Any success with itg diet

sansan007
sansan007 Posts: 6 Member
Hey I am considering trying the ITG diet to loose 4o lbs . Has anyone had any success with it

Replies

  • Dragonwolf
    Dragonwolf Posts: 5,600 Member
    It looks to be a low calorie, low carb, low fat, high protein food program. While it looks okay on the surface (and has the nice benefit of coaches), upon digging deeper, I'd say avoid it. Here's why:

    1. Price. From what I've read, they want you to eat 3 of your 4 allowed meals from their foods, that you have to buy from them. One of the articles I read worked that out to $12 per day (or 12x30=$360 per month). Additionally, it required a number of supplements that the article mentioned totaled $60 per month. That's $420 per month, just for ITG diet stuff for yourself. That doesn't include the cost of the food for the remaining meal, or for the rest of your family.

    2. Shakes and other such instant stuff appear to be the centerpiece of the diet, at least in the weight loss phase. What isn't shakes that are part of their foods that you can buy (things like cereals are listed) appear to be heavily processed in order to get to the level of protein and carbs that are part of the diet.

    3. Low fat and low carb. From what I could find, the diet still supports low fat, despite acknowledging the need for fat in a healthy diet. This means you'll likely be dependent on their shakes to keep your ratios right for the diet. Additionally, this causes problems that are avoidable, but the ITG plan considers "normal" (in fact, one of the things available to buy from them are stool softeners, because that kind of macronutrient ratio tends to lead to constipation). The body doesn't do well trying to run on just protein, and the requirement for supplements and stool softeners on the ITG plan illustrates this.

    Now, that said, I'm personally a fan of ketogenic diets for helping with PCOS. However, there are better ways to go about it than the very low calorie, low fat, high protein route that ITG is taking. Not to mention the fact that it doesn't need to be so expensive or rely so much on shakes and other pre-made food. I'm more of an advocate of simply eating real food. You can get 90% of the way to ketogenic low carb by simply basing your meals around meat (not super lean meat) and vegetables. The rest is just tweaking for your individual needs.

    Come join us over at the low carb group and check out the Launch Pad stickied there -- http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/394-low-carber-daily-forum-the-lcd-group -- there's a ton of information, including how to deal with some of the things that you might encounter in the first few days (that, again, are completely avoidable, but ITG accepts as "normal" and "expected").
  • sansan007
    sansan007 Posts: 6 Member
    Really insightful . I was considering it inspite of cost bcuz I really need to loose some weight . I am gonna join ur group .