Hello,
I just registered, and I'm very new to this but I feel like this is what I need right now, so .. I need an advice. I've been working out and counting calories for almost two months now. I had a rough year and found consolation in the form of food and binging and I gained something like 17-22 pounds, so now I am working hard in order to get my old body back by dieting and working out 5 times a week. It's going fine I guess but in the past few days I've been feeling somewhat discouraged to continue dieting. I lost 6 pounds (which is not as much as I thought I would lose by now) and I'm sort of at peace with how my body looks and feels now, despite the fact that I haven't reached my goal yet. I just miss eating like a normal person and I'm tired of counting calories all the time, so I wonder - should I stop at this point and just continue working out and eating normally and within reason without counting calories, because as I said, I'm actually pretty okay with how I look right now, or should I find a new way to motivate myself to continue dieting until I reach my goal ? What would be a good way to motivate myself ?

You should never diet. You should concentrate on making permanent changes to your life that will support a healthy weight and keep your body healthy. You can't go back to eating the way you used to, even in moderation, because you will gain it back, it's just a question of how long it will take. Motivation has nothing to do with it. Life is a series of choices. We choose to do what supports our goal or we don't.

Umm I didn't mean to just give up and go back to my bad habbits, because I did make a great change and I'd like to stick to it, my question was entirely different - I've been eating less calories than my body needs in order to lose weight and now I'd like to start eating the amount of calories I need to maintain the same weight, even though I haven't reached the goal I set in the first place. Just wanted to know, based on the given information above, whether I can start doing that or should I stick to my primal goal (based on personal experiences and the opinions of other people). Just been wondering and wanted some perspective on the matter.

If you are happy with the way your body looks and feels, by all means go into maintenance.

BUT, if you are stopping now because you are "tired of counting calories", that could lead to a backslide.

You are always going to have to 'Count calories" unfortunately.

My suggestion, really just take a step back and figure out why you are considering going into maintenance. If it turns out that you really are happy, and you very well could be, CONGRATS you made it! If not, than take a beat and keep at it

Maybe take a break from the weight loss and just maintain for a few weeks- of you are happy with your body I don't see any reason to keep trying to lose, and if a few weeks go by and you decide that you want to continue weight loss, then you just pick back up where you left off and try eating below "maintinance" again.

I do agree with the other posters about being careful though. I think in "relaxing" our eating habits it gets very easy to fall into the "Ill be good tomorrow" or, "just one won't hurt".... But I think as long as you are AWARE and don't let that happen- you'll be okay