>his is about 1,800 calories a day which puts me at a steady pace to lose about 1 lb of fat a week assuming I don't cheat.

A pound of fat is 3500 calories, so you've really got to be hitting a 500 calorie a day deficit to get there. 1800 cal a day seems a bit high to achieve a lb of weight loss per week (2k/day recommended intake), unless of course you're very tall in which case your baseline might be 2300 cal.