Melanie, first off, welcome to the forum. Second - breath. You're doing great! Fat loss is not a constant slide downward - just as it wasnt a straight progression up. The body needs to adjust to a new size - it likes to take it's own sweet time. I bet you didnt gain the weight in 6 weeks - it's not coming off that fast either. And this is a good thing. You need the time it takes to lose the fat to learn new behaviours, a new WOE. Otherwise we'd just put the fat back on once we reached goal.

A few pointers:

You never lose inches and fat at the same time. It is one or the other. Frankly, I'd rather lose inches - no one but the people on this Forum know what I weigh - but everyone sees my butt

Aritificial Sweeteners can cause some people to stall. There's an article by Doreen under Low Carb Tips (located in orange highlight at the top of every page) that you should read - article is called "Artificial Sweetners".

There is also one up there called "Intestinal health" (also by Doreen). It is filled with good advice on what to do to help constipation.

Your slow down or pause (whatever you want to call it - but don't call it a stall !!) could be caused by a) the constipation b) the artificial sweetner c) your body needing a breather d) your body shedding some water and losing inches instead and e) a little bit of all of the above.

Be a little more patient with yourself - you're doing great.

One final suggestion - be sure you're getting your water. 64 oz a day and 8 oz for every 25 lbs you want to lose. The more water you drink the better - it's the water that flushes out the toxins. Water can also help alleviate the constipation. If your ketostix are dark its usually a sign of dehydration - not better fat burning. As far as those stix are concenrned, trace / light and deep are all the same - ketosis is ketosis is ketosis.

HTH
Nat