Again.....and again.....and again - HELP!

If you're looking for ways to keep the weight off, first look at why you re-gained it in the first place. Using this site for a quick 'diet' is the mistake I see a lot of people make. After the 'diet' they go back to their old ways and gain the weight back over time. You see it almost daily in the forums with the "back again" posts. I did a lot of research before I started here at MFP. I set out vowing to never gain the weight back once I lost it and to do whatever it took to lose the weight in the first place. I can't see into the future, but if I keep up the way I am going now at least until retirement, I shouldn't gain the weight back. At least that's the plan. My strategy is as follows:

1) Lose the weight using restricted calories. Done. I lost 126 lbs in a hair over a year.
2) While I was losing the initial weight I incorporated as much physical activity/exercise as possible to speed up the weight loss and condition myself to regular exercise (something I had never done in my whole lifetime).
3) When I hit my goal weight I went past it by 10 lbs because I knew, from the posts I had read in the forum, that I likely would gain some back moving up to maintenance calories.
4) Once I hit maintenance calories I didn't stop counting using MFP's diary, over a year later I'm still counting every single calorie that goes in my body. I expect to do this probably for another 1-2 years.
5) For the year I have been in maintenance I've been trying to teach myself to pay for, either in advance or afterward, over indulgence with exercise or calorie restriction. That means that if I over-eat one day, I should cut back for the next week or so a few hundred calories a day to make up for it, or do an extra hundred calories or so of exercise daily to make up for it. This needs to become a second-nature type of habit.
6) I began originally working out (exercising by walking at first mostly) seven days a week. It was a mistake, I even ended up injured a couple of times along the way. After the first couple of serious injuries I cut it back to six days a week, and about six months ago I transitioned to 5 days a week. Sometime this winter I expect to cut it back to 4 days a week and stay there permanently. Each time I cut back a day of exercise a week, I drop my daily calories to the appropriate amount and give myself time to get used to it.

I figure those steps above, if I follow them, will keep me fit, at a healthy weight, and in less pain (I have spinal issues which NEED a fair amount of muscle to compensate) until I retire. Once I retire, likely at age 70ish, all bets are off. I will work out if I want, eat what I want at that point for the last 10-15 years of my life. That's my goal.

So, as many will tell you, exercise isn't required to lose weight. But I can tell you from experience, if you don't incorporate it into your routine, and KEEP it up even after you've lost the weight, you're going to fail at keeping the weight off (yes, it's my opinion only).

A couple of other tips I'll give, and yes, they are controversial also:

1) Don't fall for the fad diets. You don't need to severely restrict carbs, eat high fat, become a vegetarian, etc. All you need is caloric restriction, beyond that eat what makes you happy and what keeps you satiated. If you lose all your weight losing low carb and don't stick to that diet for the rest of your life, the same thing happens.. you gain the weight back. All you need to do is eat less calories than your body needs to maintain your weight, and guess what? You'll lose weight. Eat more than it needs to maintain your current weight and guess what? You'll gain weight. It's not rocket science.
2) Please, incorporate exercise into your weekly routine regularly. You can even just do it 2-3 times a week if you want, just please do it, get used to it, and keep it up permanently regardless of your caloric intake. You don't need to "lift heavy", you don't need to do specific exercises. You don't even need a gym membership, you just need to exercise, get up, move, and do it on a regular basis. You'll even earn extra calories which you can enjoy with food you love.
3) Set goals, reach them, and then don't stop there. Ever. If you need to count calories for the rest of your life, so be it. If you need 3-5 years of counting calories to make things second nature, then so be it. I expect to be here probably five years at least. Hell, I had a lifetime of 45+ years to screw up my body, I'm not going to fix those habits over night.

Hope at least some of that helps. Good luck this time!