In general avoiding situations when you only rely on your willpower gives much better results than fighting yourself. When I think I should loose weight I only buy boring ingredients that require preparation to be tempting in any way. If I get strong cravings I just eat some random vegetable and try to better plan mealtimes next day. It's much harder when living with uncooperative partner or parents that like always having snacks in their kitchen. We're literally built to eat food whenever it's available.

I've been very lucky in that my wife has been very supportive and understanding, but I'm the same way. My rule is that I'm not allowed to shop hungry, because I'll buy shit I don't need to eat, and then I'll eat it because it's there.

This happened with my ex - the kids and I, we are all built more lean and spare, but ex hung on to weight. So I cooked or he did, we all ate the same food but somehow he got fat, we stayed skinny.

Well I am like your wife, low tolerance for sweet stuff - usually when I want something sweet I want to taste it, not really eat it, if that makes sense. So yes, a big spoonful of ice cream, one twix candy & save the other one for next week. Emergency chocolate bar at work lasts a month.

Ex was the other extreme, could binge sweet foods. So even with the metabolic advantage of being a couple inches taller and male, his natural intake kept him on the heavy side.

Intermittent fasting is such a good way to maintain weight, but not if you can eat a bag of candy in your eating window!