CONFUSED!

Thank you for all the replies.  I a lot less confused now.

Everyone has to decide what's best for them BUT it's hard to make that decision when you are still in the honeymoon stage and not absorbing all of the calories you are consuming.  You might be getting a false hope that you can still eat regular meals and still loose.  No one knows for sure until the honeymoon is over and your body is absorbing.

I am a firm believer in Protein shakes.  I started them because I didn't want to keep track of what I was eating.  I felt like I was on WW again and adding up points and I don't want to live the rest of my life thinking about totals. If I get in at least 3 Protein drinks I know I have hit my desired total. I usually do but  I  don't have to concentrate on Protein every meal. It would take a lot of food to hit the kind of Protein totals my body needs to maintain.

I have noticed that those who eat their Protein eat a lot more than I do and if that works for them when they are a few years out and the honeymoon period ends and their body starts to absorb all of those extra calories that's great but if they start gaining it's going to be back to "dieting" again.  It was a lot easier for me to add calories than it would be to start taking calories away because the honeymoon period suddenly ended and the scales are moving in the wrong direction.

I can't get all my protein in from food, even at 2 1/2 years out. I have to have at least one protein coffee, usually two to get myself on the right track. Like others, food is not my best friend first thing in the morning but by 9/10AM I am finally ready to eat. Having protein shakes or coffees just helps me get where I need to be.

Unless you are underweight (an 18.5 or LOWER) on the BMI scale, let your body decide how low to go...keep losing as long as you can. Bounceback is real and a *****!