Prune how you want, but be sure to leave enough leaves to make food for the plant and shade. Also, be sure to leave some growing tips. Don't your neighbors like tomatoes?

If you would tell us where you live or at least what your gardening zone is - there is a box for including that info in all posts - then we'd at least have an idea as to how old/big the plants are, what your weather patterns are, and how much time is left in your growing season. Plus knowing the varieties would help too. All that info will determine how aggressive you can be without killing them.

Back when they were pruned I already had way too much fruit

If you have already harvested all the fruit you want off them why not just let them go as is or just rip them out completely? If you mean you had lots of green fruit on them then I assume it all rotted while you were gone?

So without more details all I can suggest is you start pruning slowly - a few of the older stems here and there. Then let them rest for several days and do a few more.

Basically the guideline would be since it took them weeks to get to this point you can't whip them back into line in just a couple of days without killing them so approach the pruning more like the turtle than the hare.

Dave