Ok, I am getting people asking me about my diet left and right and I send them here for information (from my research and experience) and to
Do it yourself HCG as well, as they have lots of stuff you can order to make it go smoother.
This is what HCG and the Diet Protocol is.
The HCG hormone is what a females body releases when she is pregnant. It's main function is to give the baby extra nutrients without the mom having to eat to capacity (though some do, ahem ME). The HCG takes the moms ABNORMAL fat cells (think double shin, love handles, dunlop, ect) and turns it into energy for mom and nutrients for baby. Mom is still eating what ever she wants so she is naturally going to gain weight, although there are those moms who ate healthy and right while pregnant and they are the ones who gained only 15 lbs (Nicole Kidman anyone?). That is what HCG does.
Now, when you take HCG daily the same thing will happen, but you have no baby, so YOU get the energy AND nutrition! The HCG will cause your body to turn your abnormal fat cells into 2000 to 4000 calories a day! That's a lot of calories, so you do not need to take in nearly as much as you used to. If you do, you are going to gain weight as fast as you can eat, because with no baby the person taking HCG will receive 100% of all those calories.
A diet is all about eating less than the amount of calories you use a day doing whatever you do, work, exercise, flip channels, anything. If I ate 2000 calories a day, then to lose weight I need to burn 3000 calories a day. To maintain weight I need to burn 2000-2500 calories a day. Did you know that one half hour of hard walking on a treadmill is equal to only 300 calories (that's half a dounut).
When you take the HCG (phase two) you eat a MAXIMUM of 500 calories a day, and that isn't just 500 calories of whatever I want (like some diets that are just about eating less calories). That's 500 calories of the following choices:
3.5 oz. (100 grams) of veal, beef, chicken breast, fresh WHITE fish, lobster, crab, or shrimp. All visible fat must be carefully removed before cooking, and the meat must be weighed raw. It must be boiled, baked or grilled without additional fat. The chicken breast must be off the bone.
One type of vegetable only to be chosen from the following: spinach, chard, chicory, beet-greens, green salad, tomatoes, celery, fennel, onions, red radishes, cucumbers, asparagus, cabbage.
One grissini bread stick, one Melba toast, or 2 Melba “snacks” (original, garlic, whole grain, or sesame flavored)
An apple or a handful of strawberries or one-half grapefruit or 1 orange
And you get that twice a day. That's it. No more, but you can have less. A lot of people just skip the Melba or grissini entirely (me!). It is very important to try to mix things up as much as you can. Example: If i had chicken, Romain, and an orange for lunch then for dinner I might make beef, asparagus, and strawberries for dinner. A note to you though, you can't mix your veggies. If you have spinach and chicken, you MAY NOT put some tomato on it. Only one type of veggie per meal.
There are those who can't go with out eating until their lunch time (it happens to me sometimes) so what is recommended is to eat the fruit in the morning, then the meat and veggie for lunch. And you can go as far as to have the meat and veggie for dinner and the fruit as a night-time snack. *I have found that if I eat ANYTHING after 8:30pm (I go to bed between 10 and 12pm) I do not lose as much weight as I thought I would. Even though you are eating an extremely small amount, you don't just want to eat and go to bed.
The very first two days of phase two are what are called load days. You literally eat as much fatty food as you can get in your body. It helps your body transition to the VLCD and HCG without a major headache or muscle cramps.
When you decided to start the HCG you must know that you have to be committed to a MINIMUM of 23 days of taking the HCG (that is 21 days of the VLCD- very low calorie diet), with the maximum days of 40 (38 VLCD). If you do it for less than the minimum then you are likely not only to gain the weight back you lost, but gain an excess as well. This because your body has not been able to start its 'reset' associated with the protocol. If you try to do it any longer then the 40 days your body will begin to become immune to the HCG and you will start burning your normal fat cells (think foot and hand pads, ect.) and you become very hungry and sick, because you are no longer supplying your self with the total 2500-4500 calories a day, just the 500.
You must also know, before you start, that CHEATING IS NEVER ALLOWED. Cheating not only breaks the resolve and determination (how can one hurt then turns into how can one a day hurt), it also will undermine and reverse your progress. If you are on, lets say, day 6 on the VLCD and you snatch a french fry or take a bite of cheese pizza off the plate of the person with you, then not on;y will you not see your 0.6-1.0lbs loss, you might even see a gain of 1-3lbs! I can't tell you exactly why this is, but I do know that I have eaten 2 M&Ms on day 7 of the VLCD and I didn't loss ANYTHING, and it took me three days to get back to my 1lb a day average.
