I sort of mucked around with the first two weeks of the six week cure. But I found that trying to take in all that whey protein just made me feel cruddy. So I tried just eating the protein prescription, I think it was about 40 grams per shake for me, as lean meats and adding enough fat to equal the fat to protein ratios in the shakes. That worked pretty good for me. After that I didn't bother with the other stages of the diet, since they weren't much different from what I was already doing.