Ideal Protein

A friend of mine here at work is doing Ideal Protein and has lost 25 lbs. She looks good, but I don't want to "join" anything and have to buy products and eat their food. I'm doing it on my own but losing so slowly.

I started the ideal protein diet 2 weeks ago and feel the best I have in a very long time. The food tastes great and, once you get over the initial fee, I find my grocery bill is no different. Except I eat better!! I have a cappuccino in the morning (this is one of the breakfasts), their soup and my 2 c. salad/vege for lunch and a meal with my husband in the evening. The evening meal consists of 8 oz of protein and 2 cups of veges. My glucose levels have stabilized (I am pre-diabetic) to near normal and I have lost 9 pounds in 2 weeks.
For those trying to do this on your own, please don't. This is diet designed to spare the muscle wasting that happens with severe ketosis. This diet puts you in very mild ketosis (I measure a trace in my urine). I don't feel hungry except when I am supposed to.
You have to buy food anyway and learn to eat differently in order to keep the weight off, so i appreciate a diet that helps me reach my goals efficiently.

I survived day 1, but I was actually up a pound on the scale!! I was 100% compliant with the plan, so this was a huge disappointment. I hope I get a better number tomorrow!

Fluctuations are to be expected. I was told not to weigh myself every day, but I couldn't stop myself from getting on the scale! Losses for me happened literally overnight. I would go for days with the scale never moving, or even going up, and then a 2.5 pound loss. Make sure you drink lots and lots of water and weigh yourself at the same time every day. Focus on the weekly loss (hard, I know).

I did ideal protein from November to May and lost 88 lb. I phased off to go on a 2 week vacation to Florida with the family and will be starting back on Phase 1 using alternatives when the kids go back to school. I gained weight on vacation (because I ate without really caring) but since I have been back have maintained that weight without gaining more.

My husband lost over 60 lb and has stayed at that with very little weight gain for 5 months being off.

I do weigh myself every day, BUT I know not to worry about it as they go up and down even not on a diet every day!

you are looking for results too quickly....

if you weigh in everyday you are going to drive yourself iNSANE.

maybe that is her goal!! maybe she wants to fit into that straight jacket!! why don't you try and be more supportive???????

So is this something you do for the rest of your life? Because that's a problem with "fad diets" even if they work. Once you stop doing them and move on with life, you'll probably gain Good luck to you though.

2 cents about what I learned throughout years of weight-related issues.

Every time I hear about some "diet" with a name/label on it (can be anything, Atkins, Ducan, Paleo, Ideal Protein, etc) I do this:
IGNORE.

I ask myself what happens after I am done with said diet/way of eating/approach.
What's going to happen next? Go back to NOT being on that diet? And if I am no longer on that diet, what will I be on?

If I think the diet / lifestyle in question is doable for life and I can continue to do it forever, then it's worth taking a look at; if I realize this is something realistic only for a certain amount of time - then I ignore.

This is why I don't count calories routinely. This is not realistic for me over the long term - though in the beginning, until you gain perspective and learn your main foods, it is very helpful.

The only "way" that has worked for me, that continues to work for me very well and that I read is the ONLY WAY that works long-term - is to learn how to integrate healthy eating and healthy living into every day life, without making it THE FOCUS.
After all, you can only be overly preoccupied with something for so long without having your mental health affected.

So I just do the "Lifestyle Diet" :-) (Don't look it up, I just made this up).

1. Eat "clean" (you can look this up, it used to be called "eating" but in the context of our contemporary society you have to add "clean" and understand exactly what that means).

2. Cook from scratch as much as possible all while trying to keep all high-calorie ingredients relatively low (such as oil, animal fats, carbs, etc)

3. Include all groups of natural foods in moderation, with some priority given to lean organic meats and fresh vegetables (if your pocket allows).

4. Watch your portions, aim to no bigger than your fist for the main serving.

5. Stop a step or two before feeling full.

6. Avoid sugar and white flower entirely - most days if you can. Actually "always" if you can - but chances are you won't.

7. Be on the lookout for the "Stress Devil".

Some people (you may or may not be one of them) use food to cope with stress just like some use alcohol, cigarettes, prescription drugs and other addictions to cope with the pressures of modern life. If you happen to be one of those people whose "thing" is food, this is probably the most important part of the "diet". Stress can be anything like "bad thoughts", tensions at work, problems with kids, various anxieties about the future, desperate desire to rest with some comforting feeling after running around like crazy all day, whatever. If you have experienced such moments, when your mind veers off all while the hand reaches out for the potato chips bag and introduces them in the mouth one after another without the brain being fully aware of the event - then RECOGNIZE it is happening and somehow, someway, find a way to wake up and step away from that "Devil".
I say "somehow, someway" because it is not easy. In such moments, you can have a PhD in nutrition, you can know your daily calories to the 1/100th point or what not - you're still in danger, because it is not lack of knowledge that causes the problem or willingness to make "the right choices" - but ABILITY.

I suspect that a large percentage of people with weight problems ca track back their woes to stress-based eating, where nutritional knowledge doesn't make an oz of difference. You know very well the fries are "bad" in large quantities, but in those moments you are wired to do just that: stuff yourself with large quantities of fries despite all the nutritional awareness in the world. That Stress Devil is very hard to control when it hits.

Then again, you may be lucky enough to not have such issues. Then nutritional and physical activity-related knowledge, accompanied by a decent resolution - is all it takes.

8. Don't keep "treats" in the house. Want to have a treat day? Plan for fewer calories than normal during the rest of the day, go to a sweet shop, sit down, have a cake and eat it too, enjoy and don't even think about feeling guilty in any way, shape or form because you owned it (in the example where you delivering chips hand to mouth, spontaneously, with the brain elsewhere - you are not "owning it") .
Then leave and don't take anything "to go".

9. Set special time aside to exercise 4-5 times a week, as natural moving has been engineered out of life for most of us.

10. Do all the above like you brush your teeth. Don't make this lifestyle above the center of your daily energies, preoccupations and conversations, just like you don't make brushing your teeth the center of your preoccupations.

That doesn't apply to the "Stress Devil" part, this will NEVER be like you brush your teeth. It will be hard every time it hits and the danger of relapse will always be there once you have experienced food as addiction - as a way to cope with stress. If once in a while the Devil wins and you end up "going to town" - go to bed, sleep, get up the next day and pretend it never happened: continue with your normal lifestyle.


Best of wishes to you!