The evolution and lifetimes of thermally pulsating asymptotic giant branch ( TP-AGB ) stars suffer from significant uncertainties .
We present a detailed framework for constraining model luminosity functions of TP-AGB stars using resolved stellar populations .
We show an example of this method that compares various TP-AGB mass-loss prescriptions that differ in their treatments of mass loss before the onset of dust-driven winds ( pre-dust ) .
We find that models with more efficient pre-dust driven mass loss produce results consistent with observations , as opposed to more canonical mass-loss models .
Efficient pre-dust driven mass-loss predicts for [ Fe/H ] \lesssim - 1.2 , lower mass TP-AGB stars ( M \lesssim 1 \mbox { $M _ { \odot } $ } ) must have lifetimes less than about 1.2 Myr .