R3- No sugar/carb Loading, veggies instead of fruit on p2, pre hcg low carbing

October 12, 2011

Ever the experimenter, I experiment not simply for the sake of doing it, but I experiment when my life experiences seem to necessitate it.  In this new experiment, I chose a plan of action that would accomplish a two-fold goal: get rid of my sugar addiction again, prepare my Body to enter ketosis as quickly as possible to hopefully bring about greater fat loss and less muscle loss on hcg.

About nine days prior to starting my load for Round 3 of HCG Injections, I started a high-fat, super low carb diet (almost no carb really).  We’re talking steak and bacon and grass fed burger patties all day.  Why nine days?  No reason really.  Just wanted it to be long enough to clear carbs from my system and to hopefully get through any period of sugar withdrawal and the resulting torturous cravings that I knew could possibly occur.  But guess what?  From my research, eating high fats is supposed to help with cravings, and indeed it did.  Getting off sugar was the easiest it’s ever been for me!  I removed ALL sugars including fruits and even most vegetables.  This isn’t something I necessarily suggest you do long term, but it was for a purpose- my re-addiction to sugar was no joke and I needed to find a way to fix it before I started the protocol or I knew that I would fail again.  Following the 9 days of the high-fat almost no carb diet, I started loading for this weight loss protocol.

Round 3 Loading Phase for hCG Diet: .6 gain in 2 Days – CLEAN / Low Carb Phase 1

October 13, 2011

Low carb loading led me to have my smallest loading gain yet.  Only a half pound gain.  Not sure how this would translate to my experience with hunger and weakness my first week of the HCG Injections though.

Starting my round at 142.6
Load day 1: gain 1.2
Load day 2: loss .6
Total loading weight: .6

Transcript:

Hey guys! HCGchica. I’m here to report on my second loading day that was yesterday. This is a first for me. I actually was down .6 this morning so my total load weight gain is only .6. As I said yesterday I loaded on only fats and proteins. I had no sugars or starches all I had in the total 2 days that had any sugar was a 1 small apple from my apple tree so anyway that’s a first for me. My first round I only gained .8 on loading so it’s about the same but I had a lot of sugar and starches at that time and I didn’t actually have any loss so that’s very interesting. .6 is my total gain. I gained 1.2 the first day and lost .6 the 2^nd day. So I’m starting my round at 142.6.

I also did not stuff myself on loading like I have on the past.

I basically just ate like I’ve been eating the last week and a half which is high fat, protein. I’m gonna guess I had somewhere maybe around like 4000 calories or so. Probably around 4000, that’s just a guess but that’s about how much I usually eat like 3000-4000 calories and when I eat low carb I can eat that much and not gain weight. But as soon as I add carbs in with that amount of calories I do gain weight. That’s just interesting. I’m starting out with 45 pounds of fat which is about where I started out last time, last round. I’ll be interested to see how things go. I don’t know if this first week will be tough or not since I did not gain too much loading.

I don’t know like how my hunger will be. Right now it’s actually already 12 o’clock and I’m feeling fine. I’ve had 1 cup of black tea just with a little stevia in it and I’m having my water and I’m gonna have my lunch in a little bit later.

So far I’m feeling really good. I’m taking a small dose of Isocort once every hour or so. I’m taking a total of 15mg of cortisol and I took that the last 2 loading days so that’s encouraging to me because since I did have a loss yesterday even though I ate all that fat and I did take the cortisol. That’s encouraging to me. Hopefully I will be able to continue taking that on this round and that might you know help other people who have adrenal problems. They may be able to take that and still lose weight so we’ll find out. That’s it for today. I’ll check in with you guys soon.

R3D1 – 2.2, Ketones at 80, no fruit on p2 today

October 14, 2011

Soooo low carb loading led me to high ketosis after my first vlcd day!  Yup- experiment totally did what I thought it would do.  I was extremely pleased to see that dark color on my ketone strip that morning.  Also a 2.2 loss on the scale, especially after only a .6 loading gain, was quite pleasing indeed.  Another experiment I chose to try is to have no fruit on p2.  This is not something I suggest you do unless you really think it through because I do believe it’s much easier to get low blood sugar if you do this, so just proceed with caution if you choose to do this.  Since I’m not eating the fruits (or grissini/melba- I never eat that), I chose to increase my veggie intake.  I wasn’t trying to lessen my calorie intake below the 500, I was just trying to keep as many sugars out as possible because of my recent addiction to sugar that I was coming out of.

