I think a lot of the difference may depend on how much you have to lose. I wanted to lose 40 pounds.

well, i have to lose well over 100 lbs. so i think setting goals helps me, and i always am in boot camp, i guess. i only have the 3 chocolate drinks a day, and i hardly ever eat any restricted veggies. i think 20 lbs for may is good for me, i am not sure about the rest of the time though. my first wi for may is friday, it will also mark my 1 month for ip. :)

Having a goal is good but I'm afraid if you don't manage to lose 20 pounds in a month, you'll be very disappointed and could have a setback because of it. I myself had strong goals when i started. I saw those quick losses in the beginning and thought for sure by the time the end of May came along, I would be most of the way to my goal. I was diligent with what I ate. No cheats, weighed everything perfectly, followed protocol to the letter. And then I cried when I would only lose 2 or 3 pounds in a week. It HAD to be 4 - 5 or I wasn't going to be happy. So I wasn't happy. I couldn't see that I should be celebrating those 2 or 3 pounds that were gone. The thing is there really wasn't anything I could do to increase the loss that I wasn't already doing. My body was going to lose it at the speed it wanted to, not the speed I wanted it to.

Having goals are very important....but putting too much of a time restriction on them may backfire on you. :)

Sunshine, We are all following a low carb, low calorie, moderate protein, low fat protocol which is doctor designed. It allows us to improve our health while losing weight without exercise. Although light exercise can be incorporated. The results are great! The program is Ideal Protein.

Based on what you have lost so far without your next weigh in, I would get you should be able to target 17 to 20 pounds for the month. You will need to be more strict, measure a bit careful and really watch that water intake to get the results. I think you should shoot for it!

We will be at our goal weight before we know it!

Thanks for asking the questions about bootcamp - I'm new too and had no idea! How much of a difference does it make to weight loss?

There is a lot of discussion on this board about the impact of exercise. Overall (completely anecdotally, no science here!) I'd have to say more people seem to say that heavy exercise slowed their losses. It seems that regular, moderate exercise (walking, light weights, easy biking) has seemed to give very positive results of good losses and toning. When I started I was told no exercise at all for the first 3 weeks (until I was out of bootcamp) and then light exercise ONLY. But everybody is different--some people have done well, and it may or may not have to do with what was "Normal" for you before IP. take a look at the exercise thread, I just bumped it to the front page.

I think you could lose 15lb to 20lb - the first month your body tents to shade a lot weight then it slows down, probably you could add some light exercise to help a bit - I have notice when I do weights or 2 hours of intense workout my body stops loosing weight, I have quit exercising.

I think you can do anything you put your mind too! Keep up the good work. I am in my second week and have seen a slow down in my loss ( i weigh myself daily) I know I shouldn't! I think I am going to have my hubby hide my scale :)
I have about 100 pounds to lose too... WE CAN DO IT!!! Just stay on plan and it will happen :) Keep us posted on your weigh in results Friday!!