Hi there, I'm new to this site, I'm just curious if anyone has hit a plateau after week 4? I've lost 5 pounds every week so far and now i'm on week 5 and gained 1 pound. I have not cheated or anything and have been doing everything to the book. So my question is should I be switching up my food? I'm so frustrated that I feel like I did something wrong but can't figure out what it is. Also another concern I had is it normal to get severe constipation during ideal protein? And if so how do you keep regular so you don't get constipated?

There are so many things that can affect our weight loss, one week of no loss or gain is NOT considered a plateau. A true plateau is when things don't change (measurements or scale) for SEVERAL weeks. And yes, it is normal to experience a slowdown in losses if you've dropped a lot of weight quickly - your body needs to adjust along the way and stabilize.

What do you mean by switching up your food? If you are eating the same protein meal every day, yes it's always a good idea to have a variety of veggies and meats. Sometimes when your body is holding onto weight, if you've been eating nothing but very lean meats, a nice steak will kick things back into gear.

What you don't need to worry about is whether that was a REAL gain. You have to eat 3500 calories to gain a single pound of fat. So it is most likely water weight, constipation, or a combination.

That said, yes constipation is normal. On IP you don't get nearly the fiber or fat that you would normally take in to keep things moving. Many of us use Smooth Move tea to help keep regular, you can also use a sugar-free fiber supplement or psyllium husks to help with regularity. Smooth move tea, Miralax, or Magnesium Citrate are your tools when the constipation isn't resolving with a daily fiber additive.

Yeah I'm practically eating the same ideal protein packets which is chocolate/vanilla shake, vanilla pudding, and BBQ ridges and peanut crunch bar. And for my meat I usually eat chicken breast,shrimp, and tuna and sometimes beef but not often. For veggies it's always cucumbers mushrooms, peppers, broccoli and cauliflower. I also eat unlimited lettuce, stir fry, and Big Mac in a bowl.

I will have to look for that tea as well cause last week was brutal I tried to take the stool softener pills but those didn't work and ended up using suppository.

I have reached my goal on IDP. Have only read meat twice a week. Get your calorie chart out and stay away from the pudding shakes for awhile and you will loose faster. The orange drink mango are only 80 cal a drink.

After reading your reply, it seems the gain is constipation. Rest assured if you stuck to the program, you DID NOT regain a lb of fat!

You might want to try reducing the calcium and just taking magnesium citrate alone. It it notorious for getting things moving (calcium can have the opposite effect). Some folks respond well to smooth move tea, others NEED the 2 salads/day. Some need other rememdies. Your clinic sells something too...I forget what it is called...

I really don't think a gain has anything to do with a slight difference in calories between a pudding packet (100 cals) and an orange drink (80 cals). Some coaches who don't know much about weight loss will try to "sell" those more simplistic approaches. Those of us who have been on the program longer have learned it really isn't all that simple and losing weight is NOT linear. You'll have peaks and valleys in your weight loss graph and small things like amount of sodium intake can start affecting weigh ins.

Most (good) coaches will tell clients there will be a small stall or even a slight gain at week 4 or 5, so you are right within the norm.

And, BTW, congrats on HUGE success on your first 5 weeks...20 in 5 weeks is an avg of 4/week! That is to be celebrated!

PS: One more thing a lot of us have learned: Don't forget to add your oil directly to your food. The fats keep a lot of vital systems running normally.

You've had some good advise already. I just want to add that it is common to see a lower loss in week 4.

If you take the smoothe move tea, make sure you follow the instructions for steeping time. If you don't steep it long enough, it will not work.

I'm sure your next weigh in will be better.

Helloooo fellow Canadian on IP. Yup, you get the big C...big time! You need to go to Shoppers and grab a pack of Lee's (Uncle Lee's) Dieter's Tea for Body Balance. Cinnamon is OK. It is a decaf, laxative tea that you take before bed. Helps me sleep too and the next day you will feel much better!

Good luck!

Ohhh-- thanks for this one. Gonna go find it! The IP product people are talking about I think is Novalax but there is also a "cleanse" that is recommended after several weeks in. Maybe ask your coach about that to see if it helps clean things out and get things going. My son suffers from regular constipation and just screams on the toilet. Now that I'm on IP and suffering a similar fate at times, I can really appreciate his issue. The dr prescribed an over the counter Restoralax for him (a bright pink/puple bottle) that is a pretty gentle powder that doesn't get thick and goopy like metamucil or something like that.

I've only been on the program for 4 weeks ~ so I have limited personal experience. I used to take psyllium husk daily but stopped once I started IP (IP coach suggested I wait to see if I needed it on program). Well, i experienced the big C week 2 (only lost 0.8lb week 2). My coach recommended Novalax, so I gave that a try. It worked, but I was bloated & had stomach cramps for days afterwards. So, I went back to the psyllium husk & have been much more regular & much less bloated since (lost 3.8lb week 3)!
Good luck! Once you find something that works for you, you'll definitely feel better & see a difference on the scale!

As Lisa mentioned Smoothe Move tea is an option. It works pretty well for most people. Some complain about the taste but I got the peppermint one and it tastes like regular tea to me. I found it in the normal tea section at our local grocer.

I can't remember any more where I saw this piece of information, but I think it was on Ideal Protein Coaching TV. Apparently another reason plateaus happen can be due to releasing all kinds of toxins that have been stored in fat. Liver has hard time dealing with them and while it's struggling with toxins, it doesn't process fats properly...or something along those lines (certainly don't quote me on any of that). The bottom line is that the recommendation of how to help things in this case was: cleanse.

I just want to add to all of the above excellent advice, a simple thing that is easy to kind of reduce the intake of, without realizing.... WATER. Often constipation will go away if you really force water down, chug it down...specially in the morning before going to the bathroom...it will also get things moving.

This is all great advice you've gotten. I'm in week 8 and haven't lost a pound in a week. BUT! My clothes are falling off!

In 8 days the scale hasn't moved for me, but I've lost inches. In my assumption, my body's just catching up with the scale.

It's a little freaky when you're losing losing losing and then you're not, but if you're OP, then it's just your body adjusting to all the new changes. Don't worry, it'll move again.

Thanks for this info. Have not been able to find the smooth move tea everyone talks about, great to know shoppers has something else that could work. I actually took an exlax for like the second time in my life as that was all I had in the house. Not sure if those are even allowed, but it seemed to work. I believe they probably are not allowed as I don't see anyone ever recommending them. Can someone tell me why?

I just looked up the ingredients... All of the non-medical ingredients...most of them are not allowed on the diet.
Inactive ingredients: cocoa, confectioners sugar, hydrogenated palm kernel oil, lecithin, non-fat dry milk, vanillin

OH NO! You have got to be kidding. I would never have thought medicine would have stuff like that. Never even thought to look at the ingredients as figured it was medicine.....Jeesh. Well this is just great. Gonna go check the box.. Crap....