I think back to when I did grueling workouts and, because logic, I would try to stuff a bunch of food into a "post workout feeding window" or make it a "high calorie day." Of course, in the vicinity of that intense activity, I either had zero appetite or felt like I might hurl. Then the next day or two when diet logic dictates that I should eat less because I'm not as active, that's when the hunger freight train would hit me.
It makes so much more sense to trust your appetite. It very often is blunted on high-activity days and higher later in the week. Sometimes I can't even pinpoint why I'm more or less hungry, but my body knows what it needs. That natural variation also makes it seem silly to set an arbitrary calorie number and try to hit it every day regardless. That was another of my diet experiments gone awry. Hunger would laugh in the face of my math.