You've gotten some great advice here. Ncuneo, you have gained a great deal of knowledge from calorie counting. Trust yourself to use that knowledge. I CCed for about 6-8 months during my weight loss but I found myself becoming too obsessive about it. I quit CCing about 3 months before I reached goal, but I used the knowledge I gained from CCing to continue to lose. I use my daily weighing to keep myself on track, that and how my clothes fit. When I've gone overboard, the scale shows it and I rein myself back in. If I suddenly gained 10+ lbs, I'd probably CC again. It's a very useful tool.

When I stop counting calories I start gaining weight.

Thanks everyone, you've given me a lot to think about. Oddly enough I lost about 1/3 of my weight without calorie counting and I lost the 50 lbs of pregnancy weight without it and maintained that for awhile before I started CCing because I ready to really reach my goal.

For now I think I will take it very slow, weekends only for a while, see how that feels a take it from there.

This is kind of old, but I just wanted to say, you definitely have to do what works for YOU. Getting to know your own quirks, habits, triggers, etc., is what can help you continue maintenance successfully. I think, for some people, this does mean calorie counting forever. If that is so, they should keep with it. Others may be able to shift off of it. We are all unique and should realize that there is no one size fits all,especially for maintenance.

I was able to stop calorie counting, but I did so while I was still losing (about 4 months before I hit maintenance), gradually, not all at once. First I started estimating calories instead of counting them, rounding up to err on the side of caution. But I was still writing them down.

Phase two was still estimating calories, but not writing them down (like allowing myself around a certain amount of calories per meal and estimating that meal before eating it, but not recording it).

Next I started just eyeballing my portions, but still keeping it mind what foods tend to be high-cal/low-cal.

Now I just eat and don't pay too much heed.

But there's only two reasons this works for me. My maintenance is mainly eating lunch and dinner, and generally not snacking or drinking things that have calories (if I wake up at a decent hour I eat breakfast though!). If my maintenance involved lots of small meals, I'd have ballooned by now.

It's so much harder for me to overeat when I am only eating 2-3 meals a day. In fact, every time I have started to gain, it's because I started snacking again. That's the reason why I am five pounds over my maintenance weight now, but I put a ban on the snacks again and I'm coming back down. There is no way I can ever snack on a regular basis and NOT gain weight. But some people maintain by eating many small meals, and that works best for them. :D

That and the second reason this has worked for me is I weigh myself at least a few times a week, which means if I'm gaining, I'll know. No denial involved. That and I sometimes weigh myself when I'm tempted to go eat a snack/ice cream. Seeing I'm still 4 pounds over my maintenance weight makes me seriously reconsider that snack.

So those are the things that have worked for me. If any seem like they might work for you, go ahead and give them a shot. Just make sure you're doing what works best for you, not what you think SHOULD work best for you. ;)

Hey ncuneo. I'm not really maintenance, but I've lurked in a lot of your threads and took a lot of things you said into account and incorporated them into my program. I use intuitive eating as a way to maintain... it's how I haven't gained any weight back but made little progress in the past 9 months haha.

I pretty much eat whatever I want, within reason. I let my body pick. I can differentiate between what is my inner fatty trying to stuff me silly, and what my actual BODY wants. So sometimes I'll have a fried egg with a little butter, or extra almond butter. I slow down my eating, and I stop when I'm full. I also don't eat when I'm not hungry. I don't really plan my meals persay (options are available, and I eat whenever I start feeling hungry so it's different every day.) I never thought this would actually work for me, but it does. I feel like a normal person almost. I don't even think about food that often, because nothing is off limits, as long as I stop. I used to binge really badly too, and I mean a real hardcore binge, sometimes upwards for 12,000 calories in a day, because I looked at it like "I better get as much of this stuff in me as I can NOW, because tomorrow it's back to the grind!" I've noticed my obsession with food has dissipated quite a bit. It doesn't work for everyone, but I noticed it works for me, for maintenance. Losing though, I have to count calories.

Anyway, good luck. I know you're struggling lately. I've learned a lot from you here and I just wanted you to know you inspire me a lot. :)