forever??!

Does anyone plan on counting calories for the rest of their lives? This thought just occurred to me...
I've found it VERY helpful to count calories because I'm trying to lose just a bit more weight, and I know that once I reach my goal I'll have to continue for a bit to get used to maintaining. But say that all works out, will I have to do it forever? That thought saddens me.
Don't get me wrong, I'm very grateful for this site and counting calories has really helped to motivate me to lose weight. But I guess I just don't want to be so controlled by food/calories for the rest of my life. Maybe after a while once I'm used to healthy eating habits and start to remember portion sizes and how many calories are in what etc, it will just be automatic? I don't know, I guess I'm just having a down day...
Has anyone else been having thoughts like this?

You do get used to portion sizes... After a while, once you're at your goal weight, you just need to check in once in a while, make sure you're around 5 pounds of goal (since weight fluctuates daily with how much food you've eaten, water you're retaining, whatever) and if you notice your weight starting to creep, get back "on the wagon" counting for a week or two!

That's how I'm able to keep going and restricting myself. I have been maintaining for years so that's not a problem for me. I know it's hard now, but once I get where I need to be I can maintain that with a few more healthier choices than I had before. I know that one day of pigging out at death by chocolate isn't going to hurt me much. As long as it's only one day :)

thats what im planning on doing.  getting down to maintenance, understanding maintenance, and then continuing to weigh myself to stay on track.  if my weight seems to start climbin, well then we gotta start the counting again.  woo!

Once I get to goal I am going to keep an eye on my weight by weighing every week.  If it goes up a few lbs I will go back to counting calories for a few weeks, but no I dont plan on long term counting calories, but I think by then (its going to take a while) I will be pretty good at portions LOL  After all how many times do you need to weigh it before you can just eye it LOL

I've been thinking of asking the same question! I can't get over how much physical work and food planning I've had to do over the past year to lose 15 pounds and fear that I won't be able to maintain the pace.  When people reach their goal, do they continue to workout 5-6 days a week at high intensities AND continue to watch their caloric intake? Does this get easier over time? I too am feeling a little overwhelmed by it all.

I'm not sure yet.  Here's one thought.  Keep in mine that I was over 100 lbs overweight.  Once I get below 200, I will up my calories to say 200 below maintenance.  Then I will gradually lose 25 more or so until I'm at a healthy BMI.  That will be my maintenance calories for that weight so it will really just be a "rest of my life" eating plan.  It will take awhile to lose the last 25, but it just seems like it will be the healthiest way and make it easy to maintain.

We will see though.  My other plan is to weigh monthly and if I've gained anything to count for awhile to lose it.

If you don't count calories, then you won't know how much you're consuming.  I stopped counting and gained 15 lbs.  Just 100 or 200 calories more a day can be significant over a year.  I think I'll have to count forever.

I haven't counted in awhile and continue to lose. I am very careful about what and how much I eat. I quit counting just to see if I could. If I'm not losing though I always go back to it for a few days to see where I am going wrong. I am trying to learn the portion size and what foods are good for me so I won't have to count forever. Afterall it is a change of lifestyle I am trying to learn

Once you learn who much you should eat each day then you could stop. But it isn't the worst thing in the world if you want to keep off the weight.

I'm in this for life.  I don't know if I'll count calories, or log all my food once I'm solidly at my goal weight.  What I do know is this - I've made postive changes to the way I eat and exercise.  These changes are life long, not just until I lose the weight.

I wasted too many years doing the yo-yo diet thing.  Gain and lose, gain and lose, each time gaining a little more.  Time for that to stop forever!

Once I reach goal weight, I am not going to count calories everyday.  I plan to keep an eye on the scale, and if I start to gain anything, right back to counting calories I'll go.

I think that eventually it becomes habbit - its a great tool to begin with but after reaching and maintaining for a long time, evenutally (as sad as it is lol) you start to know how many calories are in EVERYTHING so you just know if your over eating or undereating!!

At times, I've been worried about the same thing. I would like to have something resembling what I consider to be a "normal" life... in which I don't always have to rely on a food scale, or always have to enter everything into a log.

But ever since I started here (which was in April), I've learned some healthy behaviours that are going to stay with me for life. I don't crave sweets as much anymore. I find fatty foods and junk foods disgusting. I can still have a treat now and then.

Also, I recently went out to eat for the first time since the lifestyle change... and I automatically ordered all the right things and ate all the right quantities. It was very strange to come home, log the meal, and find I still had a lot of calories left for the day.

My husband, having watched me do this for a while (And now he's jumping on the bandwagon, as of this week!), says it's his observation that it's simply a matter of being conscious of what one eats.

So I guess what I'm saying is, perhaps we will get so used to this new way of eating - and being conscious of what we eat - that it will become second nature. I'm hoping that's how it's going to be, at any rate!

Maybe it depends on the person... If I had lots of willpower, then I could probably get away with not counting.  But I know I am not that strong, and that one cookie quickly becomes 4.

I have SOME willpower, so maybe I will log most of the time, but allow myself some days when I just dont bother.  I do know that I will want to keep weighing myself to make sure that I dont go up.  I guess a few pounds of fluctuation is OK, but up 10 pounds is just not acceptable for me.

I dont want to lose and gain weight over and over.  I want this to be the last time I have to set out to lose weight to become healthy. 

Well, it is not a bad habit to keep. But then again, doing this for so long, wont you sort of becoming familiar of the amount of food you need to take in and what kind? I have been slacking off logging food now and only noting my exercise.
That doesnt mean i slack off on making sure I eat enough of PFC :)
After doing the logging religiously for almost 200 days, I feel confident that I can continue doing so without having to write everything down. I let myself indulge one or 2 days of the week, usually on the weekend, but after you are on this clean diet for a long time, you will find that going back bingeing and eating uber sweet, salty, or greasy food, is literally hard to swallow.
So dont fret. Take this journey a stride at a time, worry one thing at a time. :)

When I joined this site (and actually started using it) the end of December, I was incredibley faithful about logging my food and excercise everyday, I never missed a day.

A month ago we lost internet at our house (can't figure out WTF is going on... argggg) so I couldn't log anymore!  At first I thought 'Uh Oh.... I'm gonna gain if I can't log!'... but as it turns out, after 4 1/2 months of portion control, WATER, exercise, and healthy eating, it's a habit!  I've continued to lose, though I still take a peice of paper and write things down if I know I've cheated a little for the day, so I know just how much I'm cheating!

So, I figure after another 20 pounds, when I can start to maintain, I shouldn't have to count anymore.  I'll just 'know' to keep checking in on the scale, and keep up with the healthy habits I've adopted!