I've found the most success sticking to a calorie cut when I am still able to have the foods I normally eat/buy with my family and friends (rather than always finding low-calorie "swaps" or eliminating food groups entirely) and feel full...When I was just counting calories, "diet" time was always premeditated by trashing (eating) all the food in the house and replacing it with 90 calorie bars and sugar free this and lowfat that ($$$$$) I would nibble at it all for a few days, drop a few pounds, try to maintain, watch myself increase, restrict again, and on and on and on.

CICO still works; don't get me wrong: I've lost almost 90lbs overall, but the last super stubborn 15lbs have been since I've started counting macros and exercising. I've even shifted to maintenance/recomp.

27F 5'5" | CW: 137.0 lbs 27.0% BF | GW: 135.0 lbs 22.0% BF | SW: 224 lbs ??% BF

Here is a visual of my meals on this particular day: https://i.imgur.com/z6TzY7m.jpg

Overview:

• Note: I have tracked calories as accurately as I am able using food scale when appropriate, MFP recipe/meal maker and ingredient/restaurant library, volumetric measuring spoons/cups/bowls, and occasionally hand-to-serving size estimations. I have endeavored to include portion sizes in the spreadsheet. I am also happy to swap recipes!

6:20am big coffee that I sipped throughout the morning. I sweetened it with a splash of chocolate protein shake.

8:00am 1/2 steak quesadilla. The steak & rice were leftover from a dinner with my roomie's dad, the cheese and tortilla were leftover from taco night. It ended up being huge, so I split what was pictured between breakfast and an afternoon snack.

12:00pm 1 bowl of pasta carbonara (tracked in MFP recipes, leftover from dinner the night before)

2:10pm Finished quesadilla, and finished a coke leftover from when I went to subway earlier in the week (no ragrets)

3:55pm Breakfast for dinner: Waffle (homemade, tracked in recipes) with peanut butter

4:20pm Tea with a more of the chocolate protein shake that I sipped until bed.

Here is a spreadsheet with all calorie counts and macros, as well as the swaps needed to make it a 1500/1200-friendly: https://i.imgur.com/htVEQvi.png

In short - both plans dial back on liquid calories, both change the quesadilla by pulling back on cooking fat and carbs, and the 1200 day takes a slightly smaller portion of pasta carbonara and peanut butter. Both pasta and peanut butter are calorie bombs that are often verboten on 1200 plans, but neither are eliminated entirely from the diet.

TL;DR In my opinion, subtle changes from the food you already eat make for less upsetting disturbances to the overall meal plan (and everday life), and thus make for more sustainable calorie restriction.