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Good for what ails: Physicians for Women staff members Renee MacDowell (left) and Ashley Manczunski promote Ideal Protein Weight Loss Method products to help alleviate Syndrome X symptoms. | Supplied photo

Losing weight is never easy.

But for people with Metabolic Syndrome (Syndrome X), a combination of symptoms that usually coexist with a dysfunctional pancreas, it could be near impossible.

That is why doctors at Physicians For Women in Valparaiso, Ind., have begun offering the Ideal Protein Weight Loss Method program and put Ashley Manczunski in place as one of the office’s Ideal Protein coaches.

Manczunski suffered from Syndrome X and knows the weight-loss battle firsthand. She recently shed 125 pounds tackling the syndrome’s symptoms before learning about Ideal Protein, and now hopes to share her success and personal triumphs and setbacks with other women and men who find themselves suffering from the same condition. She currently is on the Ideal Protein program herself working to shed the last 20 pounds or so she would like to lose.

“Syndrome X is a metabolic disorder often associated with too much insulin production from your pancreas. Your insulin acts as key and opens up fat cells,” Manczunski said.

Four symptoms

There are four hallmark symptoms of Syndrome X: abdominal obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia and hyperglycemia. Research has shown a link exists between these four major symptoms of Syndrome X and the hyper secretion of insulin and the resulting insulin resistance.

Like Manczunski, patients with Syndrome X may find they are on six to nine different prescription medications a month ranging for conditions such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol to insulin for diabetes.

“I was spending $250 a month on medicines,” she said. Now Manczunski said she is on one medication.

Participants in the Ideal Protein program can expect to lose on average three to seven pounds a week as they end their body’s carbohydrate addictions and work toward a life-long healthy eating plan. The program uses a combination of prepackaged high-protein meals, snacks and drinks in combination with a healthy high protein, low-fat, low-carb make-at-home menu.

Manczunski said Ideal Protein is not a life-long diet plan but more of a lifestyle change that helps reduce the body’s resistance to insulin, enables it to process foods more effectively and reduces the serious health conditions associated with Syndrome X.

“Half of the plan is weight loss. The other half is keeping it off,” she said.

New lifestyle

After patients are admitted to the program, they work with Manczunski as their coach to address the issues that brought them to the state of overweight in the first place. As the weight comes off, they begin to integrate new choices like exercise and physical activity and the abandonment of unhealthy processed foods to move forward to a future healthy lifestyle.

Manczunski said anyone who has gone down the diet path has had their successes and failures. She too had tried numerous diets over the years only to yo-yo back to her original weight and pack on a few more pounds. Taking the weight off often is easier than keeping it off for a lifetime. That, she said, is what sets Ideal Protein apart.

“Maintenance can be sometimes one of the hardest phases. It goes on forever. That’s what I like about this program; it provides more moral and emotional support,” she said.

Physicians For Women routinely schedules informational sessions open to both women and men on the Ideal Protein program. While Syndrome X is more typically associated with women, men often find themselves in the same position.

Anyone interested in more information about Ideal Protein may contact (219) 464-0409, or call to reserve a seat at one of our free informational workshops. The next workshop is June 28 at 10 a.m. at the Physicians For Women office, 880 Eastport Centre Drive, Suite 200, in Valparaiso.