Pharmacist FAQ

We are in the middle of an obesity epidemic, with skyrocketing rates of diabetes and heart disease—both of which are associated with obesity.   Approximately 23% of American adults and 20% of Canadian adults currently have metabolic syndrome. This is an important service you can offer your customers to start improving their health now. With reimbursement reductions for prescription drugs and your customers increasingly turning to you for health assistance, this is the time to offer your customers a scientifically researched and proven protocol to improve their health that also generates revenue for your pharmacy.

We will set up a call or a meeting and present the protocol to you. Click here if you’d like to learn more about clinic partnerships.

Coaches who receive extensive complimentary training from Ideal Protein do all the counseling. Advanced training is required and is also complimentary, however it might necessitate an investment from the clinic to ensure the coach attends such advanced training. The coaches may be existing or new staff. The patient’s physician can  be brought in on the medical side to monitor the dieter’s health status. With this structure, you have a reliable, clinically sound alternative for your dieters who need to and want to lose weight.

Weight loss counseling is done by coaches, your staff, so that you can continue to focus on your pharmacy. Our consultants provide free, ongoing education and training for you and your coaches right from the start.

Our clinic partners find that most of the dieters come from word of mouth and referrals from other healthcare providers. Ideal Protein’s provider communication workbook tracks all dieters’ progress. The referring physician gets this information as well, so he or she is aware of their patient’s progress with Ideal Protein and they can help monitor any medication changes that may have to be made. Seeing their patients’ progress encourages them to refer others to Ideal Protein as well.

Most—95%—of the service line is delivered or performed by the staff in the practice. The staff/coaches will perform weekly 1-on-1 visits with dieters. During these visits, they will measure and weigh the dieter, perform body composition and review the meal journal and scripted sequential education with the dieter. For the initial pilot integration period, we suggest you block 12 hours of their work week in four-hour sessions.

There is no cost associated with integrating Ideal Protein in your pharmacy. However, once you become an approved Ideal Protein clinic, you would have to order and pay for an initial inventory order.

The initial and ongoing training is provided at no cost to the pharmacy. It is recommended though that coaches attend one training event where representatives from Ideal Protein provide a 2-day training session. Cost might be incurred by coaches during those training events.

Dieters pay a consultation fee and purchase the food.  Each clinic sets their own consultation fees, usually a one-time fee. Dieters typically are required to eat three Ideal Protein foods a day during the weight loss phases. Dieters usually find the cost of the food on the diet is equivalent to what they have already been typically spending on groceries, including eating out.

We have found that even within non-affluent communities, dieters can afford the Ideal Protein method because the cost of food is similar to what they have already been spending on weekly grocery shopping and dining out.

Dieters have access to a complete resource tool portal, which includes daily coaching videos, cooking, and fitness education. We work with you to deliver comprehensive yet easy-to-understand educational programs and have continuing education programs to offer to dieters as they progress through the protocol. We work to make this message as simple to understand as possible. We are committed, along with you, to helping dieters understand the science behind the protocol. This helps them be compliant and enjoy long-term results.

Research findings presented at the 9th Annual Obesity Summit at the Cleveland Clinic, and at the 2014 and 2015 Annual Scientific Meetings of the National Obesity Society showed safe, weight loss. Significant improvements in blood pressure, lipid profile, and fasting glucose levels, due to the successful weight loss on the protocol, suggest the protocol could help cardiovascular risk.

Diabetics have so much to gain from our protocol because regulating glycemia is at the very heart of our method. While we cannot reverse Type 1 Diabetes, we can help those afflicted to lose weight. However, weight loss can help Type  2 diabetics achieve better blood sugar control, often with reduced medications and in many cases, without any medication.  Ideal Protein also offers an alternative plan for Type 1 diabetics. This protocol is similar to the ketogenic method, except that we give a dairy, fruit and grain serving every day to prevent the diabetic dieter who wishes to follow the Ideal Protein Weight Loss Method from going into a state of moderate to strong ketosis. Since Type  1 diabetics do not produce insulin, a risk of ketoacidosis exists and these dieters should never be placed on a strong ketogenic diet. They will still experience about the same rate of weight loss, while sparing the muscle as the ketogenic dieters do, and will usually find they can substantially decrease their insulin requirements.

A health profile must be completed in order to determine a client’s health status to guide his or her weight loss plan. The provider communication workbook is an invaluable tool for keeping the dieter’s physician informed of progress and results each week, so that the physicians can monitor the need for any adjustments in medications or determine if more medical oversight is required.

The science of weight loss is increasingly identifying the benefits of a ketogenic method for safe weight loss. The health problems of metabolic syndrome are well known. Because of the impact of this weight loss method on insulin balance, it moves the patient toward a more balanced health condition.

There are several ways in which Ideal Protein is unique:

• It treats weight issues at the source. By the time patients reach their weight loss goal, they will have transformed their body’s ability to metabolize sugar by re-educating their pancreas to produce only the right amount of insulin needed.

• It reduces carbohydrates and fats, not protein. In doing so, it preserves muscle tissue and protects vital organs to secure their proper function. In other words, dieters will lose fat, not muscle.
• It features up to 20 grams of protein per portion –
• It features a high biological protein, complete with eight essential amino acids, that recreates 100% of the biological value of a complete protein for maximum assimilation and absorption.
• It reduces toxicity more than other protein diets because it features less saturated fats, no trans fats, and no aspartame.

Our protocol is not a high protein diet. It provides the minimum daily protein requirement the body needs to function optimally.

We say our diet is safe for a number of reasons. First, and perhaps foremost, is that we are addressing a problem caused by food with food, period. No pharmaceuticals (i.e., stimulants or appetite suppressants) are needed or used.

All candidates for our diet MUST complete a very comprehensive “Health Profile.” Those with significant medical histories and/or those taking multiple prescription medications must receive approval from their primary care physicians or specialists before beginning our protocol. Also, we want these physicians to be aware that their patient is commencing the program as certain medications (insulin, oral hypoglycemic and anti-hypertensives) usually have to be readjusted.