Just what the doctor ordered...

Basically if you can go 60 days without breads, pizza, cookies, candy bars, sugary snacks, etc., (starches and sugars) you can do this diet!!

The average weight loss for this diet is 20-30 pounds in 40 days.  This is not a “results may vary thing” it is a definite as long as you follow the diet religiously.  Men tend to lose more then women… Most of the women that I have helped through this have lost an average of 25-27 pounds per round… Most of the men that I have helped tended to lose between 43 and 51 pounds per round depending on how much they have to lose…

The first two phases are the only time you are taking the hCG drops (explained more below).  Do NOT exercise the first two phases, as your body has taken a diagram of your fat stores and when you exercise that fat is turned to muscle, making it so your body has to look harder for the fat, so it is easier to just let your body find the fat and burn it for you.  If you need to exercise, a light walk or something similar should be fine (just make sure you drink plenty of liquids and eat your meals on time as much as possible... don't space your meals too far apart).  The last two phases you are maintaining your new weight and you will want to exercise to help maintain as well (you feel really good at this point so you want to exercise)…

Summary of a Typical Round

Phase 1 (day 1 and 2):  Take the hCG and gorge yourself for two full days – eat more food than any one person should eat – even if you aren’t hungry, if you aren’t ready to throw up, eat – otherwise you will end up being crabby and have headaches and cramping the first week.

Phase 2 (starting with day 3):  500 calories (no breakfast, 1 protein, 2 cups vegetables (only 1 vegetable – not mixed), 1 fruit, 1 Grissini breadstick or Melba toast for lunch and dinner) – I actually eat the protein and vegetable (or fruit) for lunch and have my fruit (or vegetable) and breadstick for snacktime around 3:30 or 4:00 and around 7:30 for an after dinner snack.  You are on this phase for 40 days (or 20 days if you are doing a half round).  Drink as much 0 calorie tea, green tea, water, coffee as you like, but no sugar, creamer, or sweetener except Stevia.  Sweetleaf stevia granules and liquid taste best, Stevita stevia liquid also tastes good and costs a little less... these are the only ones that we found that didn’t have some other variant of sugar in them – causing you to stall in weight loss. 

Sometime after 20 hCG days, but before 41 hCG days:  Stop taking the hCG, but continue following the 500 calorie diet for 72 hours/3 days.  DO NOT exercise yet!!

Phase 3:   No starches or sugars.  You are adding back all meats, all vegetables (except potatoes, corn, beets, yams, sweet potatoes), and all fruits, all cheeses and milk, but no breads or sugary stuff yet…  All of a sudden you will switch to eating 1200-1700 calories per day (males will go with the 1500-1700 calorie count, females 1200-1400 calorie count... as the drops were taking the fat and melting it to burn for the additional 700-1200 calories – so if you try to stay on the 500 calories you will actually gain weight because your body goes into starvation mode).  You are on this phase for 3 weeks.  Start to exercise at least 15 minutes to 30 minutes each day – we did the Power half hour series by Tony Horton each evening from www.beachbody.com but even going for a jog or brisk walk for 30 minutes works pretty good…

Phase 4:  Gradually start adding back starches and sugars (breads, cookies, pizza, spaghetti, potatoes, corn, etc.), but make sure to weigh every day still to make sure you don’t go above 2 pounds from your lowest weight – if you do go up above the 2 pounds from your lowest weight, you can do a 6-apple day or steak day to bring your weight back down, but you have to do it the day you see your weight go up otherwise it won’t come right back off (explained more in the manuscript or I can give you more explanation if you decide you would like to try this)… You are on this phase for 3 weeks as well, and then you have reset your metabolism and you now know how to eat to give your body fuel and keep at your new weight instead of giving it fillers. 

For life:  You can eat whatever you like within reason, still maintaining smaller portion sizes, but really no restrictions on what foods… Keep exercising to help maintain – at this point you feel so good you want to exercise.  The one thing I have found is that if I exercise first and then have dessert, a bowl of ice cream, etc., that my body uses that as fuel instead of adding it in storage… Everything in moderation though!

If you have more weight to lose you can do this diet multiple times just wait an additional amount of time after each round, otherwise your body will become immune to it:

After completing phase 3 and phase 4 of the first round you can start directly into a second round.

After completing phase 3 and phase 4 of the second round you need to wait an additional six weeks to start into a third round.

After completing phase 3 and phase 4 of the third round you need to wait an additional twelve weeks to start into a fourth round…

After that additional 12 weeks of waiting in between phases, you can start over as if you were doing the diet for the first time… most people don’t have to do this diet more than 2-3 times, but you can do a half round like we did at the beginning of this year after the holidays, just as a maintenance round every year if you like…

The biggest thing this diet does is teach you how to eat right and exercise – just what the doctor ordered J!!

They call this the last diet you will ever need because if you see yourself going up 10 pounds or more again, you can just redo the diet to get those pounds back off quickly…

We used Jason Products Thin to Thick shampoo and conditioner (keeps your hair from falling out and/or thinning and helps grow new hair) found cheapest at http://www.vitacost.com/Jason-Thin-To-Thick-Shampoo, but they also have another shampoo and conditioner by Nature's Gate that seems to work in keeping your hair in place and clean too http://www.vitacost.com/Natures-Gate-Biotin-Strengthening-Shampoo.  We used Dove bar soap, Aveeno oatmeal lotion or Dead Down Wind lotion because our hands both seemed to be drier.  We used Scent-A-Way hunting deodorant, but I found this one as well made by Hugo Naturals that is according to the hcg protocol http://www.vitacost.com/Hugo-Naturals-Unscented-Deodorant#IngredientFacts as well as Jason Products tooth paste http://www.vitacost.com/Jason-Healthy-Mouth-Toothpaste-Tea-Tree-Cinnamon - Certain products contain variants of oils and sugars, and these all seemed to follow the hcg protocol and not cause a problem with stalling in weight loss.  The mint toothpastes somehow affect the homeopathy from working as well, so cinnamon or baking soda tooth paste is more highly recommended…… Anything natural/organic should work fine as well…  You just want to avoid propylene glycol and sodium laureth/lauryl sulfate in any of the daily toiletry (soaps, deodorants, etc.) products you use…. You don’t have to be this strict, but if you start noticing that you are stalling in weight or not losing as much weight, start avoiding the items that have these chemicals in them…

We bought a George foreman grill for $24 from Walmart (84”-black) (to make it simpler to cook our meat and veggies without extra oils and butter) and the food scale to measure the 100 grams or 3.5 ounces for $4 and some change at Walmart… 

Weighing every day keeps you motivated to stick with it – the Wii Fit or Wii Fit Plus with the balance board make watching the BMI and weight go down that much more exciting and pretty exact as it will measure to the ounce that you lost…  however, using a regular bathroom scale will work too…

We also use the Magic Bullet to make slushies and stuff that requires a food processer, but any food processer or blender will do…

 
A side note as far as the hCG drops... 10-20 drops held under your tongue for 2 minutes 15 minutes before or after eating or drinking anything will give you the most benefit.  We found taking 10 drops six times a day made us not as hungry throughout the day versus 20 drops three times a day.   The six times a day started first thing in the morning when getting out of bed, mid morning, lunch, mid afternoon, dinner, and evening time sometime between dinnertime and bed.

Good luck if you try this diet!! 

Make sure and post your results too!!  I love hearing how people do with this diet...

-Melinda :)