Transcript:

Hey guys! HCGChica. I’m here to give you the results of VLCD 1 yesterday. This morning I got out and I was down 2.2 pounds which is pretty exciting considering I only ended up gaining .6 on loading. My second round I gained 3.8 loading or 3.6 and I lost 3.4 the next day. To lose 3.4 on my second round when I still had almost the same loading weight and this time to lose 2.2 after only gaining .6, I’m already ahead of last round that’s super exciting. That puts me 140.4 and that means I’ve had a total loss of 2.8 because I loss .6 after my second loading day, also my Body Fat went down a whole pound to 44 pounds. That’s significant also cause last round it took me a few days before I lost any fat I think that’s also interesting and then the other thing that’s super exciting is that this morning I did the ketone strip and I was already at 80. I’ve never even seen 80. I didn’t do ketones on my first round, but on my second round I did them for a while and I kinda just gave up after a while because it never showed anything and then finally later I tried it again and then it was showing like really, really light and that was like for a couple days so anyway I have never been in high ketosis but my ketones where at 80 and that is after only 1 VLCD day so that is so exciting to me because for me I was am most concerned about losing fat. I don’t care about how much I weigh what I care about is my body fat percent and how much fat I’m losing. So I’m so excited about that.

The things that I think contributed to me getting ketosis that fast are, one loading on almost no carbs. I loaded only on high fat and high protein and secondly, my VLCD day yesterday I did not have any fruits or grissini. I never did the grissini but this time I also took out fruits and I am eating extra vegetables though so I don’t mind getting to the 500 calorie. I’m just trying to do it without fruits for the time being. Between those 2 things I think that’s what did it also as I said before I did 9 to 10 days of low carb still high calorie but low carb previous to starting this round.

I feel so excited about how well it’s starting out and I actually have really good energy and that is due to the Isocort that I take. I think that this protocol can be kinda tough on your body and this is my 3rd round and I have adrenal issues as it is and I think a lot of people out there may have adrenal issues and the hormone I do think can make it worst, it’s just a lot for your body to go through and it can be hard on your adrenals. So with that in mind I think it would be good if you aren’t feeling good on the protocol or you don’t feel good after it, check in to any adrenal issues that you may have you can actually take a cortisol test it’s a saliva test that you take a saliva like 3 -5 times in a day and send it to this lab and they test your cortisol levels and that will tell you if your levels are low or medium or high. One of the things you can do to relieve that is by taking Isocort which is a natural form of cortisol and each tablet has just a little bit. But I’m just taking that every hour or 2 throughout the main part of the day and that has been helping my energy tremendously pre-HCG and now I’m continuing on here and it doesn’t seem to have hurt my loss the last couple of days and I have much better energy so far than I did the last 2 rounds. That might be something to look into for other people as well who have health issues. Anyway I just wanted to share that.

Yesterday I had black tea with stevia I had a 100 grams of cod and asparagus for lunch. I had shrimp and fennel for dinner and around 10:30 pm I was kinda hungry because I didn’t really eat that much so I had some broccoli. I steamed some broccoli and again like I said I did not have any fruits so I’m not really too worried about having too much vegetables so I’m not weighing over anything because without the fruits I know I could just have as much vegetables I want I’m pretty sure.

I slept for 9 hours last night. I did have some hunger yesterday not a lot. Most of the day mostly fine just here and there and then I would eat a little bit of my food and I was fine. Today I actually injected just a little more. I usually inject a 150ius that what has worked for me all last round and half of the first round. Today I actually injected a little bit more just because of the little bit of hunger I had gotten and to a new HCGer it is normal to be hungry the first to 2-3 days especially if you’ve loaded on higher carb things. It’s like such a drastic change and maybe whatever insulin was put out to bring your blood sugar back down from all the carbs It’s like you might have a hard time the first couple days and be hungry and that doesn’t mean that your dose isn’t right it just takes a few days, usually after day 3 if you’re still hungry then you might wanna think about it adjusting your dose I’m just kinda mentioning that. For me personally I did try increasing my dose just a tiny bit like a 166ius and I’m actually more hungry today, I’m having like it’s only 12 and I was having, I think around 11:30 I was starting already like a hunger grumblings so I had my shrimp but I think I better go back to 150 or maybe a tiny bit lower. Anyway that’s what’s going on with me.

At the moment I’m taking a brand of the hormone called Zykog. I don’t actually think it’s made anymore. I bought it back in February and I bought several ampules and I can’t find it now. It has worked really good for me because none of my rounds had I been hungry. I had always have not been hungry at all. That’s why I liked it because I trusted it but anyway I did order some new hormone from alldaychemist that I’m gonna be switching over to, and that brand that I chose is called Fertigyn. Pretty much if you order from alldaychemist or whatever all those brands are good brands I’m sure any of them would work fine but I was just doing a little research online of you know brands that people like more than other. Some seem to be a little more potent than others because of people having to adjust their dose base on which brand and I’ve decided to try the Fertigyn because a number of people said that they felt really good taking that brand they said they felt like really happy and just mentally and emotionally really good and that’s always a plus. I’m gonna try that when it comes and I will let you know if that feels any different from the one I’m taking now, like I said I inject on my stomach about 150ius a day in the morning and that seems to work good for me for now.

That’s my update and I will let you know how tomorrow goes. I am so excited about the Ketone thing. I don’t know I just never seen that with me so that is so exciting. So there maybe something to this low carb loading. If anyone else tries this and it works well let me know. SeattleSuzi actually loaded that way unbeknownst to each other we each had decided separately to do this I didn’t even know who she was before I decided this and she didn’t know who I was and I saw her vlog and she ended up loading low carbs as well and she actually lost 5 pounds loading that’s pretty amazing but I know she’s still probably loaded with fats and everything. She seem to have good results from that and we’re about on the same schedule I don’t know if I got to see what she lost after her first VLCD day yet. That’s it for me and I’ll check in again soon.

