Calories in calories out works you just need to be smart about it and not eat 1600 calories of ice cream bars.
Eating by hunger definitely works but if you've been eating like a pig all your life and your baseline of feeling normal is actually being unhealthy and sedentary, being told to just eat less until you're not hungry just does not work. People have horrible diets and eating habits due to convenience, lack of guidance, and laziness. You do not simply tell someone stop eating so much and you're golden, even if that's true in paper. The reality is that we're humans that make human error all the time.
Tracking calories allows one to realize the proper amount of food they're supposed to intake, without being swayed by appetite and mood. You count the calories and stop when you reach your daily limit.
This is why I suggested before that one shouldn't go on extreme caloric deficits for long (or any length really) periods of time and then binge. It simply isn't sustainable for long periods of time for either physical or mental health. But if you use calorie counting as a tool to defeat appetite and naughty urges, you can start to build a proper understanding of your own body's true nutritional needs and eventually stop counting calories and instead just eat until you're not hungry, and never until you're full (asides on cheat days).
Sustainability aside weight loss all comes down to av calories in being less than maintenance calories, even if some days are much more, yes?
Yes in paper, as long as you're under the total amount of maintenance calories needed. I would highly suggest not throwing caution to the wind though. You need to be smart about it, and there will be factors involved that may allow you to believe you're under maintenance when you're really not. To be totally fool proof, you would want to weigh all of the food you're consuming in a day, calculate all the macro nutrients of all the food you're consuming, and made sure the total grams of macro nutrients you're consuming equals a caloric intake that is less than you're caloric maintenance, and do THAT daily and make sure you're remaining under your caloric maintenance in whatever time span you wish. You will be GUARANTEED to lose weight, but NOT guaranteed to be any healthier than you were previously. Health, which despite being correlated to proper weight and caloric intake methods, is what matters most, and hundreds if factors come into play. Dieting to lose weight can still be horrible for your health if the method you're using is unhealthy. Starve-binging is unhealthy even if you have the iron will to pull it off... and if you DO have the iron will to pull it off, you must have the potential to apply that dedication to proper healthy eating and living.
This is all coming from an ex fatty who had been fat all throughout my obese childhood and decided to make a health change in 2009. Went from 185 to 150 as a 5'10" 15 year old using counting calories and became a proficient long distance runner. Skinny and little muscle but I had felt better than ever in my entire life. Fast forward 2017 I'd become 235lb due to pure lifting and lots of beer but put lots of muscle on my frame. Also stopped running. Skip to present day and I'm now 195lb and the strongest I've ever been. Still skimp out on cardio but plan to incorporate it into my life again soon.. Didn't count calories from 235 to 195, but relied on not eating as much and cutting back on beer. I wouldn't have had the ability to lose weight by knowing how to eat less without learning through counting calorie all the way back in 2009.
While I appreciate the effort I was really only asking the question posed in the op and not asking for advice. ---