I had a target number of calories per day, plus guidelines for the sort of things I ought to eat to feel full enough and get enough nutrition at low calorie levels, and an understanding that if I broke the target number, it was better to do it by a little rather than a lot.

I was pretty successful (dropped down to approximately 7% body fat according to an electrical impedance scale,) but I learned that it was important not to break the targets at all, because it was practically impossible to break them by just a little. If I did, it was hard to not simply give up on diet control for the day.