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Hello and

Hope you are able to find a plan that works for you. There is a thread here for the IP diet but yes, it is quite expensive, along with being extremely low calories. Would probably end up costing you more than seeing a doctor.

However, you can eat healthful foods and develop your own plan without an expensive diet program (note I am NOT knocking IP... a lot of people are on it and love it). If you can't afford this, why not check out something that is in your budget?

You don't need fancy, special "diet foods." There are lots of healthful fruits, veggies, beans, greens, nuts, etc. that will be good for both your health and weight loss.

I can't say about the 1200 calorie diet... my doctor has told me to never go under 1300 but then I am tall and built large.

There is lots of support and encouragement here... just check out the forum and find where you fit in, and work at developing an eating and exercise plan that is workable for you.

Welcome! So nice to see Google is randomly helping people find this site! lol. Congrats on wanting to get healthy! What Misti said is correct - you don't need any special plan that you pay for. Calorie counting works wonders with low budgets if you're careful.

I'm personally on a lower carb plan of my own devising, but eating low carb can get expensive, and is about as effective long term as calorie counting, from what I've seen here.

You can combine low cal eating with getting rid of all white breads/rice/potatoes (just eating whole grains) for a good one-two punch, but I'm not sure how hard this is on the wallet.

I hope you can find something that works for your body and for your financial situation. There's lots of great recipes and advice on eating healthier on low budgets around here. And some of the best support you're ever going to find on the web, which is just as helpful!

As for your exercise program - how many days a week are you doing this? There are a couple common reasons you might not be losing here.
1. You could be working your body *too* hard here. Our bodies are quite fickle. Working them too hard can be almost as bad as not doing anything at all. It can cause the body to hold onto fat tighter.

2. If you're only going to the gym once or twice a week, you could try going more often, but maybe for a little shorter time periods. Our bodies tend to benefit more from a little exercise every day than tons a couple days a week. Don't forget to throw in a rest day every week though.

3. You may be building muscle and losing a little fat, with the added muscle currently making up for the fat loss on the scale. A better measure sometimes is how you *feel*. Do your clothes fit better? Are you more fit now than when you started? Either one means improved health, regardless of what the scale says.

4. And finally, exercise is mainly to improve your fitness, build muscle, and rev up your metabolism. It's exceedingly difficult to exercise enough (burn enough calories) to lose large amounts of weight without addressing your diet as well. Adjust your eating habits, make healthier choices there, as well as exercising, and you will likely have much more success.

I'm not a doctor or a nutritionist, not an expert of any kind; this is just from my own personal experiences and research. I'm assuming you have pretty free access to the interwebs, being a college student, so don't be shy to do your own research. There are so many great articles and videos out there to help you better understand your body, and learn how to work around your budget.


Sorry for the novel. Welcome again, and best of luck in your journey!

Hi Julie ... just wanted to stop by and say hello. I'm new here, too, and again Google randomly brought me to this forum. I'm currently at my heaviest ever, and am trying to get my head around the fact I'm hideously unhealthy and it's time to change. It's one thing me knowing it, it's another thing accepting and doing something about it. This is my first step in a long journey, and hopefully this is the right place to have found support. Good luck.

Hi again, Julie. Just wanted to add here that I agree with Devnet about doing your own research on the Internet and learning what foods you want to eat. Personally I eat ALL vegetables and roots, etc., including a lot of corn on the cob, sometimes yams, etc. But I try to avoid chemicals, fake sugar and most processed foods... things other people think are okay to eat. If we just put a bit of research and effort into it, we can each find what works for us.

Hi, guys! To answer a few of your questions:

1. I go to the gym about 3-6 times a week, varying on weather mostly, haha.

2. The 1200 calorie intake was never really successful since I always managed to go past it into the 1500s.

3. I rarely drink soda. About once every 3-4 months since I have a distaste for it, worries about diabetes, etc. I drink about 4 bottles of water a day, haha. I love water!

I've been wanting to get into whey protein shakes but I'm not sure which I should buy. I was told I needed a protein shake after a workout because I get the "shakes" after I'm done my entire workout and needed something to settle my nerves down. Any suggestions?