Its week #4 for me and i was down 3.4 lbs which gives me a combined total of 15 lbs. i got to see my fav coach today. Claire is awesome. i find that the other coach that is at my clinic is more critical of things and wanted me to cut more carbs when I lost only 2.2 lbs last week. i went from 34 carbs avg the first week to 23 max last week. juggling the packets to get 23 carbs is hard, especially when you add in a restricted packets. fortunately i like the chicken soup and the pre-made choc and vanilla drinks. these are low in carbs.

JillieMac: Don't let the other coach get to you... you don't need to game this program, just do the packets, eat all the food required, get all your oil/salt/water/supplements in and it will work.
The average amount lost per week by women is 2-3 lbs. That is over the course of your whole IP phase 1-3. Already so far you have lost an average of 3.75 lbs a week - Larger than average losses! Please DO NOT worry about 2.2 as that is actually awesome. Remember, if you are losing 2 which is average there are other people losing less even though they are following this diet strictly. Your body is different from anyone else's so don't fret, you are doing great. You do not need to 'juggle packets' to get down to 23g carb/day. Average N American diet has easily 350-500 grams of carb a day.... Think about it.... is 34 grams really all that high?


Liana

So glad to see everyone is doing well and hanging in there! I just got the okay from my cardiologist to start the plan! So excited! I have my initial visit on Tuesday afternoon. Looking forward to finally joining you guys on IP!

This will be my second go. I did five weeks in Sept 2015 but waivered around thanksgiving. This time aiming for 10 weeks OP. Question though as I didn't run into last time, the rice crispys aren't restricted? And what is the double restricted?

I'd steer clear of any double restricted... just means they have quite a bit more carbs & fat than the other packets. Most of us in maintenance think it's a bit of a nasty trick to slow your weight loss down so that you will be at the clinic longer (more $$$$ for them). Also higher carb/sweeter/fattier combos set you up for trigger cravings. That can be a bad scenario if you were a sweets craver pre-IP. Some people just eat all the sweet treat packets and then when they get to P3 (the stage where you need to have conscious control over your real food choices), it can be super difficult and they fall back into old sweet treat/carby habits because they haven't learned anything new and their tastebuds and brain haven't been flavour trained either.

Don't know much about the crispys, but I'd read and compare the sides of the boxes... Nutrition Facts must be posted. Find out how many carbs compared to something more foodlike packets, ie; soups, pastas, chilis, ckicken a la king whatever.
I personally have more mealtime satisfaction when I feel like I'm eating a full-on meal and not just a lite dessert & salad.

Liana

Liana,
my thoughts exactly. my starting goal was about 3 lbs a week to get to a total loss of 40 lbs. i figured it would take me 3 months to do that. At this point i think i may go all the way down to the 120s which was my college weight before I got married. i haven't been that weight since 1989 when I had my first child. And i find it odd that at my initial visit the choice packets that Jordan gave me totaled 34 carbs, and then she suggested 23 carbs to up my losses.

I've settled in around 18 to 24 carbs daily now and have a routine. i also found that 1-2 times a week I make a orange dreamsicle out of the vanilla pre-made drink and a dry packet of peach mango drink. add ice and blend and it's amazing.

Liana, thank you for filling me in. I've never had one of what they call a double restricted. I typically stick to shakes twice a day and then one larger one like the bbq crisps or the vanilla crispy bar (my total favourite). So I think my carbs are fairly low as the pre-made shakes only carry a 4 carb hit each. I get what you're saying about phase 3 though so perhaps when I've adjusted to being OP I'll just to get away from sweets. I also learned that you can split your 8 oz of meat between lunch and dinner. I personally find 8oz in one meal makes me sick, not so much because it's filling but because it's a lot of one thing and I'm not super into traditional protein. What are thoughts on that?

i agree. 8 oz of meat at one meal now seems like a lot. before IP it was nothing to eat a 12 oz steak, potatoes and bread. so glad I am past that way of eating.

Hi Arf! I'm an long time IP-er. Here's what I do with the soups. You might like it.
I saute mushrooms, red peppers, and a bit of finely diced cauliflower in olive oil, garlic, with salt and pepper. Then I pour the soup over that right into the frying pan. When I was using stirctly IP products I used the broc-cheese soup, cream of chicken soup (and I added curry powder to that one), leek soup, and even the A la king packet. Now I use Healthsmart cream of tomato soup, Proti-thin broc-cheese or cream of chicken soup or italian tomato soup. I buy those products from Nashua and they are half or one third the price of the IP products.

The veggies in the soup + more salt, pepper and garlic make the soups taste good to me.

Just thought I'd share...

Best of luck to you all!

Week #5 for me and I was down 3 lbs from last week. Very happy with this achievement. keeping my carbs between 18 and 24 is working as my coach wants me to be at a 2-3 lb loss per week.

Hi All! I am glad to have found this thread. I have completed 5 weeks on IP and have lost only 13 pounds so far. I have 13-15lbs more to go. It been very slow and last week I lost nothing. It's disheartening. But after reading so many posts I think what I am doing wrong is relying on Lettuce and cucumber as my veggie intake. Is that correct? What I have come to realize that they do not count towards the veggies and you still have to eat the select veggies. Please advise?!

IP is already very low in calories so it's important to use all your oil, at least sometimes eat a 'heartier' meat like beef or pork, and eat a whole range of veggies. Simplest of course are the good old standbys of broccoli and cauliflower, but there are other interesting things out there like jicama, rhubarb, fennel, rutabaga, chayote, radishes, okra, sauerkraut, tomato, snow peas, asparagus, bamboo shoots, Brussels sprouts, bell peppers....

A little salad on the side is fine if you like salad, but you don't need to eat that to lose weight if it's not your taste choice.

See if you can't google or find on pinterest low carb veggie recipes. There are lots of good ideas out there. One of my favorites is stuffed peppers with chopped cauliflower, a bit of tomato or no sugar salsa, and ground beef stuffed in them. Yummy!

Thank you so much. I got so many ideas and issue wasn't the recipe. It was more like I misinterpreted the amount of veggies and types of veggies needed to be eaten. I assumed if I was eating lettuce and cucumber, I will be fine.

Yep, 4 c of veggies PLUS unlimited lettuce and those select raw salad type veg. For those that never ate much veg before, salad is kind of a gateway veggie combo, lol, that can help them become trained to eat & enjoy their veggies.


Liana

Hi All, Forgot to sign in for a few days. All good here. Still losing and still happy. Clothes are feeling lose. I haven't cheated since I started on March 28. It's a miracle. Going on vacation next week. 4 days in a hotel. Worried about that. Coach gave me Phase 2 and 3 sheets to try to help me out but said to stay away from alcohol b/c that is the worst. Hoping I can maintain and not gain!!!