I think the important thing is to eat when you are hungry, stop eating when you are full, and eat at least every six hours when awake even if you are not hungry. Try that for a while and see if it works. If it doesn't, then worry about counting calories. For those of us with serious weight problems who have been counting calories for years, learning to listen to our bodies rather than calculate a number is a challenge, but I think it is an important challenge if we are going to keep the weight off.

Given that you lost a lot of muscle doing lowfat, lowcal dieting, I would rely on the tape measure rather than the scale to see if it is working. If you are losing fat and putting on muscle, the scale may stay the same but your measurements should shrink. Make sure you eat plenty of protein so that you can build up muscle.