Maintaining or still losing?

I am now five months into maintenance. This morning I weighed exactly the same as when I started maintenance but (there always has to be a but!) Ann reckons I am still losing weight. So I had a look at the numbers, and she is right. The reason is that my weight bobs up and down, just like everyone else's, but it spends more time down than up. When I looked at my average weight for each month I got this:

• Month 1 84.3kg
• Month 2 83.5kg
• Month 3 84.1kg
• Month 4 83.3kg
• Month 5 82.5kg

Now you can see what's happening - the average in the last month is nearly 2kg less than in the month after I reached my target weight. It's not much, but it looks more like a slow diet than maintenance and, if it carries on like this, in another year I will be 76.5kg. That would give me a BMI of 22, and that's too low - I am already a bit scrawny because quite a bit of my weight isn't fat, but surplus skin I am now carrying around.

I think I understand this. I am now getting used to being what I think of as 'skinny' - I am enjoying being light on my feet, fitting into wrap-around chairs, and being able to walk a couple of miles without thinking about the fatigue, and several miles if I stretch myself slightly. I am enjoying it, and I am NOT going to let it slip! So I suppose I am scared of losing my grip.

I have increased things such as salmon, dairy and nuts, but in modest amounts, and I suppose it's all a bit half-hearted. On the other hand, I have finally got a little better at being careful when away from home, and I am keeping up my 10,000 steps a day. So it looks as if my slight increase in day-to-day calories is not yet quite enough to match my improved lifestyle. Mind you, we're only talking small numbers! The difference between my 'slow diet' and exact maintenance is roughly 100 calories a day - a large banana. So I need to up my calories, but be veeerrry careful!