Trying to drop weight but have questions

You know the correction you need to do, you as good as pointed it out yourself: You need to eat more.

Why? For your health. In these early days, you may still be dropping water retention from a change in eating patterns, but even with that in the picture, a pound a day is much much much too fast.

Normally, I'd say that someone over 200 pounds would be safe losing a couple of pounds a week, but with a chronic health condition in the picture, your body is already under stress. An energetic gym schedule is also a stress, even though it can have positive outcomes in the long run. A large calorie deficit is also a very major physical stress. Physical and psychological stresses are cumulative across all types, and can trigger health problems (muscle loss, gall bladder problems, hair loss (usually delayed a few weeks after the physical triggers), immune system suppression, low testosterone, and more).

Are bad things guaranteed to happen? No. But you're creating a high risk situation. At your current size and activity level, you're risking dropping into the kind of scenario described in this post (the person who wrote it was smaller and female):

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10761904/under-1200-for-weight-loss/p1

That kind of thing is thankfully rare, but it's possible.

On top of that, it's fairly common to see people get out of the gate with a new routine and be very aggressive, through sort of a physical/psychological/stress & hunger hormone honeymoon . . . then hit a wall, hormones snap back, the body fights back to get adequate fuel and nutrition, and they at minimum have a compensatory episode(s) of overeating, maybe even give up altogether. Extremes are unsustainable.

At too low calories, you aren't getting adequate nutrition: Even if you hit your macronutrient percents, you're getting too little in a gross-numbers sense. With a good gym schedule, underfueling and undernutrition are a way to torpedo potential fitness gains, let alone the potential impact on daily life functioning and energy, once the extremes come home to roost.

Losing any meaningful amount of weight is not a quick project with an end date - unless you like unhealthful weight yo-yo. Losing a meaningful amount of weight takes weeks to months, even if going really pretty fast. Then, once at weight goal, maintaining that healthy weight is a forever endeavor. That all puts a priority on finding and practicing sustainable changes in habits, i.e., new habits you can stick to almost on autopilot when other parts of life get challenging . . . because they will.

Guilt is absolutely dysfunctional, especially when it's guilt over getting minimally adequate calories and nutrition. "I feel guilty for trying to be healthy"? No. Please no.

Mastering your own mind is a key life skill. I'm not saying it's easy, but your own thought patterns are the one thing that's pretty much 100% within your control. Exploit that.

Guilt burns no extra calories, feels icky: Work on eliminating it. Instead, make it a goal to optimize a balance of weight loss, exercise performance/results, nutrition, and energy level. That's a superpower for creating a better life long term.

If you can, make it a game to hit within 50 calories of your 2650 calories every day for 4-6 weeks. (If you were female, I'd say whole menstrual periods.) If you can, get addicted to getting your personal formula optimized, finding the sweet spot.

That 2650 is not an unreasonable number, not at all, for a man your size, and I'm guessing you're young besides (compared to me 😉). As a 5'5", 120-something pound, 66 year old woman, I can eat that much sometimes and maintain my weight. (I admit my usual maintenance with normal exercise is more like 2000-2500 - but I'm about 1/3 your weight, presumably shorter, probably much older, and 100% more female).

If this seems harsh, that's not how I mean it. Think of me as your health-oriented but anxious internet auntie/granny, who wants to see you succeed with your weight goals . . . and your fitness goals, and at life in general. I may be a total stranger, but I honestly do care.

Please eat more.