Just curious how many other people had followed conventional wisdom before IP but saw no success, and what your experience was?

I trended toward heavy as a teenager and barely met the weight standard for the Army. I spent 5 years in the Army which is a very active and physical lifestyle with massive ammounts of excercise and allot of missed meals. Even with everything in my favor, mandatory daily excercise, young, and reasonable eating I was aways right under the weight limit and within a year of going on to college I was up about 100 Lbs and stayed there. During those 20 years I at badly and properly with little difference in result. I saw a nutritionist about 2 years ago and followed the advice which had fruits, wheat products etc. and got nowhere.

In short, a proper diet (by conventional guidelines) and excercise wasn't working for me. And saying screw it I'll just have pizza wasn't doing me any favors. But IP has been a steady 10 Lbs a month for 60 Lbs so far. The diet is obviously matched to my metabalism better than standard guidelines. The curious thing is that IP is barely known, certainly not discussed in many medical environments and I have never seen it advertised or anything, I never heard of it until someone at work told me about it.

Hi, Ted - I certainly had failures - and also never lost weight as consistently on any other diet. I think there are certain features of this diet that just work better for some people, including me. For me, I like the simplicity, and I think low carb just works better for my body.

I agree that IP doesn't seem to be as well known, but it sure spreads by word of mouth. At the last place I worked, I heard about it from a coworker, and eventually a number of us were doing IP. Also, at my new job, I've found at least two other people who have lost a lot of weight with this plan.

Ted,

I agree, conventional diets or "healthy" eating did not work for me. IP does. My OBGYN recommended it to me, partly because his brother was on it and it worked but also because he felt it was a safe program that works. I have never seen it advertised, only found info on it by googling it. When people ask me what I'm doing I share and 100% of them have never heard of it.

Ted - I'm with you on this one. I maintained a weight between 185-195lbs regardless of what I was doing. I've always eaten 80-90% healthy and I've been active my whole life. Biking, snowboarding, swimming, weight lifting, yoga, daily dog walks. The only other time in my life that I lost weight was on atkins, I had success (15lbs) but I started to feel so physically terrible with the high fat content of the meals. In fact there were a lot of times I felt nauseous after eating on atkins. This clearly wasn't something I could stick to long term. I've tried conventional dieting (calories in vs calories out with a focus on the major food groups), I've tried paleo, nothing else worked. I went to my doctor with months worth of activity and food journals (calories between 1200-1500 per day depending on activity for the day and 60-90 minutes of exercise 6 days a week, mostly weight lifting, high intensity interval training, and yoga). You know what she told me? I need to work out more. It was really hard for me not to tell her to shove that recommendation where the sun don't shine. I thank the stars that I found out about IP through a coworker as it's something that's finally working for me. Gotta love that feeling!

I also tried the conventional methods. At my highest weight of 250 I had a loss of about 50 lbs going from SAD (Standard American Diet) to vegetarian. That loss took about a year. I was doing massive amounts of cardio during that time. That got me to 200.

Then I got stuck. I went to a Naturopath, and she told me to cut calories and work out more. So I became Vegan. I did massive amounts of cardio and didn't loose anything. I also developed a variety of health problems.

So then I tried Paleo keeping carbs below 50 grams but high fat. I gained 16 lbs. I stopped eating so much fat and dropped to 206.

A good friend was doing IP and having great success. I was very skeptical because I thought it would be some Jenny Craig type thing. I always told myself that I would never do a plan. I could do it by myself. Those plans were all just out to get your money and they never worked. I was pleasantly surprised. It took me 10 months, I lost 67 lbs. and it really wasn't that hard for me. I'm finishing up my 3rd week of Maintenance and I feel like this is something that I can do for the rest of my life. I went in for my annual physical 2 months after starting IP and my doctor was NOT on board. Even though she knew absolutely nothing about the diet she had a preconceived idea about how weight loss occurs and said that it wasn't sustainable in the long run and to lose weight I needed to eat a balanced diet/lower calories/workout. The old calorie in/calorie out theory. I simply looked at her and said that's what I have been doing and it hasn't worked. She told me to just keep at it. I'm glad I didn't listen to her. I will be going back to her for the annual physical in April. It will be interesting to see her reaction to my weight and overall health. I have to admit that I was upset with her reaction, but she is a great doctor for me otherwise and she was basing her response on the standard theories about weight loss. I have come to realize that just as none of us are "standard" a one size fits all approach to weight loss just doesn't work. Maybe my experience will help to educate her about IP.

