feeling a little discouraged

And that you have an awesome daughter to boot!! Way to go mom!!

6.4 lbs in 3 weeks is AWESOME! Way to go. Your daughter is right. You’re going to have good and bad weeks. I’d keep on doing what you’re doing. When I was losing weight, some weeks I’d drop 3-4 lbs, and other weeks I’d drop none. It happens and can depend on a lot of variables. I wouldn’t worry about making any changes unless you have 3 weeks in a row of bad progress. Then I think it’s appropriate to switch things up.

Be sure that you’re really sticking to your calorie and macro goals too. A little extra here and there can really add up if you’re not being diligent about your nutrition.

You’ve got this, and keep the great work up!
Allan

A little progress is still progress... but if you're doing good, why would you stop measuring? Keep doing the things that made you lose. It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking you can now gauge your calories without measuring everything... you'd be surprised how far off your mental count can be. Good Luck and All the Best!

Sounds like the only thing you did wrong was unrealistic expectations. The fluctuations and stalls can drive you crazy if you let it. Your wise daughter is correct. You are doing great!!

FWIW, there's nothing wrong with drinking tea! You don't need to cut out tea and replace it with water unless you want to. It will still keep you hydrated, and that's the point.

As others have said, there are no less than 100 possible factors. If you're building muscle, the scale won't always be your friend, pay attention to how your clothes feel. Are you eating enough? Perhaps try cutting back on the tea (especially if it's caffeinated), and adding pure water back in. If you're looking for something warm, try hot water with lemon as a swap here/there. Healthy weight loss is an average of 2lbs per week, so you're right within that range. And that's an average, so you'll have ups and downs, but get back to what worked well for you the first few weeks. Focus on the positives, and see where you can improve. I always tell ppl "aim for progress, not perfection." Stick with it! You got this!

My weight loss over the past 3 months has looked like this:



As you can see, there have been lots of ups and downs. It's not a straight line. Sometimes I'll gain a couple of pounds one week, only to lose them afterwards. But obviously, there's been a downward trend because I lost 22 pounds in a little over 3 months.

What I'd suggest to you is to perhaps consider weighing in daily instead of weekly. Weekly weigh-ins can be devastating to motivation because you build up all kinds of expectations and anticipation, and then if you step on the scale and don't see the big drop, you get really disappointed. When, in truth, maybe it's just water retention from the night before, or a different time of day or time of month, or a thousand other reasons for fluctuation. Daily weigh-ins mean that each data point has less importance attached to it, and it's easier to put a small gain into perspective when you see the trends. Also, sometimes it's useful to chart things. Like, I've noticed I always seem to gain a few pounds of water weight at my TOM and lose them afterwards, and I also notice that my weight appears lower if I weigh later in the morning (like, on a weekend after sleeping in).

Furthermore, I'd recommed using a free app like Trendweight (iOS) or Libra (Android) to track your weight. It will automatically give you a trendline that smooths out the fluctuations and charts your progress.