For my DB Buddies,
You might consider reading this book The Ideal Protein Diet. It's a free download link, written by the doctor who created the diet. I tried the diet about....who knows? Five years ago? Seven? So many diet roller coasters in between. Once I got past the first week and quit having cravings, I lost about 30 pounds, easily. Quickly. The problem is, I didn't take it all the way thru to the end. I never do. The supplemental food was expensive, $28 per box of seven and you used them a minimum of three times a day. Plus, after 30 pounds, I was feeling really cocky and confident. I can do this, right? Wrong.
This time I want to learn to do it on my own, without supplemental meals, but still use the concept behind it of high protein, low fat, low carb and reduced calories, but I want to hit my goal and then as he explains in the book, slowly reintroduce the carbs back into my body. When I was officially on the diet, I just started eating carbs (any carbs, i.e. ice cream) whenever I wanted without even knowing the maintenance program (stabilization is what he calls that stage). I was right back to my cravings and although the weight actually came back slower it still came back.
When I started DietBet four weeks ago, I reduced my calories and in two weeks lost a total of 3.6 pounds. Nice and steady. Then I started looking at the nutrition wheel (pie chart) available on my phone app. Sheesh....I lived on carbs. Low in calories (1200) but tons of carbs, so I decided to focus on that wheel. Most days, now, I end up with 60/20/20 on protein/fat/carb although I'm shooting for 70/15/15. I'm using normal food, but I add high protein shakes for snacks and I input my vitamins each morning, just to assure I'm getting 100% of what I need.
In the past two weeks, my loss greatly increased, as today is my weigh-in for my first DietBet I enrolled in. I've lost 11.2 pounds as of this morning, nearly doubling in the past two weeks what I lost in the first two weeks (7.6 vs. 3.6). This will slow way down, I know, but the concept behind the Ideal Protein diet is that you're losing fat, while retaining muscle. The greatest benefit for me is just not craving ALL. THE. TIME. I still do occasionally, but not like I do normally.