you have to walk a fine line when you "diet" too -- since if you eat too little, your body thinks you are starving and it starts trying to stockpile (mostly fat, ugh), and then you wind up actually gaining weight and girth not losing it .. for me, the combination of walking for half an hour before each meal, and, as mentioned, eating few carbs, seemed to work the best -- also eating small frequent meals rather than three big ones ... another thing that helped was to eat my biggest meal for breakfast, and eat the least at dinner and evening snack