When people ask me what I did and I tell them Ideal Protein, they get a blank look because they have never heard of it. They automatically assume it's a high protein diet. If they are interested I tell them about it, but most say "Oh, I couldn't do that because I couldn't give up (fill in the blank). Then I stop talking about it.

I have been on and off diets for the past 40 years. I usually stopped when I would stop losing weight. I even tried the fasting diet, Atkins,weight watchers,and many many more. Always got discouraged. My girlfriend started this program in May. She has lost 50 pounds. I went to a very clean and healthy diet watching calories. I lost 10 and could go no further. I started using her program with alternatives and have lost 13 pounds in 4 weeks. Love the diet, love how I feel. Am so glad I did this. I am below what I have been for the last 10 years.

This thread really speaks to me. thank you

i have also tried everything under the sun with little success. in fact finding this forum led me to try ideal protein so a big THANK YOU to all who participate here. My doctor was very happy about my success and looked into it, now she recommends it to others

who would have thought that by tweaking what you eat, you could actually live off your own fat stores! mind blowing really

makes me so sad when i see others struggling to lose and they ask what i'm doing and i take the time to explain, only to get "i can't live without, pasta, wine, soda" etc etc .... only because you certainly can survive without those things and you don't have to do it forever. one thing i have really learned is that moderation is possible .... out of the few who did listen and try all of them are happy and that makes me very happy. helping someone else figure it out makes me as happy as my own progress.

balanced diets are like balanced bank accounts, static/stay the same. great approach for maintaining, not so much for losing.

Weight Watchers worked really well for me while I was exercising and tracking. The problem I found was too much wiggle room which I took advantage of. Then I ignored the extra bites etc. IP worked so well for me because it was so restrictive and ketosis kills the appetite. Once I saw the huge numbers of weight loss on the scale, the motivation took over and it was easy. Maintaining on the other hand... Completely my fault. While I was diligent with following phase 4, I was maintaining very well. Once I got lazy and started eating the junk... gained back half. IP is AMAZING and that is why I am back. It works!

I am a child of the 1960's and I grew up with the "Food Pyramid". This is what failed me! Too many carbs. Funny how sometimes information from the U.S. Government is totally wrong.

Yep, 8 servings of bread with fruit and the rest all becomes future fat (for me and those with metabolism like me).

I am a product of the 60s, also, and have been overweight/yo-yo dieting since my teens. Over nearly 40 years I can't begin to calculate how many hundreds of pounds I have gained and lost! It is so sad/depressing to know that all along, as a culture, we were taught to eat the very things that created and perpetuated the problem for me.

Boy am I HAPPY to have found IP, the right way to eat for my body and regaining my health!!

Now, to keep reminding myself that we all have the right to be successful at getting there and maintaining it!

We have this conversation regularly in my household. The food pyramid makes me nuts!!!

I lost 45 lbs on Atkins over 6-7 months, gained it all back over the next two years.

I lost 20 on WW, but quit because I hated the meetings.

Ive lost just over 30 on IP and have liked it the best of any...no real hunger pangs, and have much more energy.

I could not agree more! I went into this and decided to admit that maybe I didn't know how you were "supposed" to eat. I have a lot of people tell me that it is not healthy to lose weight this way and it is too fast, etc etc etc. Usually right after they get over their shock and close their mouth's because I look completely different! (ha!)

I think part of being successful on this program is to admit that maybe you and all the experts out there don't know what the heck they are talking about! I tell people - give yourself 30 days on IP and see for yourself. Made a believer out of me!