Afraid of Losing Weight (Which is bad, details below)

[NeedLeAnswers]

Here's the issue - I've been gaining weight a steady 2-4lb every two or three weeks consuming 3,000 calories a day.
HOWEVER, I simply can't feed three people including myself with the income I'm making and still reach 3,000 calories without some bullet biting in terms of eating really unhealthy food.

Point is, I'm not sure if cutting back down to my previous diet around 1,600 calories will make me lose the gains I've made so far.
So;
Q1: Will I lose weight if I eat 1,600 calorieS
Q2: If NO to Q1, does that still apply if I also work out lightly and eat 1600? Or will my muscles start cannibalizing themselves?

Side note about my life: I legitimately BARELY can pay rent as it is.

[Heisman2]

You should post this in the main nutrition section.

You should also look up threads on "clean eating" and realize there are a lot of myths about it.

You can eat a "healthy" diet with 3000 kcal/day without having to spend much money. Use peanut butter & olive oil as sources of fat, rice/oatmeal/bread as sources of carbs, protein is trickier but chicken is probably your best bet.

If you go back to 1600 kcal/day and you were losing weight on it before you will lose weight on it again.