You answered your own question, the cravings. People who only do CICO with junk food will lose some weight, but a good number of people who do that don't have the will power to overcome the cravings and they regain all their weight.
However, if I'm not mistaken, you've lost weight, gained, and lost it back again, right? The so-called yo-yo effect, another harbinger of people who only do CICO. The vast majority of people who lose weight regain it back within 5 years. As someone who kept it off for a decade and only started gaining it back when I start taking my resistance training a lot more seriously, I can say that if I only did CICO, I would not have kept it off. The only way to take off weight and keep it off for long periods of time is to change what you eat, get regular exercise, and know this is something you will be doing for the rest of your life.
I have yo-yo'd, but I've done low carb more than I have CICO, and low carb is not sustainable at all for me- while day to day cravings went down, overall "hunger" feeling went up. Low carb made almost every meal feel unsatisfying. I have meals with more carbs now that are much more satisfying, while still losing weight. Low carb caused me to want to cheat, eat carbs again, etc.
CICO has been the easiest to "stick with", I can fulfill my cravings without regaining, because I'm not truly cutting anything out, just having less. When I want unhealthy snacks, instead of eating a bag of doritos, a fudge round, and a swiss roll, I have just the doritos and that's it. Moderation is key. I got to the point where I was basically bingeing food and not caring, which is a bad spot to be in.
The only reason I fell off of CICO once before was absolutely a decision on my part to "screw it, gonna eat what I want and however much I want because I love food, life is short" and really had nothing to do with regular here-and-there cravings. It was a conscious choice of food over health, as bad as that is. Before I made that choice, under CICO, I lost 40 pounds and kept that 40 pounds off with no problem, super easy to maintain.
Yes, I will admit that CICO causes me occasionally to choose a healthier food, because they're much less calorie dense- but day-to-day I still have bread, pasta, fruit, and sometimes dessert. I just add in some good, less dense things along the way, and overall eat less, while still enjoying it all. Seems to work. I guess time will tell, eh? :)
However, if I'm not mistaken, you've lost weight, gained, and lost it back again, right? The so-called yo-yo effect, another harbinger of people who only do CICO. The vast majority of people who lose weight regain it back within 5 years. As someone who kept it off for a decade and only started gaining it back when I start taking my resistance training a lot more seriously, I can say that if I only did CICO, I would not have kept it off. The only way to take off weight and keep it off for long periods of time is to change what you eat, get regular exercise, and know this is something you will be doing for the rest of your life.