Great Teas for P2 on HCG- losing FAT! -R3P2D2 -1.2

October 15, 2011

Tea is one of my saving graces on the HCG Injections.  With a little stevia, I can find a way to be satisfied when I can’t eat.

My favorite black tea is Numi’s Organic Chinese Breakfast Tea– 2 cups of this each morning is what wakes up this Chica each day.

Numi’s Green Rooibus tea and Numi Organic Honeybush Tea are super tasty herbal/uncaffeinated teas.

Tazo Zen Green Tea is so delicious- a blend of lemongrass and spearmint- a truly inspired combination if you ask me.

Zhena’s Gypsy Chocolate Chai Tea

For the chocolate lovers out there, the The Republic of Tea, Double Dark Chocolate Mate is yummy and rich.

Total loss 4 pounds in 2 vlcd days so far.
only had .6 loading gain
Loaded on only fats and proteins
Not eating fruits on p2 right now, eating extra veggie instead.

Water and Calorie Intake on HCG according to Dr. Simeons – HCG R3P2D3 -1.4

October 16, 2011

Dr. Simeons mentioned in his book Pounds and Inches that you should drink about 2 liters of water per day while on the HCG Injections.  I never knew how much that was in terms I can understand (like quarts) till I looked it up.  Turns out 2 liters is a little over 2 quarts or 64 ounces.  This was actually surprising to me as when I think of drinking a lot of liquids I think more in terms of like, a gallon, which is twice as much as that.  It certainly possible to drink too much liquids too so this was nice to re-read.

Additionally, some people around the web who do HCG police the policy that “you must eat the full 500 calories on HCG!!!!”  Must you?  Here’s is what Dr. Simeons said….”those not uncommon patients who feel that even so little food is too much for them, can omit anything that they wish.”  Also, “the diet must not exceed 500 calories per day.”  So what I take this to mean is that you feel like the full 500 while on HCG is too much (ie you feel full or not hungry), go ahead and eliminate whatever you want (aside from your protein- that’s not an option), but if you’re purposefully trying to get away with eating only 350 calories or something and feeling super crappy and weak while doing it, in that case it would probably be smart to up the calories to the full 500 in that case.

137.8 this day.

R3P2D4 -1.4, total 6.8lbs in 4 days on HCG

October 17, 2011

Since I wasn’t eating fruits on the HCG Injections for round 3, that made my carb intake almost zero, so I felt kind of shaky and weak in the morning.  I added some cottage cheese in the morning to help combat the weak feeling.

I found myself feeling thirsty and ended up drinking a gallon and half of water.  I read online that being thirsty is one sign of ketosis and my ketone strips are at 80 so it seems to make sense- made it easy to get my water in!

Also of note is that fact that I’m probably only consuming about 350 calories on the protocol at the moment since I’m not eating the grissini/melba or fruit at the moment- I’m only eating 2 100 gram portions of the proteins and 2 vegetables- and I’m losing a lot of fat, so overall this seems to be working quite well.

Demo of Omron Handheld Body Fat Monitor- HCG R3P2D5

October 18, 2011

I have been using this handheld body fat analyzer by Omron everyday while on HCG Injectionsand off when in P3 and P4- for me personally I have found it to be very consistent and quite accurate.  My model is actually quite old- like 15 years, so I haven’t personally used this newer model.  Several people who have bought it on my recommendation have found it to be consistent, while a few have mentioned that the numbers fluctuated too much or were really “off” from their true body fat percent via hydrostatic bodyfat testing.  This hasn’t been my experience, so I’m not sure what makes the difference for some.

One thing I do know is that it’s very important, in whatever circumstances you use the Body Fat Monitor, to keep things the same every time you use it- I use mine immediately upon waking, unclothed, right after using the restroom.  I stand on the same floor.  If I walk around for 10 minutes and then use the monitor, the reading will be different and will not be a good comparison to other days when I use it immediately upon waking.  So it’s important to be consistent in how you use it. By doing this, this particular body fat monitor has proved to be both consistent and accurate when compared with hydrostatic testing, enough so that it’s very worth having and using while on the protocol- it gives me a general idea of how much fat I’m losing and where my body is at.  Of course ideally it would be great to have a daily DEXA scan while on the protocol so you’d know exactly how much fat and muscle you were losing, but obviously that would cost wayyyy too much, and also would not be too smart for your health either.  So for me this bridges that gap.

You can purchase the fat monitor on Amazon for only $30, and it has literally been the most useful tool in my weight loss journey aside from the actual hormone itself.

