My feeling as well.

The most I do is eat food that ups my carry weight. I also don't go back, I see that as silly. I take the things I find most important, including loading up dogmeat. Somehow I will make it without going back for a bunch of pipe pistols, brooms and cans.

Deep pockets + telling companions to loot anything useful and "take that item" = companions walking around with 1500+ weight of stuff before I remember to unload them

Bit of trivia the USMC combat load guidelines I saw recently is roughly 30% and 45% of average body weight as part of the 4-4-4-4 individual load-out guideline (4 hour combat load(30%)-4 day "Assault approach" load(45%) for carried gear, the 4 week 4 month parts clearly refers to what you have at your base ship, or being carried forward. the 4 hour was 48 pounds for weapon ammunition water and gear, the 4 day is basically 72 pounds, including 12 MREs and extra water.

Hi OP!

just a quick suggestion, an alternative perspective so to speak:

ever thought about why you feel the need to take everything with you? You are conflicted about cheating - think about why you are unable to just leave stuff behind

cheers,

I cheated my carry weight in FO 4, because I want to build big settlements and that need crap ton of junk! Never in any bethesda games I had to pick up absolutely everything, in FO4 I kinda have to.
This is what I do, Adter I cleared a place I shoot a flare up in the sky, then I imagine the minutemen who show up are the ones who are actually scavenging the stuff, unfortunately they tend to follow you around until they die,, so If I see them after a while I "dismiss" them. I made a bat file that consists of "kill" and "disable" but in game I just have to select them in console and write "dismiss".
There you go problem solved... Kinda

I any game, if I can't carry it I leave it. If I have to walk home, unload, walk back, pick crap up and walk home again I don't this as tedium: to me it's getting the best value for money as the game lasts me a whole lot longer (and to my gaming mindset taking more time and effort to get something through not fast travelling or whatever yields a much greater degree of satisfaction and a heightened feeling of achievement.). None of this has any relationship whatsoever to how you 'should' play your game as there is no should in a single-player game. The only thing that might impact on the correct way for you to play is Pete Hines' warning about the potential for console commands to screw your save.

I will walk very slowly when I have to because of over weight, well I will if what I am carrying is worth the effort, there are enough places once you have spread out across the map to stash some stuff temporarily. I've even filled an old bath tub with loot to come back and collect later. Don't worry about it, I do not 'cheat' as such with console for higher carry weight but always use any No Weight or Lower Weight Mods that come out, If they don't show up I'll just do one myself for the minor miscellaneous items but not armour and weapons.. The back pack mods from Skyrim will get ported over, plus there are armour items in FO4 with pockets and pouches which will be perfect to have a carry weight enchantment added, so a base carry weight of say 500+ with PA will be easy to achieve, yes there are enchantments in FO4 it's just worded in different ways like 'Plus 5%? Bonus Damage against Deathclaws or Mirelurks armour pieces, He He