Hey! I am new to this site and Ideal protein (started almost two weeks ago)
My hight is 5'6 starting weight was 179 and I am down to 172, after eating breakfast. The only problem is that I think about food WAY more than I probably need to, and I'm pretty it is because I can't have it. I really miss fruits and other sweets. I tried the chocolate pancake and it tasted so bad so thats out of the menu. I do drink tons of water.
So I have a couple questions to ask all of you awesome ladies since my coach seems to be really ditzy
1) How many carbs do I have to eat to stay in ketosis? (including veggies)
2) Is there any choices of gum is can eat?
3) How much longer will is take me to reach 145-150 pounds?
I lost my paper with question but when I find I will post more to this thread!

Thank you!

Welcome! To answer your questions:

1. IP is NOT a carb counting diet. If you follow your sheet the way it is written, you will get what you need and stay in ketosis. Every body is different, some people are carb sensitive while others can eat more carbs and have no issues. Just follow your sheet.

2. You can chew sugar free gums that do not contain aspartame. The ones that contain xylitol are a better choice than others if you can find them.

3. Most people average about 2-3lbs per week (but PLEASE keep in mind that you will have higher weeks and lower weeks. One week of less than a pound loss is common here and there and doesn't mean anything is going wrong). But at the end of the day, your body will release the weight however it will - just know that the weight WILL come off and trust the program.

Thank you! so much :]

I found my sheet of other questions. Egg whites are they free, can I have 1/2 in addition?
I was sick this past week did that affect me in any way? and Salmon is in the diet but it does have a lot of fat should I still eat 8 0z. ?

Egg whites aren't TOTALLY free - but you can have 2 egg whites per day as an "extra" - in that quantity they roughly fit into the 0/0/0 rule at the bottom of your sheet without adding much in terms of calories.

The only TOTALLY free food is lettuce (Romaine, Boston/butter, iceberg). You can eat as much of that as you want, as often as you want. It makes a great snack to curb your hunger in between meals or to make a meal bigger by adding a lettuce salad.

Illness can cause inflammation, which can cause temporary water retention. It might show up on the scale but you can be sure it will come off soon after - you would have to eat 3500 calories to gain a pound of ACTUAL weight.

Yes, salmon is a fattier fish - but GOOD fats. You don't have to worry about the fat content of salmon. Fat is not the devil, just huge quantities of BAD/synthetic fats

Awesome! thank you~

I eat salmon and have no problems. I suggest not ever concentrating on one type of protein, i.e. always chicken or salmon. It is good to mix up your options, higher / lower fat proteins, etc. This will keep the program interesting and therefore easier to stick to but also I find it keeps me losing better because every day isn't exactly the same calorie / fat intake.

On being sick, I was sick for the first two weeks of January and still lost a good amount of weight. One tip is to still ensure you get all your food in that the program requires even if you aren't hungry. You don't want to go into starvation mode by not getting enough food.

If you are interested in seeing your regular carb, calorie, protein, fat counts, I recommend starting to use an online food journal like My Fitness Pal or Calorie Counter by Fatsecret. You need to do a food journal while on IP to stay accountable to what you eat and it sets up good habits. I have done it so I can also see what is my typical fluctuations and this is making me more aware of nutrional content of food to help me in maintenance.

Just a fyi - for those who are not aware, aspartame can cause cravings. You might double check if you are not really hungry but have food on your thoughts, to see if aspartame that might be contributing.
http://www.mercola.com/article/aspartame/symptoms.htm

Good point on mixing the animal proteins. I fell into the rut of having chicken breast all the time when I was really busy and my weight totally stalled. You need a bit of good fat like salmon to lose fat.

Being that I'm diabetic, I still have to count my carbs. I use My Fitness Pal daily, instead of the little journal I got from my IP coach.

I haven't ever fallen out of ketosis, and I have aprox 30-40 net carbs a day. You get quite a few carbs from the IP foods, plus the non-fiber carbs from veggies. It seemed high to me at first, but since I've maintained at least a 2lb/week weight loss, I'll go with it.

My sheet from the coach said salmon was only once a week, so I've been careful about that, and I LOVE salmon. I do mix it up, something diff every night. I go between chicken breast, ground lean turkey, pork loin (totally trimmed) beef sirloin, lean ground beef, and haddock. The higher fat days are obviously the beef and pork, so the calories fluctuate.