Yes, no doubt. As long as you make good choice. I lost most of my weight when I wasn't counting calories, I only started to count when I hit the most stubborn plateau and now it's become a force of habit which I rather enjoy to be honest. Like one above poster mentioned, you already have a good understanding of how many calories are in what foods.

I just kind of counting them up in my mind .. and ive been doing fine so far :-)

I think you should try to figure out why you feel it's restrictive.

Do you feel restricted because you're forbidding yourself certain foods?
Do you feel restricted because of the volume of food you're eating?
Is there another reason?

Calorie counting (whether strict tracking or "eyeballing" it) works for me because I find it the LEAST restrictive way of eating. For me it's NOT about being on a diet. If I feel like I'm dieting or restricted, then I won't succeed.

Maybe that is something you can explore and figure out why and it will help you decide what you want to do?

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Perhaps I should count calories, but in the past, I always counted fat grams. This seemed to really help me and I lost and maintained a great weight. These days, however, I am finding it all really hard. I still focus on fat grams, because those seem to be far worse for me.

Anyone else do this as a way to help?

I never focus on fat grams except for things like, "are my fat calories coming from monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats vs. saturated?" Consuming healthy fats is critical in keeping your body healthy because they are a key place to get omega-3 fatty acids. don't even get me started on how important i think omega-3s are. they're good for your heart, they're good for your joints, they're good for keeping you full. there's more reasons, i wrote a paper on them (i'm a university student) if you're interested it's a little nerdy.

if i were you, i would look at counting calories, a great site for that is http://www.fitday.com. it also counts grams of fat.

one more thing; sorry, this is turning into a book...is a lot of low-fat foods are higher in carbohydrates or sugar to compensate for their lower fat content. to me, more importantly than counting fat or carbohydrates is reading labels and knowing what i'm putting into my body.

whew.

sweet talker.. thanks so much for your input.. I do take into consideration the good fats and bad fats... I usually always limit the bad fats, and the good fats, I don't really fret over too much..

I found though, like you said, that those items that are fat free not only have lots of carbs, but can also have sugar alcohols which really bother my tummy. argh!

I wish I could have read your paper though.. I think that stuff is so important to read about and understand, and unfortunately, I am not too savvy on my omega 3 requirements.. soon, though, hopefully I will be!