I just don't see how a person who is unable to lose weight at present is going to be able to maintain weight loss 8-12 weeks in the future.

Calorie restriction lowers insulin at the expense of constant hunger, and once the person is no longer in that initial mindset of being willing to endure constant hunger and reverts to eating ad libitum, their hyperinsulinemia will return and they will gain weight.

If they are unable to follow a highly satiating diet today, what makes us think that they will be able to do so after a period of 8-12 weeks of intense constant hunger? To me it reads like another one of those interventions that sounds great to doctors because it should work on paper, and that will be used to blame patients once they regain weight. The doctor will point at a study that shows that some patients are able to do it and that's it.

And don't get me started on how calorie restriction leads to substantial loss of skeletal muscle mass, reducing the amount of glycogen storage that can rapidly absorb spikes of blood glucose, or how hard it is to restore that lean tissue, especially on older patients.