maintenance is no different than cutting or bulking - like you said, it’s all a function of cal in vs cal out.
So if you don’t want to count, eat and see what happens. If you want to maintain but are gaining weight, eat less. If you are losing weight then eat more.
If you count calories then you’ll have exact numbers to work from.
You could as well eat maintenance (TDEE @ GW) calories from the get-go; or you could take more of a back seat approach, introducing indirect but still measurable changes and seeing where they take you. The latter was what I did – OMAD and a food palette that felt sustainable from the beginning, until I organically plateaued at my CW around a year later. I liked where I landed at, the habits that took me here had long become ingrained, hence all I’ve had to uphold in order to stay here was what I had been practicing all along.
Yes count calories. Also focus on stress relieving foods (avoid gluten and legumes) and make sure to eat sufficient fats (saturated), protein (balanced, not just muscle meats) and carbs (including fructose, not too many starches).
Maintain weight via metabolic increase and exercise at your required daily caloric requirement.
Following. I am hoping that when I hit my goal weight or stop losing, that means that I am taking in the right amount, and that I should then stay there. I am doing 16/8 and following a low-sodium diet due to hypertension.
This is like saying you worry that you have to adjust the steering wheel so your car doesn’t veer off the lane. Yes, you will need to calibrate your intake to keep yourself at your goal weight. Further adjustments will be needed as you grow older. The important thing to make the diet sustainable is that it not be onerous. You have to like your diet and fasting regimen in order to adhere to it long term.