If you don't have good "gut intuition" for how much you're eating, you may find that IF just causes you to eat more in the time you are allowed to eat. CC tells you how much you're taking in, so the numbers tell you when you've eaten enough.
I often find that, when I stop at my calorie target (1500), I'm actually not that hungry... but I still have an urge to eat. Something I would have followed in the past. But with the number, I know exactly when I shouldn't follow that urge.
The requirement to stop and calculate before you eat also makes you a lot more deliberate about what you do consume.
It's definitely not the most spontaneous and fun approach, but I tried all the more spontaneous and fun approaches and CC is the one that is finally working for me.
A couple details: I jot down each day's calories in a Google Note on my phone. I add a number to the list for each thing I eat and keep a tally as the day goes by. I don't use a calorie counting app. I just use the nutritional facts if available, and if not, I Google "calories in x 100g" and use a food scale.