I always cook for myself too. What I find is that if I cook a pound of steak, I'll eat a pound of steak. If I cook half a pound, I'll eat half a pound. Either meal will satisfy me--I won't go poking around for more food after that half pound, but if the full pound is there, already cooked, I'll eat it.

I'm more an advocate of calorie-counting than I am of calorie restriction. Sort of. I've had periods where I've restricted to say 2000 calories, and ate a fairly set menu--say, so many ounces of meat, green veggies and heavy cream and butter per day. Then maybe I restrict to the same calories, but with some cheese to replace some of the meat, or walnuts to replace some of the heavy cream or butter. Am I as satisfied on the same number of calories? Hungrier? Even within low carb, there are ways to eat that result in a lower appetite. They may not be the same from person to person, I do better on a higher fat ratio, with more control on protein, but I'm sure it's the opposite for lots of people.