HCG Diet (Day 4)

I’m still feeling really sick today. I’ve got the chills, body aches, headache, stuffy head, cough… the usual wintertime crud.

As far as hunger today, I had a difficult time skipping breakfast. I usually eat a pretty hearty breakfast, since it gives me fuel for the rest of the day and I end up eating less later. So I was pretty hungry when lunchtime rolled around at noon. I split that meal into two (waited until I was hungry again, around 3:00pm). Dinner I just ate all at once.

I noticed after lunch that my calorie intake will be under the 500 per day allotment—this is because I’m not interested in eating the breadstick/melba toast. I’m not a huge bread person since my short stint on Atkins. To up my calorie intake for the day, I added extra chicken to my dinner. Starting tomorrow, I will begin eating some protein for breakfast to make up for the bread calories.

Breakfast: water
Lunch: 3/4 cup egg whites (90), apple slices (72)
Snack: 1 cup mixed salad greens (9) with balsamic vinegar
Dinner: Chicken soup (160), 1 stalk celery, cooked in soup (7), 2 cups spinach (14) with 10 extra large strawberries sliced on top (90)

Total Calories: 442

	Weight	Body Fat	Visceral Fat	BMI	LBMI
Yesterday	184.8	37.9	7	27.3	16.9
Today	183.8	39.0	6	27.1	16.6
Change	-1.0	+1.1	+1.0	-0.2	-0.3

HCG Diet (Day 3)

Loading day number 3.

Still not feeling well... stuffy head, cough, mild fever, headache. Dampens the appetite, and that's not necessarily good for loading days. But I did manage to eat the following:

Breakfast: eggs, potatoes with bacon and green peppers with ketchup, apple pancake with syrup
Lunch: peanut butter and jelly sandwich, two Babybel cheeses
Snack: guacamole, tortilla chips
Dinner: Olive Garden-- apricot chicken, broccoli, asparagus, tomatoes, breadsticks with sauce, salad
Dessert: soft vanilla ice cream cone

So I guess I did pretty good, considering. The guacamole gives me the WORST acid reflux, though. Not fun.

	Weight	Body Fat	Visceral Fat	BMI	LBMI
Yesterday	186.0	37.5	6	27.5	17.2
Today	184.8	37.9	7	27.3	16.9
Change	-1.2	+0.4	+1.0	-0.2	-0.3

HCG Diet (Day 2)

Loading day number 2.

I managed to eat some more fat today than yesterday. I had:

Breakfast: eggs, bacon, pancakes with syrup
Snack: orange roll
Lunch: guacamole and tortilla chips
Snack: walnuts, half a brownie
Dinner: cream of chicken soup and saltines
Dessert: half a bag of Cadbury milk chocolate mini-eggs

Ok, now I feel sick to my stomach worse than ever. :( From my reading, so many people love their loading days, eating whatever they want and in large quantities. I guess I'm just weird-- I have no desire to stuff myself, get acid reflux, and feel sick. I'm SO not doing this tomorrow. I'll stick with the better food options so I don't continue to feel like crap (and gross the kids out with my gassy stomach!).

Mild weight gain today, though not as much as I expected after hearing other loading day stories. But then again, I'm not exactly pigging out. It's totally not worth the acid reflux, which I have in full force tonight.

	Weight	Body Fat	Visceral Fat	BMI	LBMI
Yesterday	185.4	35.9	6	27.3	17.5
Today	186.0	37.5	6	27.5	17.2
Change	+0.6	+1.6	0	+0.2	-0.3

HCG Diet (Day 1)

Loading day number 1.

I gave myself my first shot this morning around 5:30am. (Note to self: do not inject yourself in the tummy where your pants waistband will rub on it. Uncomfortable for a few hours!) The injection didn't hurt as much as I thought it might (wimpy!). So far, so good!

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes with syrup
Lunch: Cheese and crackers, guacamole and tortilla chips
Snack: Walnuts
Dinner: Hot dog, chili, chocolate milk, carrots

Haven't felt too hungry today so far. I've been fighting some sort of bug the kids brought home. I've had a headache that won't quit, as well as a fair amount of nausea. I don't have an appetite at all.

	Weight	Body Fat	Visceral Fat	BMI	LBMI
Yesterday	185.4	37.7	6	27.4	17.1
Today	185.4	35.9	6	27.3	17.5
Change	0	-1.8	0	-0.1	+0.4

Before HCG

I had some less than flattering photos taken of me so I can share everything with you. Well, not everything. Just all my extra fat. :)

Starting Measurements

Weight: 185.4
Body Fat: 37.7%
Visceral Fat: 6%
BMI: 27.4
Lean Body Mass Index: 17.1

Arm: 12.25"
Waist: 40"
Hips: 45"
Thigh: 24.5"
Bust: 45"

Gearing Up

Tomorrow starts Day 1 of the HCG diet trial for me. I will take my first shot in the morning, and then proceed to do the "loading". Since you are supposed to load up on fatty foods, and I'm not a fried-foods sort of gal, I'm planning on eating lots of guacamole and my usual protein standby, cheese.

Since I've never been a dieter (with the exception of 2 months of Atkins, and a 3 week try at Weight Watchers), I don't suspect my fat stores are low. Considering that my typical daily intake includes cheese, I'm not overly worried that I won't eat enough during the loading days. We'll see!

