I counted points, pretty much eliminated sugar(aka sweets) from my diet, ate small amounts of carbs every once in a while. I needed to lose a serious amount of weight as I was in pain all the time, knees, back, breathing, diabetic, you name it, I had it. In almost 2yrs I've lost about 128lbs. Feel 200% better. I couldn't afford to play around with myself any longer. I was desperate.