The first stage is the key time in the weight loss period, the one which will take you to your goal, your True Weight.

If you have over 40 pounds to lose, and if there are no other particular difficulties involved, you might hope to shed that weight over 20 weeks of the alternating protein diet—that is, in a little under 5 months.

Resistant Cases

For some, however, losing weight may be more difficult for several reasons:

For physiological reasons, such as a family tendency to obesity

For psychological reasons, such as little self-discipline or weak motivation

For individuals with a history of having dieted many times with bad diets or diets not followed properly or simply abandoned midway.

For girls during prepuberty, and for women when their periods are irregular, or during pregnancy, and above all during perimenopause and menopause In all these cases, weight loss will be slowed down and will require specific adjustments. Even so, even in difficult cases, the spirit of the first stage is so strong, and the pace of the first 2 or 3 weeks of the Diet so intense, that most resistance and inhibitions are overcome, resulting generally in an initial loss of 8 to 10 pounds. This is the point at which old demons can reappear to slow things down.

If You Are Predisposed to Being Excessively Overweight

If your family history predisposes you to being obese, in less than a month you will likely fall under the threshold of losing 2 pounds a week and reach an acceptable pace of 6 to 7 pounds a month for 2 to 3 months. This, added to your initial loss, will bring you to a loss of about 30 pounds. At this stage, your monthly weight loss will be further reduced to around 4 or perhaps 3 pounds a month. You may then ask yourself, Is this all worth it? More often than not, the answer is no.

You can be proud of having lost around 35 pounds lost during your 4 months or so of following the alternating protein diet. If You Are Not Very Motivated or Lack Willpower If you are not very motivated or lack the willpower to follow the diet, you are in a worse position. You will also lose the first 8 to 10 pounds, but the temptation to give up will rear its head straightaway. In the best-case scenario, if you can count on those around you and can count on your doctor’s helping you, you can expect to lose another 10 pounds in 5 weeks and then quickly go on to the second stage and even more quickly to the third stage, where you will have to agree to eat only proteins for 1 day a week for the rest of your life. You have to accept this painless and simple measure before you even start this program.

Overall result: 22 pounds in 2,5 months using the alternating diet.

If your body has developed a resistance to dieting because you followed poor diets badly in the past, this Diet is your best selection. The first stage acts like a bulldozer, pushing aside all resistance. You, too, will lose 12 pounds during the first 3 weeks, but if you follow the first stage instructions precisely, you will also continue to lose weight without interruption until you actually lose almost 45 pounds in 6 months on the alternating protein diet.

If by following my program, you reach this point on your road map, you will have achieved your True Weight—well done.

However, 50 percent of readers stop here; they consider themselves cured. They forget that there are still two other stages to finish to ensure that their new weight is maintained over the long term. All those who are impatient will, without exception, put the weight back on or get caught up in eating patterns that can only end in failure. So you have been warned.

The other 50 percent do not stop here but rather follow me into the second stage; 85 percent of these go right to the end and make donations. This is better, but not good enough.

Only those who go on into the third and final stage, and follow it, achieve the single goal that counts: being cured of being overweight. I hope with all my heart, dear reader, that you will not stop here and that you will continue to the very end of our joint undertaking. Otherwise I will have done what other diets have done for the past sixty years: I will have brought you with me into the desert and abandoned you just before you reach the oasis.