I feel like I'm starving today!!! It always makes me concerned that I'm out of ketosis. I ate one of the muffins I make from the pudding so essentially an extra half of packet. I've had 121 ounces of water, banana strawberry rtd for breakfast, 2 cups peppers for lunch and chicken noodle soup, a salad with cucumber and a little tomato, a 7oz steak, some more peppers to make my 2 cups of veggies, and white cheddar crisps from Nashua, and I've had 4 cups of hot tea (all decaf). so I've had my 3 packs plus a half, all my veggies and all my meat. I really feel hungry. It's almost like the first days.

I had one of those days last week. Don't be afraid of that fourth packet. Or brush your teeth and go to bed!

Day 4 of official reboot with coach. I feel strong and motivated to get the weight off.

Wow, this week is hard with all the social events I have going on in the evenings which makes dinner time a challenge. I am learning that I have to plan, plan, plan in order to stay on track. Yesterday I missed dinner all together and by the time I got home it was 11 p.m. and I was so tired I just wanted to crawl into bed. I certainly did not eat enough food and I can see the lack of sleep and lack of food on my face today. Dark circles under my eyes and general feeling of fatigue. I made sure I ate a really good breakfast today (herb and cheese omelet with lots of asparagus) and packed an extra food packet today. I may need to slide into a vacant boardroom and have a little nap this afternoon - seriously - or I will be worn out tonight. Having an active social life while IP is hard!

I don't know what's going on...I had another dream last night (second night in a row) that I cheated! What is going on with my brain!?

Starting back up on Ideal Protein today. I fell off the wagon for a while and gained back between 8 to 10 lbs. Really binged away on the sugar! I feel so much better when on Ideal protocol. Amazing how terrible I feel after eating sugar, but it truly is like a drug for me and hard to resist. I am looking to support others and also gain support along the way here. Need to lost another 30 lbs. (doctor's orders!) Stay Strong everyone and have a great day!

Gemmstar I agree with you it is amazing how much better I feel when I am on ideal protein. I am on day 4 of my reboot and I can already feel my energy level increasing

I had a venti iced coffee yesterday and WOW! I actually had energy for the 1st time in over a week! It was marvelous... I know we aren't supposed to have that much caffeine but it was so nice to be productive again in the evening!

Ok I have no clue how to post but here goes:
I started idp on 3/26/14( 5wks). I am down 19lbs. I generally have 4 packets per day as I have physically demanding job(therapist). I suppose I could have lost more if I stuck to 3, I was afraid of my body going into starvation mode. My lowest loss was 1.8 and I have lost every week.

What do you experienced idp's think?

I think you are doing great. I lost an average of 2.3 pounds a week when I finished and I rarely had a week over 3. I had some extra protein to support working out or extra packets. Keep it up!

Does anyone use a ketone meter to monitor and verify that they are indeed in ketosis? A lot of traditional ketogenic dieters use them (low carb, mod protein, mod-high fat diets) but have not found many references to them in the IP forums.

I'm wondering if I am in ketosis and I'm still trying to sort out what I now call the "exercise effect" on IP. I'm 5 weeks in and have lost 16.6lbs. Yay! Almost 1/3 of my weight loss has been muscle which concerns me. I've lost muscle every week according to their scale though, after a lot of research in this forum, I don't have a high level of confidence in its accuracy. I do have a high level of confidence in my assessment of my own body and my shape is changing in a way that I'm not thrilled with and my muscle definition is visibly diminished. I'm hoping this is temporary and everything will land where it's supposed to as I get closer to goal. I'm an admitted gym rat and while I did stay away for the first 2 weeks on IP I've been back at it for the past 3 weeks. I've tried to dial down the intensity and as expected I am not able to lift as heavy. I'm OK-ish with that and I'm fine with my ~3lb/week weight loss pace. I usually eat an extra packet on gym days and I also do pilates and walk a couple times a week. Both those activities are relatively low intensity. I'm petty sure everything is working as it should with this diet so I'm really just airing my frustration over potential loss of hard won muscle here (sorry!) and open to any feedback other gym goers may have.... and the ketone meter question.

DO NOT BE A GYM RAT!! I know it is counterintuitive because we are so used to the old 'calorie counting' type of diet. Remember, this is only your WEIGHT LOSS phase... this is not your maintenance way of life, things will change and you can get back to working out hard when you have reached your goal. Check my profile for more info on my background...

You need to spare your muscle, so just do the gentle walks for now and don't get obsessive about them either. I never used the ketostix because my body was burning the ketones effectively right from the start. The stix only work if you are excreting the ketones instead of burning them. So, don't worry too much about that, just keep on plan and it is true that the machine they use for measuring isn't the most accurate. You may wish to invest in a proper body fat % test via your MD's office if it concerns you. Losing 3 lbs a week is considered at the top of range so be careful as you have actually lost more than this - of course it does depend on how much you have to lose - the closer to goal the slower it goes.

Liana

I am a person who continued with weight lifting, and swimming 2500 yards 5 days a week. I dialed it back and kept it 10 pounds or under and the swimming was steady state, no sprinting. I personally saw a lot of muscle definition come on, so maybe you are doing too much weight wise.

Never bothered with the sticks. Just trusted the plan.

So not what I wanted to hear but pretty much what I expected.

I am in the process of getting certified as a personal trainer through NASM so this is a critical time for me to be working out with my trainer to better apply the concepts I am studying and will be tested on next month. Guess we need to scale back the intensity even further.

Can you clarify your statement about 3lb being top of range and losing more than I think.... more muscle? I have not set a firm weight goal but need to lose at least another 35lbs. I'm at 165 now, down from 205 overall but started IP at 182. Thank you so much Liana!!!

thanks drd1961!