Long post ahead! Please skip if you're not interested in reading about my dilemma!

I'm 5'2 and currently 52.5kg (115lbs). I want to lose fat and get down to 50kg (110 lbs), but I'm having trouble finding my exact maintenance ever since I started a proper weight-training routine 4 months ago.

All of my adult life, I've always hovered between 51kg (112lbs) to 54kg (119lbs) no matter how/what I ate. Examples of the kinds of unhealthy food I ate were an ultra-processed diet, alcohol, fast food, takeouts, brownies/pancakes ice-cream 2x a week etc. I also never tracked my calories at all. However, it may be that late 20s kicked in and I started to feel the sluggish effects from years of not eating healthily and not working out, so I engaged a PT ever since December 2022 because I wanted to be fit, build muscle mass, lose the fat and just lead a healthier life in general. I would say that I'm still sedentary or at most likely active (9-6pm job, minimal step count of <5k, workout 3-4x a week with weights and cardio for about 1 - 1.5hrs), but I'm glad that I've gained considerable strength through these 4 months with progressive overload, e.g. started with 20kg (44lbs) squats, 30kg (66lbs) deadlifts and 35kg (77lbs) hipthrusts to now achieving a personal best of doing 70kg (154lbs) squats & deadlifts and 100kg (220lbs) hipthrusts. YAY me!!

However, I'm still at the same exact weight that I was when I first started 4 months ago. Now, I know I'm definitely recomping because my body looks toner and feels much stronger, but what I'm annoyed at is that I still don't know what my maintenance TDEE is despite tracking my calories, and that makes it hard for me to know how many calories to cut to lose fat. For example, in January, there was this particular week where I was 51.7kg (114lbs) consuming an average of 1926 calories, and I actually got down to my lowest of 50.7kg (111lbs) the next week. My waist was also at its slimmest at 63.8cm at this weight. I was really happy and thought I could hit my 50kg (110lbs) goal weight sooner than I thought. So I decreased my intake and consumed 1800 calories in the next week, yet my weight went up to 51.3kg (113lbs), so I restricted a lil bit more and consumed 1765 calories the following week, yet my weight increased to 51.45kg. I decided to restrict even more and consumed 1650 calories the next week, yet my weight stubbornly went up to 51.7kg (114lbs)! I decided to stay within the 1600-1800 range for awhile after that while waiting for my weight, salt retention etc to stabilise itself but yet in late Feb, my weight went up to 52.7kg (116lbs). I'm religious in my calorie tracking and I also order my meals from a mealprep provider, so this is how I know the calories are pretty accurate.

Fast forward to current day, I decided to cut even more by consuming 1300-1500 calories but yet I'm still at 52.5kg (115lbs), with my waist being 65.5cm, up from 63.8cm You'd think that with the past 4 months, there should have been a pattern formed where I can roughly know what my TDEE is and monitor my weight/fat loss, but this has been further from the truth. I know I'm at a healthy weight, but I'm just very confused by my own body and what it expects me to eat.

It seems like the lesser I eat, the more I weigh.. I'm now afraid of upping my calories for fear of having a bigger waist than my current 65.5cm (not that this is big in anyway btw). I love food and have a HUGE appetite and obviously I don't want to be consuming at 1300-1500 calories with a stubborn 65.5cm waist if I can eat more at 1900 calories and still have a 63.8cm waist. Not sure what to do. Looking for some advice/brainstorming for this lovely community. Thanks in advance!