our bodies don't like inside change either. It's confusing but, what do we do with our outside changes? (the things that come at us on a daily basis: whether it's a traffic ticket, unexpected bill, sick kid, etc…? We deal with it right? We knock it out and move on.) That is the same as the inside of our bodies. If we don't have anything different in our bodies, we adapt and we don't grow or shrink is our goal. (oxymoron but I think you know what I mean right?) So, why do I do electrolytes when everyone says take the salt out of our diet? I do it because I feel our organs need the electrolytes to flush the damage we've done. I avoided them because we all think salt! No way! But electrolytes are many other things. I choose to use an electrolyte with no sugar. I buy Sqwinchers lite and have one on my way to work in 24 oz of water. I prefer the Citrus flavor because their are no dyes in it. The funny thing is I've actually seen faster weight lose doing it. I only do one a day unless I'm doing a long workout and feel dehydrated and can't take in enough water. I also push myself further than I have ever done before. I always thought: "Oh, I did the treadmill for 60 minutes…that's totally awesome because I burned "such and such" calories" Not that's not great but what about the rest of my body? I got used to just getting in my exercise regardless of whether I'm repeating the something everyday….that's exactly when I would give up because my body wasn't confused. It got used to what I'm doing and my body said, "ok, lets go for another walk…I'm used to this." What I want to do is have my body say, "What the $%*#! are you doing? I've gotta drop some of the #$%& weight to keep up!" LOL. This all may be unconventional but it has worked for me. Take what you want from it and I wholeheartedly support your efforts. I wish the best for you and don't give up!!!

if you have below what the minimum calorie intake they suggest, your putting you body through starvation mode this reduces the chance of losing weight as your body feels that it has to store fat. if you eat 5 small meals a day this can help.

the way i do this is i split the amount of calories (1400) into the separate meals to help me maintain it such as

breakfast - 280
snack - 140
lunch - 420
snack - 140
dinner - 420

this amount includes drinks,puddings etc as well, this way you body is always full and you feel less hungry.