Every animal on this planet obsesses about food. As humans we are no different. Aside from counting calories, you could get in touch with how you feel when you eat a certain amount and learn to recognize how you feel before and after you eat. If you find you gain weight doing this, you can always go back to calculating.

I agree with Spanky !

After I had my kids & wanted to lose those baby pounds I tried the counting calories approach (fitday.com) and I suck at it. I could pretty much eat all my allotted food by mid afternoon ! I became obsessed and was not a happy camper. I lost the weight simply by eating clean and adding muscle mass (lifting heavy weights).

My approach these days (maintaining, not losing) is eat when hungry & eat 98% clean. I pay attention to what I eat & how it makes me feel. After a nice meal out, I would much rather have a good cup of coffee than some dessert that is going to sit like a rock in my stomach on top of that big meal. I have found I do not like being overful so I try not to overeat. There is always more food available - no reason to hoard !

I snack throughout the day - when I feel hungry or drained. I drink a lot of water...and I do some sort of activity every day - from walking to running to stepping to lifting to power yoga...whatever. My big vice is my java !

Phelps - you need to train yourself to listen to your body. You are running a lot so make sure you get enough fuel and try not to worry about gaining or losing. Experiment. Sometimes we think we are gaining when we really just need to do a little weight training or more or different abdominal exercises to tighten things up !