Why I’m a Good Person to Test the HCG Diet

I’ve got a few reasons why I think I’m a good person to test this diet. The first, and most important qualification, is that I’m a skeptic by nature. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Since HCG claims to reduce just your body fat, I bought a scale that will measure my body fat. I will post all my results here on this blog, so you can see for yourself what it does.

Second, I’m really not a dieter. I went on Atkins once for two months (decent success), and tried Weight Watchers for three weeks (not so successful). That’s it. When I was on Weight Watchers, it seemed that the program worked based on calorie restriction. All I know is that I was HUNGRY on it. (Never was hungry on Atkins.) If a 500-calorie per day diet is all HCG requires, and they promise you won’t be hungry on it, I’m your candidate. It will really have to work as advertised so I don’t starve to death. I am very intolerant of being hungry. :)

Third. This diet claims to “reset your hypothalamus”. Because my weight gain is due to hormone issues, I’m very interested in this aspect of it. Will I still have hormone issues contributing to weight gain after using HCG?

So there you have it. Show me the money, HCG!

Water

How much water should I drink?

A good rule of thumb is to take your weight, and divide it in half. Drink that many ounces of water per day. If you're not used to drinking that much water, you'll feel like you're floating through life. You'll probably be visiting the bathroom a LOT more than usual. :)

If you're having a difficult time holding on to your water so your body can use it, increase your salt intake. Your body can only hold and use the water it takes in as long as there's enough salt to go along with it.

The HCG Diet (Part Two)

Here's how it works: every day, for 23 days, I will give myself a 125IU shot of HCG. (Women do not give themselves shots during menstruation. Stop the shots the day your period starts, and resume them again on the last day of your flow.) I have chosen to do 3 "loading days", where I am supposed to eat fatty foods. This is to build up your stores of healthy fat to sustain you through the first few days of being on HCG. Since it takes approximately 3 days for the HCG to kick in, you have to eat to capacity on those days.

After the last shot, I must continue the 500 calorie diet for 3 additional days.

The second stage of the diet starts after you have completed the 500 calorie diet. In this stage, which lasts for 24 days, you must completely restrict sugar and starchy carbs. This portion of the diet reminds me greatly of the Atkins Diet (induction phase).

It was reading about this stage of the diet that made me wonder if HCG puts you into major ketosis. I suppose it would make sense, since you are severely restricting the amount of carbs/calories you're putting into your system. Then, when you move into the second phase of the HCG Diet, you continue to be in ketosis.

I will be starting HCG injections near the end of the month.

The HCG Diet (Part One)

I have been researching the HCG Diet. You give yourself a daily shot of the hormone HCG, which is supposed to curb your hunger. The curbing your hunger part is important, as this diet requires you to subsist on 500 calories per day.

That's starvation mode calories. When you drop your calories that low, the body will shed muscle (lean body mass) in response to severe calorie restriction. According to Dr. Simeons, the creator of the HCG Diet, getting the daily hormone shot will prevent this, and you will only lose body fat.

I searched and searched the internet, hoping to find a blog of someone who has tried the HCG Diet, and kept track of their body fat percentages/lean muscle mass.

Since I couldn't find one, I decided to turn myself into a guinea pig. If it works as advertised, this would be a fantastic way to shed 20 pounds very quickly, which would make exercising much easier on me (because of my back problems). If it doesn't work as claimed, I would be able to provide information to the internet regarding my experience with the HCG Diet. Either way, the information will be out there for everyone to see.

Of course, I'm hoping the HCG Diet works as claimed. I've researched it enough, and talked to people who have been on it, to know that rapid weight loss does indeed occur. I'm just hoping that it burns away the excess body fat, as it says it does.

Scale

I have an amazing scale. It’s more than just a scale—it’s a Body Composition Monitor by Omron (Model HBF-500). Not only does it measure weight (very accurately, I might add!), it also gives you your:

• Body Fat Percentage
• Skeletal Muscle Percentage
• Resting Metabolism
• Visceral Fat Level
• BMI

It has a memory function that can store up to 4 different people’s profiles, and saves data for each person for a current 90-day period.

I bought this scale specifically so I could track my body fat levels during the HCG diet. Rapid weight loss, at least how I understand it, not only involves losing fat, but also lean muscle. I want to find out whether HCG makes good on its claims of reducing just body fat.

Of course, I’m sure that my daily results will vary a bit—body fat percentage testing via bioelectrical impedance isn’t always 100% correct. But it will give me a good estimation of what my body fat results are, and allow me to calculate my Lean Body Mass Index.

Visceral Fat

There are three kinds of body fat-- subcutaneous, intramuscular and visceral.

Subcutaneous is the fat underneath the skin. Intramuscular fat is found interspersed in your skeletal muscles. Visceral fat is what surrounds your internal organs.

We’re mostly concerned about subcutaneous and visceral fat.

Subcutaneous fat is the type of fat we tend to be most aware of. It likes to collect around our abdomens, hips, thighs and upper arms.

Visceral fat is important-- it protects your internal organs from getting smashed together. But too much visceral fat is thought to increase your risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes.

The scale I have measures visceral fat. I am aiming for a visceral fat level of 9 or less.