Hi. I found your thread today while I was doing some looking around. I have been very depressed about how I look and my husband has offered to pay for a diet program. He suggested Jenny Craig, but I am just not impressed with that. I did WW but I am horrible with being disciplined any more.

I am now about 42, have had 4 kids (the last one in 2008) and nothing snapped back. I have the dreaded stomach flap, weigh 198 pounds and really want to get back to 165 which is where I was for a long time and I was happy there. I hate the way I look in casual clothes.

Anyway - There are a couple of places here in Wichita that have this Ideal Protein program. People seem to be having a great success on it and it the results is pretty fast.

Couple of questions:

1. What is the cost like compared to other diet programs?
2. Has anyone gone off IP and maintained their weight?

Thanks.

The first Phase is the most expensive being about $72 or so a week. There was also a one time consultation fee that for me was $230. That included the first week of food and all of the vitamins and supplements. You need 3 boxes of packets ($27 ea.) the first phase and then 2 on Phase 2. Maintenance you only need protein packets for the day after you cheat day when you do Phase 1 to flush the carbs and fat out of your system.

In regards to if you can keep it off.... YES! I am 2 months away from keeping if off for 1 year!!! I have never been successful on any other program, but this works and was worth every penny!

Wow! Thanks for the reply. I am not sure of the cost here but I have emailed a couple of places to get some information. $72 a week isn't too bad. It's better than $100 a week fro JC or some other plan. I really want something that will incorporate real food, as that is what we live on - not boxed and frozen items.

I'm from Wichita as well! I highly recommend going to Dopps Clinic on south Meridian - Dr. Dopps and his wife both did the diet and are big proponents of it because they know it works. As far as pricing goes, it's like this:

Consultation - $75
Weekly food and weigh-in - $110 ($95 if you get a group rate of 2 or more people) which gives you 3 boxes of food for the week.
Additional boxes of food - $27 each
Walden Farms products - $5 each
Miracle Noodles - $2.75? I think.

Anyway there are 2 people there that I know of who act as coaches for the diet. I go to Ben and he's great. Very helpful with lots of suggestions and he is always reading up on the subject. That's my recommendation!

I can't answer your questions about other diets because this is the first one I've tried but I can tell you my mom has lost almost 100 pounds in 9 1/2 months - it works.

Thanks so much. I bet those "lose 3-7 pounds per week with Dopps" are his signs. I actually use Dr. Darden at Dopps on East Kellogg as a chiropractor.

Hi there!

IP isn't the most economical plan out there however, but for me this is the only plan that has worked. I am just getting back on IP after taking a bit of a break. When I started last Aug to just before Christmas, I was down nearly 55 pounds. This diet has changed my life. I LOVE LOVE LOVE IP. I won't say that it's easy, it's quite strict actually but for me that's good. I realized that's what I needed to be successful at weight loss.

I hope you continue to seriously consider IP. You will love the results.

Hi,

I've only been on IP for 1 month and live in Canada so I won't comment on the prices. What I wanted to mention is that I did a lot of research on various diets before committing to IP and one of the biggest reasons I chose IP was because I believe in the science of it. Unlike many other diets, you do not lose lean muscle mass and water weight. This, I believe, is one of the big drivers for why this diet creates lasting success stories - the more muscle mass you have, the faster your metabolism is. Once you reach your goal, your muscle to fat ratio will be much better and your body will metabolize the 'non-IP' foods more efficiently than it did prior to IP.

Anyway, this is just my opinion (I'm not in the medical field) but I believe it's the best diet for me to maintain healthy eating habits and weight in the future.

Good luck with whatever you decide!

This is not true. With any low carb diet you lose water weight quickly as muscle glyocgen stores are depleted. With any diet, low carb or not, wether you lose muscle mass or not is dependant on a lot of things but primarily protein intake. Keep protein intake at sufficient levels and you retain muscle to a certain degree.

The IP diet is a form of a PSMF. Anyone considering a PSMF you should talk to your doctor first to make sure he/she thinks your body can handle it. With a doctor's blessing I would look into Rapid Fat Loss which in my opinion is a better designed PSMF with no expensive supplements to buy.

Hi John,

Firstly, in my post I clearly stated that it was my opinion & I'm not a medical expert

Also, I didn't contradict or refute anything you say in the first part of your message, so wouldn't say that it's untrue. I just stated that many diets (that I have tried...which were not classified as 'low-carb' btw) do cause a loss in muscle mass...most likely because they are deficient in protein. I am not saying that there aren't other suitable diets that maintain lean muscle mass...this is just the one that I personally chose to follow.

It is up to each individual to research what suits them best for their lifestyle and health. I am posting on the IP forum to share my experiences with those who are interested and to support others going through the same journey.

The big expense with the ideal protein (thus the name of the program itself) is that the protein you're getting is the "ideal" protein that your body needs. Like JohnP stated this is a PSMF type diet, however, the products are designed to contain all of the amino acids that your body needs - thus all their protein supplements are complete proteins and allows you to be on a very restricted calories regime with little to no muscle loss. Your body goes into ketosis and uses your fat stores as a form of energy rather than carbohydrates. Also the goal of the diet is to let your pancreas rest by requiring little to no insulin to be produced by not eating carbs/sugar etc.