Cheating is where almost everyone fails. How easy is it to eat that one french fry, or to even taste the sauce you just made for everyone else's spaghetti? Very easy, many times I have caught myself with the taste test at my lips, not even thinking about it! This is where the biggest battle is. If you can't learn to not cheat then you should not be on this diet. You HAVE to be strong and determined! I know how hard it is, my husband has me drive through to get him a cheeseburger and fries every once in a while and I am alone in the car with it, the soda, and the smell is the only thing I can breath. It smells GOOD and I WANT to eat it. Except, I CAN say no. I can simply let it sit next to me and take it home to him and not even have touched the fry. Because I think about the 20.8lbs I've lost in the last 17 days and the 2lbs I'd gain and have to waste the next three days just to get to back where I was the day I ate the fry! That is how I stop myself from cheating. I also think it helps me that I work at a restaurant and work with food I ABSOLUTELY can't eat all day. In that sense I have a curve ahead of most people, but I know it is still possible.
Fats and oils though, can get into your system through more than just ingesting it. You can absorb it through your skin. Touching the fatty meat your making for dinner for everyone else, using lotion to moisturize yourself, the liquid makeup you put on every morning. Your toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, and conditioner can all effect how well you lose. Remember, on the VLCD absolutely no sugars, fats, oils, starches, ect. I suggest gloves, you may get snickered at by family, but I laugh right back when I weigh myself every morning. I have started using just mineral powder and mascara only, if I even put makeup on. I use Tom of Maines toothpaste and Crystal deodorant (both from Walgreens). I use Treseme on my hair and Ivory (unscented) car soap on my body. This is only for the time you are taking the drops. Once you have started the Stabilization and Maintenance phase you can go back to most of your product (avoid stuff with sugar in it for the stabilization part).
I know that it's very strict, but if you follow it, it W-O-R-K-S. Here I am, I started the drops on Feb 1st and on the morning of the 17th I am down 20.8lbs, and have lost a total of 30inches on my body!
I won't lie to you, these last 17 days have seemed like 170. I have trouble eating the veggies (Most of them I don't like, so I have a hard time getting them down). I dream about avocados and cheese, and I can't wait until the stabilization part of phase three, when I can eat them.
Phase three is broken down into halves. (*Just a little FYI; phase one is a colon cleanse before the HCG, but I skipped it, because it is unnecessary and added by someone other than the Dr. who created this diet).
Part one of phase three is the Stabilization phase. This is how you start it. You continue the VLCD for three days or 72 hours from your last drop (it varies, when you start feeling hungry, it is the sign that the HCG has left you system and that is when you stop the VLCD) After the time is up for the VLCD, you start the stabilization phase. This is where you eat a MINIMUM of 1500 calories a day. And you are allowed fats and oils. You are allowed basically anything except sugars and starches. So watch out, some veggies have starch. So think a salad with bacon bits, avocado, cheese cheese, egg, tomato, and regular ranch (except some ranch has corn starch). Sounds so good to me! After the three weeks of stabilization you move onto the maintenance phase. That is when you start introducing healthy sugars and starches. Whole wheat pasta and bread, ect. After the three weeks of this you are considered done with the diet, and are expected to have rebuilt your diet and eating habits so as to maintain your new weight forever. Not to say you can't have a loaded baked potato every once and a while!
During the whole of phase three your goal is to stay at the same weight. You don't want to gain any (obviously), but you also don't want to loss any more either. What you are doing during phase three is training your body to think that the new weight is the true weight you should be at. If you don't follow the phase, your body will try to go back to what it was. If you gain more than 2lbs perform a steak day. You go without during the day (just water) and in the evening you have a 8-10oz lean steak with an apple or raw tomato. That should put you back where you should be. If you lose more than 2lbs you have a philly steak day. Same thing during the day, but at the end of the night you have a philly cheese steak and fries. That should put you back where you should be as well. At the end of 6 week phase three you can do a second round of HCG if you have more weight to lose (I am doing two rounds). Just remember, it is important to take time between rounds. 1st and 2nd is 6 weeks minimum and 2nd to 3rd round is 8 weeks minimum. Every extra round is two more weeks, otherwise you can get the immunity to the HCG and not see the results you want and not feel good while doing the new round.
I think that HCG is diet that can and will work for everyone, IF you can stay on it to the letter. And you can do it for relatively cheap. I fully recommend the
Redbook Guide as an essential and you can get the drops from various places, but please research it before you buy anything, make sure the seller is accredited and the feedback positive.
I hope this post helps a lot of you with any questions you have about the diet and good luck to you if you choose this path!
