Expectations of the Diet
If you are signiffcantly overweight, by 40 pounds or more, the loss is diffcult to predict week by week, but experience has shown that one can expect to lose around 2 pounds a week.
During the first half of the first stage, when you can expect a weight loss of 3 to 4 pounds per week, you can potentially lose the first 20 pounds in approximately 2 months.
Beyond the first 2 months, the curve decreases progressively because of a metabolic defense mechanism that I will explain in further detail when we come to the second stage. The curve then flattens at just over 2 pounds per week before dipping below 2 pounds a week, with odd periods of stagnation for women with premenstrual syndrome or if there is any bingeing.
On this subject, you need to know that the body puts up little resistance to the loss of the first few pounds. It has a greater reaction when the plundering of its fat reserves becomes more threatening. In theory, this would be just the moment to step up your diet. But in practice, the very opposite often occurs. The strongest willpower sometimes weakens in the face of longsuppressed temptations, and invitations to eat out that were once declined are now accepted.
But the real threat comes from elsewhere. The loss of the first 20 pounds brings general visible improvement: shape and suppleness return, breathlessness disappears, compliments come by the dozen, and you have the satisfaction of getting back into clothes that did not fit before. Add to all this the classic excuse of "just this once,” and your wonderful strong determination from the early days suddenly makes way for bingeing followed by a return to drastic dieting, creating a chaotic, yo-yoing situation that soon becomes dangerous.
It is in such circumstances that—victorious up until now—you risk resting on your laurels and ending, up abandoning your goal. You have to realize that in the middle of the race, crossing the dangerous territory of weariness and self-satisfaction that is part of any prolonged diet, half of all dieters fall into this trap and let everything slip away.
In this event, there are three ways to react:
1. You can abandon the diet, sink into complacency and succumb to compulsive behavior patterns, but with a deep sense of failure that leads to your quickly putting the pounds back on, often going far beyond the weight you started out with.
2. Or, you can get back on track by resuming the first vstage and
sticking with it until your set goal is attained.
3. Or, you can admit that you feel incapable of going any further, but that you are ready to do whatever it takes to preserve what you have achieved so far. If this is your choice, stop the weight loss phase of the Diet and go directly
to the second stage . The second stage has a much more varied choice of food, and it is easy to work out how long it lasts (5 days for every pound you have lost). Then go to the third stage, in which you are allowed a completely free choice of food, with just 1 day per week of the pure protein diet.
