I kind of made up my own diet, and found out after the fact it was very similar to South Beach - one month of very strict stuff - no bread, no booze, no red meat, no soda, no candy, no pasta, no potatoes. I lost about 12 pounds (I was only about 15 overweight). Then I started adding things back in, in moderation, and lost 4-5 more pounds. And there was a lot of exercize thrown in too.