This diet combines the daily consumption of HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin- a hormone that is created by a pregnant woman’s placenta) with a strict 500 calorie per day diet in order to lose weight rapidly. It is claimed that HCG triggers your body to burn fat and not muscle and that you can achieve a weight loss of 0.1 to 1.5 pounds per day on this diet.
The 4 stages of the HCG diet
- Phase 1. This phase lasts for 2 days and is intended to be a loading phase in which you consume fats and high-calorie foods. The fats in these calorie dense foods will be burned during the calorie-restricted phase 2 of the diet. Typically, you would eat many of your favorite foods such as hamburgers, pizza, fried chicken, doughnuts, high-fat desserts, cheesecake, cheese and butter with no limitations.
- Phase 2. This is the most challenging and restrictive part of the HCG diet plan and lasts for 3 to 6 weeks. It is also the phase in which you will lose weight rapidly, take daily HCG drops, injections or tablets 3 times a day and adhere to a strict 500 calorie eating plan that involves specific methods for food preparation.
Recipes ideas you should follow for breakfast include coffee or tea as much as you want without sugar. You make add 1 tablespoon of milk and sweeten with the sweetener Stevia.
You may create recipes for lunch and dinner that include 100 grams of beef, veal, fresh white fish, chicken breast, shrimp, crab or lobster. You may also include cucumbers, cabbage, asparagus, onions, celery, fennel, red radishes, beet-greens, spinach, chicory, tomatoes, green salad and chard in reasonable quantities, but do not combine vegetables in one meal. - Phase 3. HCG is no longer taken in this phase that lasts for about 3 weeks. The phase is referred to as the Stabilization, the Transition or the Maintenance Phase. In phase 3 you will gradually increase your daily calorie intake, up to 700-900 calories in the first week, and introduce foods in your diet that you were not allowed to eat in Phase 2. It is recommended that you start with vegetables and fruits and introduce no more than 2 new foods in the first week. Added starches and sugars are prohibited. By the second week, daily calorie intake should be 1000-1100, by the third week 1200-1300, and by the fourth week 1300-1500 calories per day. When you reach the fourth week of this phase, you should be able to eat any food item on the approved eating list without gaining weight. This is an important phase that you should not skip since it will allow you to stabilize your weight loss and get your body adjusted to the changed diet for an easy transition to the lifelong maintenance phase.
- Phase 4. In this stage, you are at your new healthier weight and you will no longer be considered a dieter. This phase is referred to as the Lifelong Maintenance Phase and it is the phase in which you practice the lessons learned in the other phases of the HCG diet plan. These lessons include avoiding sugars, reading food labels, eating no more than 500 calories at each meal, eating only healthy foods, eating only healthy fats such as avocado and avoiding sour cream, not allowing yourself to get hungry before you eat, paying attention to your body, resting when you feel tired, and eating when you get hungry.
Eating Eggs on the HCG Diet
In phase 3, you will strive to stay within 2 pounds of the weight you attained following your last injection in phase 2, and you should immediately strive to correct any gain if that should happen. One way to make this correction is to have an HCG diet egg day.
An egg day can generate a 1 to 2-pound weight loss by the next day, and you can eat all day long but you can only eat eggs. You may add sugar-free relish, cheese, mayonnaise or butter. You can vary the way you prepare the eggs to include boiled eggs, a large omelet for dinner, and an egg salad for lunch. You may prepare deviled eggs or poached eggs as additional options, and be sure not to consume more than 8 to 12 eggs in one day.
