i have currently been on IP for 2 weeks. my first week did great. lost 5 lbs. second week i only lost 2lbs no inches. i had a home made hamburger at someone's party. my counselor said this is the reason. she asked me if i wanted to go off the diet and was not taking it seriously. i also asked if there was any way i could have a drink at a wedding this weekend and she said no. i am so frustrated and down over all of this. she says i should be losing more weight.
i am currently 34 years old and 6 months postpartum with 2 young kids and want to lose 25 lbs. i was 158lb and currently 152lbs. she is not helping me to figure out why i'm not losing the weight.
i came home after my weigh in was in tears all day. this is so frustrating. every week i go in, its something else i have managed to screw up. there is no compassion from the counsellor at all. please give me advice. i don't want to keep paying 100's of dollars to get no where.

thank you

Your "counsellor" sounds a little loopy if she thinks one homemade hamburger will derail weight loss. Not that it derailed you -- you lost 2 pounds that week!

<<I also asked if there was any way i could have a drink at a wedding this weekend and she said no.>>

Is she your mother? Are you a child? Why do you need her permission?

Please remember that YOU'RE in charge of your eating plan. If IP works for you, great. If it doesn't, there's no law against switching to another plan. I should tell you that I don't restrict my food choices at all, have lots of carbs, and drink wine almost every day -- and none of this has stopped me from losing 55 pounds last year and maintaining the loss. The only thing I've done is limit portions (most of the time).

If you go week after week without losing, I suggest you examine the total QUANTITY of food you're eating and not worry about nonsense like homemade hamburgers. Over time, if you eat fewer calories than your body needs for fuel, you will lose weight.

HTH Freelance

Idk what IP is exactly, but specific diets don't work for me! I don't think one has to miss out on a hamburger or a drink at a wedding in order to successfully lose weight.

You lost 7 pounds in 2 weeks. THAT'S A LOT! If you are in a calorie deficit you WILL lose weight, simple as that. It may not be reflecting on the scale at this very moment, but it will. Keep at it, the scale will show your work, it has no choice. Your "counselor" wants to blame something for your lack of weight loss when there may not be anything to blame at all. Sounds like a crappy counselor to me. Discouraging clients and shaming them is bad in my book.

Keep your head up, and have that drink at that wedding!!!

Have a drink at the wedding, just be sensible and don't have a dozen.

Seven pounds in a fortnight is fantastic! A counsellor that makes you feel guilty when you're doing the best you can, and bullies you into making healthy choices rather than supporting you is NOT fantastic, however. If I were you I'd look into finding a different counsellor.

thanks ladies for your support. i needed it. she is the only counsellor there. i will try to stick through this.

Yes, IP does seem very restrictive. I incorporated their high protein theory into calorie counting for flexibility b/c my stomach doesn't do well supplementing protein powders. Some people love it, some people just white-knuckle it through that diet until they eventually get to the phase where you eat more and more normal foods and less shakes and powders. It does seem by what people report that if you do have a slip-up on fairly minor things that it derails the loss. Do you really need something so strict? Do you need rapid loss to prevent a medical calamity? Is there a reason you are doing something so restrictive to lose 25 lbs?

no i'm trying to lose the baby weight i can't get off. which is 25lbs. i don't want to keep paying $100 a week to lose 2 lbs and be so strict.

$100 per week! You can lose weight just as easily for free, either by researching/following IP on your own or by simply counting calories.

F.

Then don't! That's crazy!

Do a bit of research and see if there are other plans that appeal to you. There are so many FREE resources here on the internet.

Also, 2lbs a week is a WONDERFUL pace to be losing weight at, especially if you have 25lbs to lose.

Have you tried other plans like calorie counting? That is a very expensive way to lose the baby weight. $100 a week is pricey for one person. Let me guess, that's just the products, not actually what else you need too like green leafy veggies....

I have heard of people having coffee, their counselor blaming that for their lack of loss, and saying they had to start all over again. That pretty much turned me off. I have lost lots of weight now and in the past and never had to be that restrictive. I know that the metabolic plan people also aren't allowed caffeine either. It's quite baffling to me b/c fat or thin, calories affected my loss, never caffeine.

What else have you tried besides IP?

do you know off hand any resources online or how to the phases would work?

Man, that kind of negative reinforcement is just sabotaging you. Time to quit paying a "counselor" a *lot* of money to abuse you. It's not as if you will "never" lose the weight if you lose it more slowly... off is off, right? It doesn't have to be all at once. You had a whole 10 months to gain that weight to support your baby! Be kind to yourself.

Try hopping over to the Ideal Protein subforum and see if folks have materials they can give you... Google's a minefield on this one.

--Wendy

Two free resources that I use to count calories are Spark People and My Fitness Pal. Google them and then go poking around the websites. I know people who have had success with both and...well...$100 a week? No, no, no.

Even my primary weight loss tool, Weight Watchers, doesn't cost that much.

thanks ladies. you guys are awesome at making me feel better.thanks for all the advice.

You might try freedieting.com and use their calculators to figure out how many cals you'd need to lose weight. Then you could use whatever ratio works well for you. I do well with 40% Carb/30% protein/30% fat approx. some people do/feel better with different ratios, depends on your body. Just work on finding your sweet spot that isn't too drastic but still lets you meet with good result. It really depends on what you want to try though b/c many people don't want to do the measuring and math of calorie counting.

I am sure you'll find information on this site on whatever plan you'd like to try, as long as it isn't harmful.