Getting off the diet coke helped but doesn,t account for the fast weight loss as a whole because I have gotten off it before with no weight loss. Snacking is my demon. Im fasting takes that out of the picture so the total cals drop for the day. It also takes away the mental mind game I might be playing with myself about it being okay to have just that one bit of on play food. Those just one bights really add up when your doing it all day.