This has been very useful because I wouldn’t feel comfortable eating the 300 or 350 calories or so that I’ve been eating while on the diet plan without being confident that I was losing mostly fat and that my muscle was staying intact.  The body fat monitor has assured me that my losses are almost entirely fat- and this is interesting, since last round I was actually eating more calories- some days maybe more like 700 calories of non protocol foods and I didn’t lose as much as fat as I am now on only 300 calories of the proper protocol foods.  So that’s why for me the handheld body fat monitor has just been sooo useful as it really helps me make knowledgeable decisions to get the best results from the weight loss protocol.  I hope this helps you guys too!

HCGer’s with good p2 and p3 recipe ideas – HCG R3P2D6 -.6,

October 19, 2011

Here are some great resources of youtube hcger’s who have great recipes for p2, p3 and p4:

http://www.youtube.com/user/HCGCharm
http://www.youtube.com/user/HcgSkinnyB
http://www.youtube.com/user/MouserNerd   – not protocol usually- this is for those who are doing a rogue HCG Injections round.
http://www.youtube.com/user/MsHcGGirl
http://www.youtube.com/user/hcgbesties

Transcript:

Hey guys! HCGchica. I’m here to report on VLCD 6. I was down .6 this morning so that puts me at 135.4 and that’s a total loss of 7.8 pounds in 6 low calorie days so very good. My body fat also went down a whole pound today so I’m at 41 pounds of fat I started at 46 so that’s 5 pounds.

Yesterday I had a quarter cup of cottage cheese in the morning. I’ve been doing that because I’ve been feeling like I need something in the morning and I’m not having fruits right now. I had chicken for lunch and I had a little cucumber not much though, I’m really not liking cucumbers right now I don’t know why. Usually I like them but I guess that’s what the whole oil and all the other stuff so I can’t do that right now.

I had shrimp for dinner and again it’s like I’m out of all the vegetables that I can actually eat on large amount of, because I had some chard and I tried making a salad and I just didn’t like it so I hardly eaten any of it. I had 1 tomato that night because I was feeling hungry and then I had another quarter cup of cottage cheese again just a little hungry and I wanted to go to bed.

That was pretty good though my body fat went down a whole pound. I slept for 8 hours. My ketones were 80 again so all of that stuff was really good and I just wanted to share. I’m assuming that pretty much everyone who’s subscribed to me is already subscribed to these people that I’m gonna mention, because they have the same amount of subscribers as me or way more but since I’m like a really boring P2 food person with like no interest in food recipes or combinations I wanna share some of my favorite HCGers on here who are always telling or even showing recipes online on their videos what they’re eating on P2 and just special and yummy foods since I don’t do that. I wrote them down here. I’m gonna put the link below to their users so that you can find them.

Like I said you probably all know about them already but one of them is HcgSkinnyB she has a lot of good ideas for what she makes. A lot of here blogs whenever she’s updating she’ll mention what she ate that day and how she did it and she even has some recipe blog as well. Also MouserNerd she has some really great ideas, do keep in mind that she is doing her own protocol so it’s a lot of the foods are not on the normal protocol things like mushrooms and zucchini and like 0% yogurt that she’s eating so just be aware of that if you’re new make sure you know what you’re doing and that you’re choosing to do something off protocol. That’s totally fine we all do it but just be sure that you know that that’s not on the regular thing and that it’s your personal choice to actually do that but anyway if you do wanna do that she has some really, really good recipe ideas for how she’s making things and they kinda make your mouth water and they sound really good.

MsHcGGirl she has had a few really good recipe blogs, one is her P3 smoothie another one is I think her coconut bowl bread I think that’s also a P3 recipe so she’s got some great P3 ideas for food. And then hcgbesties they also have some of recipe blogs as well. I can’t remember if they’re p3 or p2 I now there is a couple for p3 at least. Anyway those are some of my favorites if I missed you and you do lots of recipe stuff you can let me know. Those are the ones I thought of at the top of my head. Anyway that’s it for today and I’ll talk to you guys tomorrow, bye.

Cravings On HCG? Try removing the fruits…- HCG R3P2D7

October 20, 2011

So far on this round 3 of HCG Injections, I had been eating no fruits or grissini while on the vlcd part of the HCG diet and I have had literally zero cravings to eat more- the diet has been the easiest it’s been for me.

I found myself having trouble cooking and eating enough vegetables though, so I decided to try having an apple- not long later I found myself having strong mental difficulties sticking to the diet and feeling like all I wanted was to eat more food.  I’m not sure if it was the apple or the cinnamon I put on it (I have since discovered I have a bit of an allergy to cinnamon).  It could have been total coincidence, but I highly doubt that when I look at the whole scenario.  This probably doesn’t happen to everyone and I have since done Round 4 successfully with fruits included, but it’s an idea for anyone who finds themselves having a lot of cravings and troubles sticking to the protocol- it might be worth doing a trial of removing these items to see if your cravings abate.

Consistency in Body Fat Monitors/Scales is important- HCG R3P2D8 -.8, 134.2,

October 21, 2011

P2 Idea folks:  Have a green smoothie to get your veggies in.  If you have a Vitamix or Blendtec, those green smoothies can be quite tasty since they completely pulverize everything into fine particles so the smoothie goes down smooth without making you gag.  My green smoothie was really good!  It was just a mix of water, 3-4 cups of spinach or so, a large bunch of  italian parsley, and some grape flavored stevia. I know!  I know.  It sounds totally gross.  It’s really quite good- promise- and if you try it and come back and say “Chica, you lied, it’s gross!” well I guess that just shows how very unique of a person I am, because I honestly do like it.