The diet is quite epensive as in reality the variety of food you can eat is significantly lacking and I'd guess most people like myself end up buying more protein packets than then need up front to have a larger variety to choose from based on moods/cravings.

The diet was created by Dr. Tran Tien and you can read the entire protocol on his website trantiendiet dot com. If unable to do the diet due to monetary reasons you can look into alternative products to the Ideal protein products and still be successful doing it yourself, however, one of the great advantages through doing the program itself is the variety of foods as well as the accountability of weekly weigh ins and measurements.

As far as my own experience the diet has lowered my cholesterol from 240 to 190, my triglycerides from 170 to 95, and while I went off the diet due to financial reasons around the holidays and didn't follow the protocol to continue (thus regaining about 90% of the weight I'd lost by holiday binging) I've lost a total of 90 lbs. in the 4 total months I was on the diet (60 the first time and 30 so far the 2nd time).

You will lose a lot of water weight the first week which will account for the larger number but if you're clinic is like mine then they measure your body water % as well and mine has consistantly gone up from week 1 on. They do warn you that you will gain some water weight back when carbs are re-introduced in the later phases as well.

My experience with the diet is as follows:

The first week is hard as your body is getting used to not having carbs and will be craving them a lot. For me it took 6 days to get past this where I was dealing with hunger and headaches (others have reports other symptoms - everyone is different). After the 6 days I had about 2 days of feeling decent then I noticed I had a ton of energy. I still have a ton of energy and the desire to do more physical activity as well and have even found myself doing housework more simply because I don't feel weighed down to the couch and my outlook on life is a lot better. Also - as a "side effect" of ketosis - I am rarely hungry and the only times that I have major cravings are the times when I'm bored and I default to old ways of eating out of boredom - however, when keeping myself busy I have to remind myself to eat. I've also lost a ton of inches and there are some products made from a collagen protein on the diet that boast the ability to get rid of cellulite and tighten up skin.

All in all I highly recommend the diet if you can afford it as it covers every base I can think of for success (depends on individual clinics though as I've seen some people say theirs aren't great).

Hope this helps, sorry for the giant post.

The pancreas does not need to rest. Protein ingestion causes insulin to be released so it is not resting on the IP diet anyways. "Ideal" protein is quite silly ... any animal protein is "ideal" and the idea that you need ideal protein packets to prevent muscle loss is marketing only. Ketosis is not necessary for fat loss your body burns fat for energy with or without it.

You lose weight because of calorie restriction. You lose it fast on the IP diet because you're massively restricting calories.

Welcome to IP! I have been in several diets and didn't work, I would shed some pounds and then have all back within few days... IP is a diet that I really like and over all it works for me, the food makes me feel full and don't want to be snacking all the time, now they have more variety in products, I love the soy chips they just taste like tostitos and the bag is big so I have it for my lunch... there are some chocolate chips that I just get the idea that they are M&Ms they take care of my sweet tooth ... I do recommend this diet, even though is spendy but it is well worthy.. After losing 20 lb I decided to take a break, the weight lost hasn't come back, I was controlling my portions and eating IP pancakes instead of the real pancakes... now I am back on track for another 20lbs... summer is coming so I am looking forward to it... Also, I really need to point out is the support you will find in this group, moderators are very supportive and there are members that have a lot of knowledge in this diet and tons of tips to offer. Good luck to you!

Welcome to IP!

WW didn't work for me either... calorie counting and exercise only got me so far and then I got stuck in the mid-170's for over a year. I've been on IP for 5 weeks and I've lost 15 lbs (and this is with a thyroid problem... and I had a cheat)! I think the program is excellent and works quite well for me.

As for the cost, I bought all of my vitamins a week before starting. There are 3 different supplements to take and they cost me about $20 each, so they add to the start-up costs (but two of them each lasted me a month and I still have plenty of the third one left (and I take double of that one than most people do)). As for the groceries, I would say that I spend about $80 (or less) a week but I always end up with more than I need... there's always something that I want to try, so I've built up a considerable stash. There was also a one-time fee to open the file. In my case, it was $25 through the gym that I was already a member of.

I don't know about maintenance yet... not there yet!

Good luck!

I live in Hutchinson and it cost me $84 a week. My in laws live in Clearwater and I think it cost them the same, but use a Dr. down in Clearwater. There are many on here that have been in maintenace for a number of months. It is a great program.

Hi Sherbear, I was never a believer in a diet program until Ideal protein, I was so impressed with how one of my co-worker's lost weight that I asked him about it. He gave me the information and I did research on it. I am a very cautious person and ponder things a lot before I jump in head first. I am glad I started IP I am seeing results I have never seen before and I feel better. If you are concerned about this diet the best thing to do is see your doctor and bring the information you have read and they can tell you their medical opinion. Most of us are not medical trained on this forum just believers as we have been doing the program.

JohnP - Just wanted to say that your responses were interesting but you didn't really provide a weight loss program that is better than IP. What are you on? Perhaps with a little more information Sherbear can make comparisions and then decide which is best for them. Thanks for responding about IP but have you tried it? and it didn't work for you? I am just curious why you would answer for IP if you are so against it. Thanks.