Not so ideal for my budget!!!
 

So I went and picked up 3 boxes of food and it was $115!!! Wow my budget cannot sustain that for months so I was thinking of doing IP for 6-8 weeks and then switch to Adkins. Anyone else try this?

Also found some skinny girl liquid sweetener that has no artificial sugar. Etc. anyone else know if this is compatible with IP?

Sweeteners: I think only Stevia and Splenda are allowed. Many items use splenda, so check the ingredients.

The IP diet is not cheap....I figured about 12 boxes a month at $30 a box, plus supplements are about $80 a month, plus I buy my own groceries (meat and veggies) it probably adds up to around $500 a month, which is twice my normal food budget.

But I have been on the plan for almost 4 weeks and lost 12 pounds.....so it is worth the cost and I don't even think about it anymore :)

Hi,

It is not ideal for my budget as well, this is why I switched to alternative products with the fraction of the cost (think of it as buying the no name brand of Ibuprofene instead of Advil).

Look into the alternatives that work into phase I thread and you'll get tons of ideas.

Stick to it, it works.

For cost effectiveness, you could always check out the alternative threads. It follows the same protocol, just uses products from other companies that have similar/the same nutritional content as the Ideal Protein product.

I was on IP several years ago and used only branded IP products for 2 months. Then a year and a half later, went back to IP and learned about substitute products to the branded IP products and after careful study, chose a number of them and began using them. I tracked my results very carefully and found I lost an identical amount of weight (to the pound) over the first 2 month period.

I need to spend only approximately $35/week for these alternative products however, I find I buy more at any single point in time and enjoy a greater variety of foods, which also makes it easier to stay on. So, it's not that I'm eating more, just having many more choices.

Read the stickies on alternatives and watch your nutritional profiles to ensure you are within the appropriate guidelines. You can do well with these, just stick to the program!

Good luck!

For those doing alternative products, did you use a clinic or coach?
I go every other week to my coach for weigh in and measurements, and to buy my food. She would want to know what's up if I stopped buying her food. Plus she is super strict and I already lie on my food log when I have a quest bar, cause she wants me eating all IP foods.

I'm doing it solo with no coach because of this reason. I had about 5 different coaches and never saw the same person. I use these threads and a facebook group as motivation :) I have my weigh in on Saturday morning at my house and I use that number. The rest of the week the scale is put away so I'm not constantly on it.

My clinic called me about a week ago, stating that they noticed I haven't bought any food in awhile... funny I haven't been in to see the coaches either, but guess they never noticed that.

Thank you for all of you for your great answers

I am restarting tomorrow using alternatives. It is tough at first because you really have to be careful with the products you use but it is easy once you get going l did it earlier this year and lost 30 lbs. I took all my own measurements and weekly weighed in.

My IP clinic lost my food order twice in the first 3 weeks of starting IP for the second time. I had also found this website just as I was starting - how lucky was that? So I quickly turned to alternatives and haven't turned back.

Re lack of coaching, the advice and motivation I've found here has been far better than the 2 IP clinics I've had experience with, plus the dollar savings went to buy: 1. an excellent scale that tracks body fat % and 5-6 other metrics in addition to pounds ($68 from Amazon, Omron HBF-514), 2. jewelry to reward myself for losing a certain amount of weight (on a pearl kick plus bought a really lovely Silpada bracelet), 3. lots of new clothes when I reached certain smaller sizes that were just about at goal.

Yes, I've gained back half of what I lost and now, am back to lose it. One thing I also learned from this forum is that there is an in person group called TOPS (Take Off the Pounds Sensibly) and I have started going there for weekly weigh-ins since I know the accountability serves me well. They don't really require you use their diet, so this works well. It is such a positive group and I've come to truly enjoy their meetings. The cost is $1/meeting plus $.10/weigh-in and if you have gained weight in the last week, you pay a dime for each pound gained. The cost is so minimal it makes me laugh but paying for gained weight is symbolic and good...

Hope this helps!:carrot:

I've been using Alternative products since 6 weeks into my IP journey. Once my coach (if that's what you want to call her) found out I wasn't buying all my products from her, she kicked me to the curb. Whatever, her loss, now she can't use my weightloss to bolster her coaching/IP business.

I agree with Cloe 100%, the advice and motivation I receive from the ladies and gents on this forum far exceed ANYTHING my "coach" ever did for me. The only thing I wish I would have done differently is more research here before actually signing up with this "coach" and giving her a grip of money. Live and learn...I learned an expensive lesson there.

I am strictly using alternatives. Much cheaper.

you can buy IP on ebay for less ... however you lose the supervision aspect