[YoungAndHungry21]

Hi everyone! I'm on Week 5 of Ideal Protein and thus far I've lost about 13lbs...or have I? So, I went from 188lbs at my initial weigh in to 175lbs at Week 4 weigh in but the next day, I went for a friend's weekend birthday celebration and had a wild night of drinking which led to a regrettable hangover bagel Otherwise, I had been good about eating salads and lean proteins over the weekend in order to limit possible tragedies like what I ended up doing!

After all of that, I came home and was strict on IP and it's been about 4 days of that but alas alack I've also been struck by Mother Nature's crimson tide. So, in a very unhappy state I weighed myself at home and say that the scale said 179lbs Granted, I weighed myself at night, knowing I was bloated and had had dinner only an hour or so before but I'm just really scared that I'll go for my weigh in on Monday and if there is a gain it'll be in my fat content and not water!!!

I'm not sure what you guys could say about all of this but I'd love hearing any recommendations or ideas on whether it could be far gain or water gain and best ways to at least weigh in at the same if not try to be back on track again! Thanks

[EagleRiverDee]

I'm not IP but have done low-carb paleo and with low carb paleo I know you can see a huge jump on the scale if you eat (or drink) a bunch of carbs because it replenishes your liver glycogen. Your liver can store 5 lbs of glycogen/water by itself. When you go low carb, that intial whoosh is usually your liver dumping its glycogen. But then if you cheat, you get a whoosh in the other direction. The good news is you should see it whoosh back down pretty quick now that you're back on IP. Also- if you're accustomed to weighing yourself in the morning, don't weigh yourself at night- that's 5 lbs right there. We lose water weight over night due to dehydration/respiration/peeing. You should weigh yourself at the same time every day to get a true idea of weight gain/weight loss.

[shandygaffs]

One or two bad days will not ruin all of your progress or make you gain much (if any) fat. One pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories, meaning that you need to eat 3500 calories above your daily requirement in order to gain one pound of fat. Even on your biggest cheat day, this is pretty hard to do! Most, if not all of the weight gain you saw was due to water weight, and you should see it come back down in the next day or two if you get back on track.

[jennydoodle]

I wouldn't worry too much, I think you will either be at a small loss or the very worst, stay the same. It is definitely not fat. It's water, sodium and carbs. Also, it's TOM and that will affect your weigh in, especially if you are the type to retain water and bloat (like me). You did the right thing by getting back on track immediately and not letting it turn into a huge downward spiral. That is the most important thing, IMO. Please take a deep breath, relax and stay focused until your weigh in.

In my personal experience, I have been able to have an occasional "off plan" meal and still lose weight. IMPO, I think sometimes it helps shake things up and throw your body off. It doesn't know what to do because it is different than what it has adapted to and all the sudden it kicks it into overdrive. Now, I am not talking about doing this all the time, but a very occasional occurrence seems to be ok (at least for my body).

Right now, the best thing to do is try not to stress and just keep working the plan. If you want, you could always go bootcamp style for a few days or not do your restricted item for a few days to really bring your carb count down. But definitely keep drinking tons of water and keep flushing out your system.

[Annik]

Weight loss is not linear. You have to expect ups and downs. For this reason, I carefully track my losses/gains so that I understand what my own body's patterns are. I am super sugar sensitive so even something like too much lemon juice or too much protein can kick me out of ketosis (the fat burning).

Having said this, a ketogenic diet like Ideal Protein is not as forgiving as calorie counting. It takes a few days (for some more than a week) to get into ketosis. If you eat sugars, carbs and you get kicked out of ketosis, it can take a few days to get back to the clean state again. When you are in ketosis, your body runs on fat. When you start adding sugar/carbs back to your diet, your body switches back to being a sugar burner. You'll start getting hungry because the body is seeking out sugar sources to feed itself. When it is in fat burning mode, the body knows there is fat available in the body. You don't experience hunger in the same way because there is no metabolic panic about 'where is the fuel source going to come from'. The body knows it can go to its fat.

When you cheat, you are sending conflicting messages to the body. One day the body is happily fat burning and then the next day (the cheat day) sugar is being shovelled in. It's like pouring water on your fat burning fire.

You can still get back on the wagon and keep going but you have lost time, earlier effort, and sometimes it is hard to get back on the wagon. Another lesson I've learned is that my will power is an non-renewable resource. I only have so much of it so unless I am really prepared to face battle, I am pretty cautious about going into situations where my will power will be tested.

Sorry if I am babbling too much.

There is an article about 'The Real Cost of Cheating' on this way of eating that helped me gain understanding. I am copying it for you here:

The Real Costs of Cheating on the Idea Protein Program
By Tom Ferguson

I was on the Ideal Program about a year ago. From December 1, 2006 to March 1, 2007 I lost 50+ Lbs. That was pretty amazing, but I could have done better.

How could I have done better? By not cheating, that's how. Oh, I didn't cheat big, but I still cheated. I didn't think it was a big deal, because I was still eating so much better than I did in the past. But I wasn't 100% compliant with the diet, so I was cheating. The thing is, I was only cheating myself.

So, is it ok to cheat? That depends. You have to answer that question for yourself. Before you can answer that question, you have to understand the real costs of cheating.

If you cheat one day on the diet, you might think to yourself, 'I've lost a day on the diet, but that isn't so bad.” Not true. First of all, you lost that day, but you also lost the “momentum” of the progress you made up to that point. If you get back on track immediately, then you will take at least one more day of compliance to get back to where you were before you cheated. It's like climbing a hill on a bicycle. If you stop pedaling for a period of time, you're going to roll backward. You will have lost ground, and it will take an equal period of time, or more, to gain back the ground you lost. So, one day of cheating, will cost you at least two days. In that week, instead of 7 days of progress, you will have only 5. Think about it.

Next, if you cheat a little on the Ideal Program you will still lose weight. That's a good thing, right? Well, yes and no. Yes because your objective is to lose weight, and that's good. But when you cheat, your pancreas has to work overtime again. Remember, weight loss is one of our goals, but equally important is to get our bodies functioning in a healthy state, and a healthy pancreas is essential to that.

From a psychological viewpoint, if you cheat and still make progress, you may think it is ok to cheat since there were no consequences. Next time it will be easier to cheat again, and perhaps you will cheat for two days instead of one. But there are consequences. You didn't make as much progress as you could have.

On the other side of the argument, if you absolutely have to have that one day of cheating as a “reward” or you can't stay on the Ideal Program, well the obvious choice is to cheat.

So, is it ok to cheat? You'll have to make the decision for yourself. Think about it and weigh the consequences. Just remember: when you cheat, you're not cheating anyone but yourself.