I have only been on the "cookie diet" for 12 days, but I have already lost 8 pounds. I am 56, well past menopause and tried for the last six months 1200 calories a day and exercise programs. Both frustrated me because the weight loss, if any, amounted to a pound a week. My weight loss goal is 50 pounds. This is easy. If you follow the directions and eat a cookie every two hours (I do 8,10,12,2,4,dinner around 6, and the last one at 8), drink the prescribed 8 oz water with the cookie you won't get hungry, you won't get thirsty and you will lose weight. Believe me, if it is working for me, it will work for you. Dinner most nights is a huge plate of chicken salad or shrimp cocktail or an egg beater omelet and lots of vegetables. No sugar, No alcohol (red wine every night was my vice), no dairy, no starch. I think the limited amount of wheat and no sugar is a big part of why it works. Also, I haven't been hungry and I am a passonate cook.