Regarding body fat monitors- I had some people asking me if the body fat scales you stand on are as accurate and useful as my handheld one for tracking body fat while on HCG Injections.  I have not used a body fat scale myself- the one that I use is a handheld monitor only.  But after doing a little research it seems that the body fat scales tend to be inconsistent and that the numbers it can give tend to fluctuate a little too wildly when used multiple times in a row, making it difficult to know which number to believe.

The best advice I can give to anyone who wants to know if their particular body fat scale or monitor is useful for body fat tracking while on the protocol is to start using it every day, and under the same circumstances. The numbers you should be getting while not on this protocol should be staying consistently the same (unless you’re gaining weight or something), and while on the diet, the numbers should be fairly consistently going down.

For our purposes, accuracy is of secondary importance. It’s okay if the percent you’re being given on the scale is a few percent off. What matters is if the numbers you are getting as you lose weight are consistently going down, showing your reduction in body fat. If you see wild fluctuations in numbers with no seeming rhyme or reason to it, then that body fat scale is not useful to you.

My handheld body fat monitor by Omron has proven to be very useful to me because the numbers I get from it are very consistent. Additionally, after comparing my results to my hydrostatic body fat tests results a couple of times now, it has proved to be only 2-3% off in accuracy, which for a $30 device that I can use on my own in my bathroom every morning, is superb.

Some body fat scales may prove useful, and some may not. Either way, you need to do your part to ensure it’s ability to be as consistent as possible. You may have a very good body fat scale that is consistent on your hands, but if you are using it improperly, you may come to the conclusion it doesn’t work well and chuck it.

So how should you use the body fat scales and body fat monitors? Biggest thing is just use it the same exact way every morning. Let me give you an example of how I use my handheld body fat monitor. Every morning I, get up, pee (yes- I said pee. On a website/blog), remove my clothes, stand on my weight scale to see my weight, pick up my handheld monitor and plug in the correct numbers, and standing on my tile bathroom floor like I do every morning, hold my arms out to record the numbers for that morning from my monitor. I don’t sometimes stand on the carpet and sometimes the tile. I don’t sometimes take a shower first and sometimes not. I don’t sometimes go walk around and make a cup of tea first then come back and do it. All these actions will alter the results you get on a body fat scale or monitor. So by keeping the conditions under which you use the scale as much the same as possible, you will get the most consistent reliable results. Ideally you would use it the same time every morning, but I get up at different times each day so this doesn’t always work for me. Don’t sweat it. Make it fit with your life, just do what you can. If you happen to be sorely dehydrated one morning, you will find your fat percentage artificially inflated that day- but once you get to know your body and how the scale/monitor works, you won’t freak out about these things- you’ll know- ‘hey, I’m totally dehydrated so I know that number isn’t correct, and if I drink my water today my numbers will come back down tomorrow.’

The body fat scales and monitors are certainly not a replacement for actual hydrostatic body fat testing or having a DEXA scan. But since this is not something accessible to everyone, and even for those like myself who can get this done, it’s not something any of us would do on a daily basis while on the protocol, so in this case, the body fat monitors and scales can be useful- probably on any other diet you wouldn’t need or want to use this tool too much because the fat loss would be much slower and you could simply get a hydrostatic or DEXA from time to time. But for those of who’ve had experience being on the diet, weight loss and fat loss on the diet plan is strikingly fast, so it’s nice to know at what rate you are losing fat, and if it appears that you are losing more muscle than you should, it gives you that knowledge as it’s happening so that you can make alterations and corrections to the diet if need be.

I hope this helps guys!

For more relevant videos check out my hcg vlog.

Addressing low blood sugar and shakiness- HCG R3P2D9-11 132.4

October 24, 2011

I continued to eat no fruit on this round so far.

I wanted to mention that I lost 8.2 pounds in the first week on this 3^rd round of HCG Injections, and I only gained .6 lbs loading. HCG R3P2D9-11 was by far my best average from any week or any round of HCG.

I’ve never experienced hunger while on the protocol on any round, but usually I am eating the fruits listed. This round I had chosen to remove the fruits because they were causing me to have sugar cravings. But this was causing me one complication while on the protocol which was that I was getting low blood sugar. One night around 10pm when I was just about to go to bed and I’d had my p2 dinner 4 hours previously, my blood sugar was 54. That’s pretty low from what I know. It doesn’t seem wise to go to bed with your blood sugar at 54 and then fast while sleeping for 8-10 hours. Maybe I’m wrong, but I definitely didn’t feel right. I had a little cottage cheese and that brought my blood sugar right back up to 95 and I felt much better.

