Anyone else tried this?
I'm not a dieter, but a very good friend came to visit and she had lost 50 pounds in about four months on the Ideal Protein Diet which was developed for high performance athletes and has since spread as a fad diet. She signed up and bought the food and has been really happy with the weight loss and her energy levels. It is not cheap - $350 to sign up and $90 a week not including the two meals you prepare yourself daily!
My husband wants to lose 20 pounds and was intrigued by my friend's success... so I researched it and decided that we could DIY it. The basic format is low carb low sugar protein shakes 2x a day, 2 high protein meals with vegetables, and one snack-type protein bar. In addition, you need to take a multi-vitamin, calcium, magnesium/phosphorous and omega 3 daily. No sugar, no aspartame, no alcohol, no dairy, no fruit, no pasta, rice, beans, potatoes or starchy vegetables for the first phase. Olive oil, sea salt, spices, herbs, soya sauce, and rice wine and red wine vinegars are ok.
I researched some of the recipes and discovered a weird world of diet foods out there. People crushing up expensive Ideal Protein diet crisps to make fake breading for chicken, spending a lot of time trying to make fries out of turnips and pasta from zucchini, and eating a lot of fake food dressings, substitute sauces, and sugar alternatives. In the end of reviewing information (a lot of it from
http://www.3fatchicks.com/) I realized that food addiction is tough. Many of the posters were very overweight, obsessed with calorie and carb counts, and prone to "falling off the wagon". The diet had worked for a lot of them though.
Anyway, went to Costco and bought the protein powder and I made some big batches of high protein soup with vegetables. We are following the no sugar, no alcohol, no dairy, no fruit, no pasta, rice, beans, potatoes or starchy vegetables - that alone would be enough for weight loss. I think our food costs might actually go down a bit and it is kind of fun for us to try something new for a bit.