Help with calorie intake please

Care76

Hello, I am a newbie here. I have read many threads on too few calories and got lots of great tips, but I worry I am still not eating right. First off I will tell you a bit about my eating habits. For the past few years I have been eating way too few calories (between 400-800/day) and only eating one big meal and not enough snacks/day. This started when I realized I had food allergies to a lot of processed foods and didn't have time to cook properly for myself except for dinner. I was slowly gaining weight every year. Around April of this year I really tried to up my calorie intake to at least 1200/day as recommended by the MFP app. I eat fairly healthy, but not perfect. For example today I had a almond danish coffecake (I know, bad, it is not usual for me but it was a gift) for breakfast, carrots and green beans for a snack, 2 talapia fillets pan fried in coconut oil, and an apple for a snack. I made pot roast for dinner later (I eat mostly veggies) and if I have a snack after it would probably be popcorn with a bit of melted peanut butter or rice chips. If I eat that, that is only around 930 cal - 254 for a walk. I don't generally drink anything but water. Sometimes I make smoothies, but really I just like water, I crave it and don't really enjoy anything else to drink so I don't get calories from drinks so this makes my calorie count low.

I have been eating pretty good, getting closer to my 1200 cal/day if not a bit more (if I don't exercise), plus I generally eat really good foods. A few months ago I cut out potatoes, dairy (except yogourt and occasional cheese), and wheat (unless it is 100% sprouted wheat, no flour, organic bread and that is occasional). I have been gaining weight like mad. I gained over 15 pounds in two months. I have had to take some herbs that increase my hormones (for fertility) and I know that can cause some women weight gain and bloating, and due to my fertility issues I had to stop zumba (or any high impact exercises) and anything that raises my body temp too high. So I know these things can be the cause. What I am worried about is that I am maybe eating too many calories because my body was used to eating so few that now it thinks I am over eating? Or that maybe I still need to eat more? My MBR says I need 1492/day, but when I added my goals to MFP it said 1200/day. Another site I went to said 1249/day. So now I am so confused. I really don't know a lot about dieting or calories, I just know what foods my body likes and doesn't like based on how I feel. If anybody could give me some advice I would appreciate it.

Care76

I also forgot to add that I cut back dramatically on beef and pork in the past couple months.