Cravings

My physical appetite begins to ease usually about day 4-5, then ease off over 3 weeks…

Emotional cravings are worst in evening for me and require intentionally doing other non-food things, like - hot tea, or distraction busy doing things, and sometimes just going to sleep overnight. Usuaally feel better in the morning after rest.

Sometimes, if I give in... then the appetite roars, and have to start again.

White knuckling, abruptly changing can cause physical discomfort, so sometimes I do better to ease into a lower carb approach - stick with regular meals and maybe a 4th meal/snack in the evening.

Consider a piece of fruit with the meal if still really craving sweets... or something sour or tart/bitter instead, like a dill pickle dipped in mustard - something strong that snaps the sweet urges.

Mostly, keep trying/practicing until you get past it - so worth it! Hang in!

Do you feel like the cravings have more to do with the "low carb" part of it, or the "diet" part of it?

Spring up there is accurate: Trying for aggressively fast weight loss is harder, and actually makes success - long-term success - less achievable.

I'm also wondering why you've chosen low carb, if that may be part of the issue. If you have diabetes or insulin resistance, yes, it may be necessary to moderate or manage your carb intake. Whether that's truly "low carb" or not is going to vary individually. Outside of relevant health conditions such as those, low carb is optional, not a necessary thing for weight loss. Some people find that certain carb sources spike their appetite, so sure, it's useful to avoid those foods for which that's personally true. I lost weight fine, and have maintained the loss, eating pretty close to the 50% of calories from carbs that correlates with MFP's basic nutritional goals. I'm not the only one, either.

I agree with the first reply, that sometimes it does take a little time to get used to a new eating routine. Pure habit can trigger perceived hunger for a while. For me, as long as I didn't try to do anything extremely aggressive weight-loss-wise, that was a matter of a couple of weeks. After that the "habit hunger" mostly settled down, and it also helped me to experiment with things like meal timing and specific food choices in order to feel more full more often.

I think you can work your way through the cravings, whether that's a matter if slowing the bus down a little, trying different eating styles, or just using white-knuckled willpower for a while to see if things settle down. For sure, if one thing you try isn't working after a small number of weeks, don't give up . . . try different tactics. As long as you keep chipping away at it, you can succeed long term.

Best wishes!