Too many calories will stall you, period. Don't listen to anyone who tries to tell you that calories don't matter... these people either have very active lifestyles, or for whatever reason no appetities, because the truth is if you eat more or as much energy than you burn you will not lose weight.

Atkins doesn't recommend calorie counting because he tries to get us in contact with our natural hunger (plus it was a good selling point for his approach ). However, many overweight people are so used to eating whatever is around that even the normally lowered appetite that atkins gives us isn't enough. These people need to watch calories.

Try eating smaller portions, but eating more frequently. This helps me a lot... I find I just can't do 3 squares. I eat way too much at each meal because I enter the meal really hungry. Snacking all day is much better for me, I take in less calories this way.

Also try putting a small portion on a small plate, and eating slowly. Listen to your stomach. You don't want to feel uncomfortable, you want to feel satisfied. It is amazing now how uncomfortable being too full feels... another benefit of atkins. On high carb, I could stuff myself and be ready to eat something about 3 hours later. On low carb, I stuff myself and I go to bed with a horrid tummy ache... but the next morning I am STILL full! Plus, "stuffed" on high carb was more like a 1000 calorie meal, whereas on atkins "stuffed" is more like a 500-600 calorie meal.

Anyway, what I am trying to say is 75% of the atkins magic is the fact that it is self limiting. People naturally eat less, and they just aren't able to over eat like they used to. There are also other metabollic advantages, but the biggest one is the fact that it causes us to eat less.
So yes, calories definitely do matter. You will not lose if you are eating when you aren't really hungry. It is important you break this habbit now while still in weight loss stages, because once you get to maintenence and have more choices, eating just for eatings sake will be a lot more dangerous...