Ask the chick who did the HCG diet (non-homeopathic)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Ok… I said I would start this in this thread, so here it is.

I put it in the title, but I will reiterate it here, and explain. I did not use homeopathic HCG when I did my diet. About a year and a half ago, give or take, I was up to 220 pounds. I was still making excuses about baby weight to lose, but my son was approaching 2 years old at the time. I had started working out again, but I have plantar fascitis, and while at the gym one day, running on the treadmill, I tore the tendon in the bottom of my foot. I’m stubborn and only gave myself a month or two in a boot to heal, then went back to the gym. I tore it a second time doing step ups at a running pace on a box. (I’m a ‘go hard or go home’ kind of girl, and I was frustrated with my weight being so high.)

My chiropractor had recently lost a lot of weight, and my massage therapist and she were close friends. They introduced me to the idea of using HCG to lose weight. I was skeptical at first, because in the past, I had lose 80 pounds over a 2 year period by proper diet and very, very rigorous exercise. I was, at one time, an exercise fiend. Unfortunately, I am in a position right now, having just torn the tendon in the bottom of my other foot (work related injury, not over doing it this time) where I simply cannot work out in the way I need to in order to make my body lose weight. I am too broken, and I rely on my body to make money.

Anyway, so back to the HCG stuff. My chiropractor sent me to an online pharmacy from which I bought prescription HCG, shipped from overseas. I bought an HCG injection kit from someone more local who puts them together, which included insulin syringes, a large mixing syringe, bacteriostatic water, alcohol pads, and a vial to store the mixed HCG solution in. All in all, I only spent about $100, and that bought me enough for three cycles of the diet. (I only did two.)

I won’t go in to how I mixed the HCG or in to the diet protocol exactly. All of that can be found online quite easily. Dr. Simeon’s Pounds and Inches is the book that I read and used as an outline for the diet.

All tolled, I lost 37 pounds by the end of the two cycles. I cheated on and off, more than I ought to have. I experienced no loss of energy and no physical hunger past the first week, but I am an emotional eater, and my (now) ex-husband and I were on our way towards being exes at that time. I joined a Facebook community with a secret profile and spoke with others also doing HCG. I appreciated having my friend (the massage therapist) doing the diet with me, and my chiropractor as a mentor.

I dropped weight super fast, and I really loved that. The people that knew how I was losing weight were concerned. They didn’t like it. Just the same, I liked that method, and would most certainly (will) use that method again.

ETA: I did the injections myself. I did not go to anyone for them. I’ve done injections myself in the past, for infertility treatments, so I knew how to administer them. I did not pay my chiropractor for her information. Aside from the online pharmacy and the person I bought the injections kit from, no one got any money from me.

2

How long was each cycle? You’ve kept the weight off?

3

My first cycle was 40 days, the second was only a typical 23 days cycle. I have kept off every single pound. I have actually lost and regained 10-15 pounds on Weight Watchers several times since then, but I have never regained any of the weight I lost on the HCG.

4

So as I understand it, the only point of the HGC hormones is to stave off hunger pangs while on the 500 calorie per day diet?

I may have the 500 calorie part misunderstood - that’s not for the whole 21 to 55 day cycle, is it? Or is it?

5

Oh, another question - I asked this in the Other Thread too but don’t recall a response (not from you specifically, several people either had done it, or know others who’d done it.)

What sort of changes did you make to your diet in between cycles, and is re-learning how to eat part of the overall program?

6

What the hell is HCG?

7

Did it take away your appetite as in the emotional urge to eat along with the physical hunger?

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I researched hcg a couple of years ago, when a couple of my friends had blown their money on it, and I didn’t find any studies showing that it was effective for weight loss, aside from the 500-calorie a day effect. Did you research it before buying it, OP, and if so, can we see those studies? If you didn’t research it, why not?

10

The HCG is also supposed to help burn away the body’s non-essential fat stores while not affecting your muscle mass. I don’t know how or why it is supposed to work, but I did not experience a loss of strength or muscle tone after the weight loss.

The cycles are supposed to last either 23 or 40 days only. You follow the 500 calorie diet for all but the first two days of the cycle, in which you are “loading” by eating all of the high fat foods you can handle constantly. Pretty much to the point where you’re making yourself sick.

11

The in-between cycle protocol is structured, like the 500 calorie cycle, for the first few weeks. You start by eating no sugar or starch, then slowly introduce those foods back into your diet as long as your body can tolerate them. You can tell you’re not tolerating them if you start gaining weight back.

As I said, I already knew how to eat properly before I used the HCG. I generally eat healthfully, but I’m an emotional eater, and I often over-indulge in sweets. At that time, my primary problem was pregnancy weight. I have had no problem keeping the weight off.

12

It completely destroyed my physical appetite. It did not take away the emotional urge to eat. I had to find other things to deal with my boredom eating, anger eating, depression eating… It was hard, and sometimes, I gave in and cheated.

My food issues could rival those of anyone on this board. (Not a challenge, just… Sad, pathetic truth.) it was nice to have so few choices, sometimes.

13

The only “research” I did was reading the Pounds and Inches book I mentioned. I didn’t do it myself because my friend/chiropractor had done it, and I considered her a smart, intelligent woman. I could also see the physical changes in her.

14

Good friend (also diabetic) of mine lost 100 lbs on Atkins and has kept about 80 lbs of it off for 8 or so years. This sounds like Atkins - no sugar or starch (which I assume translates to very low-carb) but to stay at or below 500 calories during the cycle, what in heck DO you eat?

Sorry if that’s a sort of ignorant question, I actually have no experience with diets except when my friend was doing the Atkins “induction” I did it for 10 days in solidarity with her. But it wasn’t low calorie - all protein and fat, no sugar/carb/starch…I thought it sucked actually, especially since I’m not a big meat eater. But I did have more energy.

So - what did you eat during the 500-calorie part, and how have you adjusted your diet for the non-cycle bits?

15

The diet is very specific. You can have coffee or tea with no-calorie sweetener. One teaspoon of skim milk a day. The juice of one lemon a day. 100 grams of certain proteins (chicken, very lean beef) for lunch and dinner, an apple or an orange or a handful or strawberries twice a day, two breadsticks a day, and two servings of certain vegetables. I ate a lot of celery, cucumbers, and lettuce because I’m kinda picky.

My favorite dinner on the diet was caramelized chicken breast and sliced strawberries on a bed of lettuce with a breadstick. I don’t like salad dressing, so I never felt like I was missing that.

There were some protein shakes that were ok on the diet. I don’t remember which ones. I used Special K shakes because there were some days that I didn’t eat all 500 calories, so I figured it was ok.

There are also a lot of rules about which lotions and shampoos you can and can’t use that I didn’t follow, and I still lost weight.

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My energy levels didn’t suffer. I felt fine. I was at a point in my career in which I was not terribly active, so I’m not sure how I would do right now, when I’m active 12 hours a day, and sometimes VERY active, but I’ll let you know how I feel when I do another cycle.