RoeCocoa's Journal, 15 June 2017

If you're eating less than your maintenance at target weight currently, you could always lose the last 3-4lbs a little more gradually by slowly upping your intake each week so that you're eating at maintenance as you hit your target. Otherwise, just keep tracking/logging/weighing once you're at target to work out how much you need to eat, more/less, etc. If you can lose, you can maintain! You got this! 

Thanks, Christi! I'm just a little worried because my average calorie intake is slightly higher than it was in April (when my weight loss was slower and not as steady) and only 100 kCal/day lower than in May (when I didn't weigh myself and took off less than 2 pounds over 5 weeks). I'm 5'1" and my alleged, so-called “ideal weight” (can you tell I don't have a lot of faith in this concept?) is 110 pounds. I deliberately set my goal ten pounds higher because I remember being miserable at 110 and my doctor at that time thought that some of my health issues were related to underweight. If I had a doctor now, that's where I would go with my concerns. 

Well, I'm no doctor, but I don't think that sounds like much to worry about. Your BMR has obviously changed as you've lost weight, your activity level may have shifted, body composition (IE: muscle vs fat percentages) has likely changed, maybe you've developed a healthier diet that happens to be lower sodium and so are retaining less water, hell maybe practice has just made you more accurate with tracking your intake! Lotta factors that can cause fluctuations and figuring out what your personal maintenance is at target weight is always gonna involve a lil trial and error; no one's likely to be EXACTLY at the TDEE that calculating via a formula concludes, y'know? If your only cause of concern is a little inconsistency and fluctuation in the hard numbers of your progress, I think you're probably solid. Keep on keeping on! 

PS: 'Ideal weight' is total BS, yeah. People aren't that stock or formulaic. Thats why things like BMI use a healthy-weight RANGE; where the ideal is within that is going to vary a bit individual to individual for sure!