One possible reason that I’m experiencing the low blood sugar as well aside from the fact that I’m not eating the main carbs listed in the diet is that I take Cytomel/T3 thyroid medication- this is powerful, active thyroid hormone, so when it’s active in my system, can easily make me hungry and need to eat. Since I take a pretty high dose of this, I thought to myself that perhaps the dose I’m on is now too high for me, so I tried reducing it.

Aside from just that night, I was finding in general that I was getting hungry and shaky only an hour after eating a p2 meal. I was waking up in the morning feeling weak and shaky. The way I was feeling I knew wasn’t sustainable and I had to fix it if I wanted to finish the round.

I reduced my thyroid meds to 50mcg and increased my Cortisol (Isocort) a little bit and I had fantastic energy for the ensuing days. I also started eating more frequently, just in small amounts, but just enough to keep my blood sugar stable. These things combined made me feel a lot better on the protocol.

In a nutshell what I found myself needing to eat to feel good this round is:

1/4-1/2 cup fat free cottage cheese upon waking

50 gram portion of sirloin 1 hour later

100 grams protein + veggie for lunch

1/4-1/2 cup fat free cottage cheese around 3pm (sometimes, if need be)

100 grams protein + veggie for dinner

1/4-1/2 cup fat free cottage cheese before bed

By doing this, my blood sugar was staying much more stable and I felt a lot better. Many may not need to do this, but with my current health issues and the fact that I wasn’t eating the melba/grissini or fruits on this P2, I found I needed to make these adjustments.

For more relevant videos check out my hcg vlog.

Increased HCG dose – no more blood sugar issues- HCG R3P2D12-16 130.4

October 29, 2011

One cause of having a gain on while on HCG Injections, aside from the obvious one (you cheated!), is water retention. In my case, there were a hot couple of days in my area and I was doing a lot gardening outside. One day in particular I got pretty hot, a bit dehydrated, and I could tell I was getting a sunburn on my back. All that together and I was up .6 on the scale the following day. I know my body was retaining water to deal with my sunburn and dehydration. So in this case, it’s nothing to cry over- it hasn’t slowed down my actual fat loss.

Another important point is that while eating more frequently did help with my low blood sugar, I finally thought about increasing my dose, and wala! Low blood sugar issues gone. So if you’re having low blood sugar, also give consideration to the dose of the hormone you are on and that you may need to raise or lower it. The dose you need can vary depending on what brand of hormone you use, and I’ve used different brands of hormone on every round pretty much. I had been taking 150iu, which usually worked fine for me, but I increased it to 166iu and I felt MUCH better in the hunger department. Wish I’d thought of that sooner.

Regarding the cooking of food for family members- this may not be possible for everyone, but I was able to talk to my husband and he agreed to cook for himself and our son while I finished this round. I was finding it difficult and very tempting to be around all this yummy food I was cooking- the aroma, the look of it all, everything. Rounds of the protocol are so short and to the point, you want to do whatever you can to make it as easy on yourself as possible so that you can get back to living when you’re done.

The Story on Miracle Noodles and Shirataki Noodles – HCG Diet R3P2D17-19 129.2, 10.5 lbs body fat lost

November 1, 2011

Total loss of 14 in 19 vlcd days now.  According to my Omron Body Fat Monitor, 10.5 lbs of this is fat, and puts me at 27.6% bodyfat when I started at 32.1%, which is a 4.5% difference in less than 3 weeks, with no exercise.

I sometimes have Shirataki noodles, also known as Miracle noodles while on HCG Injections.  I wanted to help clarify something about these noodles. Sometimes the packaging can be misleading because you might see the ingredients say “yam flour” or something to that effect. Well, obviously in the  english language, yams are a starchy carb vegetable that are definitely NOT allowed on the protocol, so hence you will see some people on forums telling people that they can’t have miracle noodles on the protocol.

Never fear. These noodles are NOT made with Yam flour- this is just how the Chinese translated the term for the root that the noodles are really made from which is called Konjac. The Konjac root is only soluble fiber- it’s not a starch we as humans can digest or absorb as calories or carbs- it simply goes through our system as fiber. So when the package says 0 calories, they’re not lying. These shirataki noodles are made from this Konjac root. Just be sure not to get the Tofu shirataki noodles- they’re a different story.

However, some people will stay “I don’t care if they are supposedly 0 calories or have no carbs, I had a gain, or I stalled when I ate those noodles.”

One thing to keep in mind is that while these noodles are just fiber and have no carbs or calories, they still have a significant amount of bulk to them. If you eat 1 lb of noodles, and you haven’t gone to the bathroom by the next morning, you have 1 lb extra of food sitting in your intestines- it’s not fat, you just have more food, more bulk, sitting in your intestines, along with a little extra water perhaps to move that fiber along. So again, if you see a “stall” or a “gain” from eating these noodles, it’s not a true stall or gain- just those noodles sittin’ in your stomach en route.

I feel you can safely eat the Shirataki/Miracle noodles while on the protocol. I have done that most of my rounds, and lost significant percentages of fat with those rounds (90% and 80% respectively I think it was).

