agreed

I use proti-diet and balanced protein diet foods. They also have some other brands of snack type items.

Sorry I didnt realize we couldn't post the link to it :(

Thanks, I will check them out!

Hey ip people,

I am doing 17 day diet. It costed me around $20 or less for thec book. I make my own meals. I cook chicken with lots of vegetables, onion, garlic, herbs from garden and some condiments. Sometimes, i fry salman or tilapia or make srabled egg with capsicum etc.
I have to pay for green tea $2 for 20 packets. I have to drink green tea 3 times a day.
So far in 47 days i lost 8-9 lbs.
I think those ppl who cannot afford costly diet, should try 17 day diet.

I lost 8 lbs in 1 week on IP!!!

EAS makes carb control shakes that you can buy at Wal-Mart. A 4pack was just $4.97. The vanilla one was comparable to the IP vanilla RTD (more protein and maybe 1 less carb). Didn't check the other flavors. My husband is using alternative products during the day (he's still having a hard time not eating carbs with dinner).

I wish I had known more about the later phases and stabilization/maintenance. READ THE BOOK! There is a pdf version on the daily chat. I thought I would have to kiss carbs goodbye forever, but you are actually encouraged to eat complex carbs every night for dinner!!!!!!!! That is so backward from everything I've ever been taught, but the book's explanation totally made sense. I have renewed motivation, and can't wait to lose the weight! Maintenance doesn't seem as scary now. (sorry about all the exclamation points. I'm just enthusiastic!)

I use Nashua Nutrition and buy ProtiDiet and HealthSmart products. You have to be careful and read the ingredient list as several things have aspertame instead of sucrolose. But they are 11 a box and free shipping for orders over $99. I got my whole months woth of food for $135 vs $335 for IP food. Everything I have had has been fantastic (and the chocolate drink that everyone loves on IP is only 3g of carbs from HealthSmart which is a huge carb savings :)). Good luck!!!

I did the 17 day diet and lost nothing. It was actually the way I was eating anyway.
As a matter of fact I am clearing my bookshelf of all the "latest diet" books I spent at least $20 each for and taking them to the Salvation Army thrift store. That will give me a lot of shelf space.

Excellent advice, especially about reading the book, very interesting information in it for sure.

I wish I would have known about this site from day 1 of starting the IP diet! It's simply amazing and so helpful! My Coach has been helpful too but when its midnight and you've got questions, I doubt your Coach would appreciate that wake up call. :/

It would have been helpful to know that 2 lbs. a week is a more reasonable weight loss, if you have 20 lbs. or less to lose. Also that if you're not moving on the scale much you could still be losing in inches, all of which seems like you should know but when your S-I-L is doing 4 lbs. a week, you feel like you should be too.

After 3 weeks on the IP diet I'm still learning something new that makes this marathon (not a sprint) worth all the effort.

Did you use alternatives from the beginning?

I wish i would have known how bad cheating once you were in ketosis was..cause if i had known.. i wouldnt have cheated.

Now that you KNOW how bad it is.....DON'T cheat any more!

No I just started last week. I lost 1.5 but it was TOM for me. I like the taste of the alternative products better - only problem is you have to read the labels very carefully because some of the products have aspartame in them. :)

I wish I had know about week 4 & 5 can be stalled weeks for some people. And that not everyone will get a huge first week weight loss.