Updated notation November 2014: I’ve been trying out some of the other styles of noodles made by the Miracle Noodle team- I’m LOVING the fettucine cut!  They are my fav. They also have a “rice” version and a angel hair pasta version – so if you want to have the various custom cuts of zero carb pasta, you can purchase those at the Miracle Noodle’s site here. And keep in mind their shelf life is like a whole year, so you have plenty of time to use them if you buy it in bulk.

R3P2D20 -1.0, 128.2 Feeling great!

November 2, 2011

15 pounds in 20 vlcd days now. Wow. 1 whole lb lost as of this morning from yesterday.  I did some measurements on myself and realized that I lost 1.5 inches across my bust area in only 2 days, and .5 inches from my belly in those same 2 days.  Talk about a fast change!

Transcript:

Hey guys! HCGchica. Today is VLCD 21. I was down a whole pound today. I was very excited about that, that puts me at 128.2 and that’s a total loss of 15 pounds in 20 VLCD days and my body fat right now is 27.7% my ketones were at 80 again as usual and I had miracle noodles yesterday, the day before, I had miracle noodles for the last 4 days. I was so excited to be 128 almost 127 really, because I just haven’t been that way in many years so that’s just- its surreal it’s actually kind of surreal.

I wanted to share real quick a couple of things about measurements. I just been kind of measuring myself randomly whenever I kinda feel like it so there’s no like rhyme or reason to it but it’s kind of interesting just from VLCD 19 to 21. Basically just 2 days ago, basically within 2 days from 2 days ago I loss 1.5 inches across my bust area and I lost a half an inch across my belly which is great cause I have a lot of that back flabby stuff around the bra line so I think that’s going. And also my belly it’s like that’s taken a while to go down and that’s one of the things that bothers me the most, you know after you have a kid and then being overweight. It’s just like this little bulge bellow your waist that shouldn’t be there. It’s finally starting to go away. That’s just crazy to lose an inch and a half in 2 days from my upper bust area and then also I lost a half inch right below my bust.

I’m one of those people that measures like all over, because I don’t know— the inches go from different places you wouldn’t always think of. I’ll definitely do like beginning of round 3 and end of round 3 measurements and then also from my first round to now. If I keep feeling good, I have been feeling really good TOM’s actually supposed to be here like today which he hasn’t come but any day now he should be here. We’ll see how that goes but so far I’ve actually been feeling really good the last couple of days and if I can hang in there feeling this good I’ll definitely keep going my round until, you know I would like to go to 120. I know I could do that if I did the full round I just, earlier this week I was thinking maybe I wasn’t mentally gonna be able to handle that but right now I’m actually feeling really good so maybe I’ll make it, and if I do get to 120 this round then I will most likely be done with the protocol for a while cause 120 is definitely, especially if I lose all fat that would put me at a pretty good spot and I don’t think I would feel you know- as long as I could maintain it which will see but I’m doing so much better this time around, my health is doing so much better and it just makes it possible for me to make the right decisions. I just feel so much more control of myself and my life and I just felt it’s gonna successful so I’m really glad.

That’s my update for today and I’ll talk to you guys soon.

P2 Recipe: Asparagus Shrimp Soup- Lip Balm, hCG R3P2D21 -.4, 127.8

November 3, 2011

15.4 lbs in 21 vlcd days on the HCG Injections now.

ASPARAGUS SHRIMP SOUP RECIPE FOR HCG – P2:

Ingredients:

Water

Asparagus

Shrimp and Shrimp skins/tails

Turmeric

Coriander

Salt

Miracle/Shirataki Noodles (optional)

Directions:

Simmered chopped asparagus in water, added turmeric, coriander, salt, and the shrimp tails until the asparagus was soft. Then removed the shrimp tails, and added the actual shrimp. Then blendered the whole thing with my immersion blender and added my miracle noodles (aka shirataki noodles).

Stevia Soda- hCG R3P2D22 15.4 lbs down, 11 lbs body fat gone

November 4, 2011

STEVIA WATER RECIPE (USE SELTZER WATER AND YOU HAVE YOUR OWN SODA!)

1 quart water
1.5 droppers of sweetleaf flavored stevia (grape is yum!)
A few shakes Trader Joes Organic Stevia Extract

So far my omron body fat monitor shows that I’ve lost 11 lbs of fat in 22 days.  My hydrostatic body fat test that I took after this round corroborates my results.

As some of you may know, I am writing these blog posts far after the fact when I did these vlogs- it’s been almost a year since this particular vlog. It has been really interesting for me to back and watch all my own old vlogs actually- it’s interesting to me how much energy I had this particular round and how good I felt- the fact that I was eating no fruit or grissini whatsoever and having no cravings and losing so much weight and so much of that weight being fat is really striking.   And that this particular round was the easiest one I ever experienced.  It makes me want to remove fruits on my next p2 again.

Losing FAT on the HCG diet, not just weight- why it’s important

November 7, 2011

LOSING FAT ON THE HCG DIET

16.8 lbs in 25 vlcd days now on HCG Injections for my 3^rd round. I’m at 34 lbs of fat according to my Omron Body Fat monitor.

My Ketones have dropped to 15 for reasons I’m unaware of. I thought to remove the stevia in my water temporarily to see if by some minute chance, the stevia could be causing a reduction in my ketones via a blood sugar increase (doubtful, but you never know with HCG). Since I’m writing this post way after the fact of this vlog, I can now tell you that it had nothing to do with the stevia. I think what it comes down to is simply that my body was using the ketones in my body more efficiently and they just weren’t spilling out into my urine anymore. I’m thinking this because I really hadn’t changed anything in what I was doing on the protocol from the first half of the round where my ketones were always at 40 and 80, and I was continuing to lose fat. Yay for efficient ketone use I guess huh.

Another note on Shirataki aka Miracle Noodles- they are literally making this second half of the weight loss protocol SO EASY for me this round. Remember that the shirataki noodles are simply soluble fiber. That is all. You can see another more in depth post I did about miracle noodles on the protocol here: http://hcgchica.com/the-story-on-miracle-noodles-and-shirataki-noodles-hcg-r3p2d17-19-129-2-10-5-lbs-body-fat-lost/

ON TO THE IMPORTANCE OF LOSING FAT, NOT JUST “WEIGHT” ON HCG.

Go online and google “5 pounds 5 pounds muscle” on google images. Wait, don’t bother! I’ll do it for you….click here.

Eye opening isn’t it? The volume that fat takes up is wayyyy more than muscle. If you lost 5 pounds of muscle, you wouldn’t visually look that much smaller- ie your pants would fit about the same. But if you lost 5 pounds of fat, you would shrink visibly quite a bit. And that is what is important right? To be visually smaller? I mean, if you weighed 102 lbs and looked like an elephant, you wouldn’t be too proud of the small number right? It’s the end result of what you look like that counts right? And not just for that reason, but many even more important reasons, we want to be concerned with losing fat and not muscle.

But why am I mentioning this? Don’t we all lose fat on HCG? Isn’t that what this protocol does? Well, when the protocol is followed properly, yes, you will lose mostly fat on the diet. However, in the days and times we are living in, many many people make various alterations to the weight loss protocol. This is not to say that they are all bad- certainly not. Some of the alterations I’ve made to my own protocol has resulted in continued fabulous fat loss. However, I have also made certain alterations to this protocol in the past that I believe led to excessive muscle loss instead of fat loss. So I’m bringing this subject up to encourage everyone to approach variations to the diet with caution and discernment. Don’t just randomly throw in an egg day or mac nut day because you’re bored or because you heard someone else did it and lost 3 lbs the next day. There are certain cases where I believe some variations, especially ones involving the addition of a significant amount of fat, cause that “extra great loss on the scale” the next day to come from muscle, not fat. That’s something you simply don’t want. It will ultimately harm your metabolism, make you unhealthier, and you won’t even look good to top it off!

That’s not to say that you won’t lose some muscle on the protocol regardless of how perfectly and purposefully you do the diet. Depending on how overweight you are, some muscle loss is to be expected and is even necessary in order to reach a normal amount of muscle mass for a person of your height and build. For instance- I am 5’1”. The normal amount of muscle mass for a person of my height is somewhere between 89-100 lbs. When I first started the protocol I had 112 lbs of lean body mass. A normal overall weight for a person of my height is about 105-120. If I were to have kept all my lean mass of 112 pounds, but ended up after weight loss at a total of say, 112 pounds, that would mean I would have absolutely no fat on my body at all! Not only does 0% body fat not exist, it would be super unhealthy- in fact, I’d be dead. We all need a certain amount of fat to be healthy and to be….um…alive. We have essential fat- our bone marrow is made up of fat, structural fat cushions in between our vital organs- this is necessary ya? Oh yeah, I almost forgot, much of our brain is fat!! After looking around I read in several places that while the brain is 75 percent water, what’s leftover is 60% fat! Additionally, enough fat, especially for women, is essential for proper hormone production and balance.

Getting off course here….so my point is that I had to lose some muscle in order to get to a normal body weight for my height. Our bodies naturally put on extra muscle when we gain weight in order to carry around all that extra fat we have. Otherwise we wouldn’t be able to keep walking around. So when we lose that excess fat, we don’t need all that muscle we had. We just need a normal amount of muscle for our now normal body size.

As a person gets to the point on the diet where they are no longer overweight by very much, at this point, it is desirable however that most of the weight loss should be coming from fat. At this point your body is most likely not carrying excess muscle since you’re not that overweight anymore. In some cases with men, there is often 0% muscle loss while on the protocol. This is about the only time in my life that I wish I were a guy. We women do not have it so easy- I guess it has to do with the miniscule amounts of testosterone we women have in comparison with men. Oh well. We’ll make do just fine on our own won’t we girls?

On my 3^rd  weight loss round I believe I lost somewhere around 87% fat and my 4^th round was 80% fat- to me these ratios are excellent and more than acceptable.

I hope this post was helpful- I feel like it’s important to draw attention to this because I don’t think the world in general has trained us women to be aware of fat and muscle weight-