Using HCG Diet Drops to Lose Weight
HCG diet drops are a proven method for weight loss. They eliminate excess fat stores quickly and efficiently, provided that you faithfully follow the HCG diet protocol. While the results associated with the HCG diet are dramatic, some people have greater success than others. In truth, all our bodies are different, and as such they will react differently to diet and exercise programs. The HCG diet is no different. However, there are a few tips you can follow in order to successfully use the HCG diet drops for weight loss:
- Grapefruit has long been associated with weight loss. This is because it has enzymes and other particles in it that help promote weight loss, whereas other fruits, while healthy, do not. Grapefruit is allowed on the HCG diet list of approved foods, and as such choosing to eat grapefruit every day as your fruit option could help you maximize your weight loss results by the end of phase 2 of the diet.
- Avoid artificial sweeteners. While their development was certainly meant to be helpful to people, it turns out that many artificial sweeteners may just cause you to gain weight. The only one currently allowed on the HCG diet is stevia, however if you want to be completely sure you aren't inadvertently sabotaging your weight loss efforts, you might want to avoid that as well. The duration of phase 2 isn't that long, only about 3-4 weeks, so abstaining from sweets for the duration shouldn't be too difficult.
- Eat less calorie dense proteins. Chicken, fish and beef are all allowed on the HCG diet, but fish is by far the leanest of the three. Beef also contains saturated fats, and these are very calorie dense and simply removing the visible fat from your portions will not remove all of the saturated fat content. Fish possesses unsaturated fats, and these are much healthier for you. Eating a diet comprised primarily of fish will help cut out a few unnecessary calories from your day. Shrimp and lobster are also allowed on the HCG diet, and they too are low in calories. However, they are rather expensive, and if you can't afford to eat them then you probably should stick to white fish.
- Drink water! Every diet out there says you should drink as much water as possible, and the HCG diet in particular requires that you drink at lease 2 liters a day. Water is essential to weight loss no matter what diet you follow, and it should be drank throughout the day, especially at meals. During meals, drinking a glass or two of water can help you feel full and avoid any potential hunger associated with the low calorie diet.
There are other tips you can use to help you maximize your weight loss on the HCG diet, and you can find them all over the place. Pick up one or two of the HCG diet books and you will get a wealth of information. You can also find HCG diet recipes online that will help you keep your meal plan varied and interesting. One of the problems with many diets is that they get so monotonous that people have trouble sticking to them. The HCG diet requires that you adhere to the list of approved foods, so getting some information on recipes might just come in handy.
Benefiting from the HCG Diet Plan
Losing weight quickly is often one of the hardest things you can do. It usually requires copious amounts of rigorous exercise in combination with a rather restrictive diet both in calories as well as variety. If you have the time and energy to spend doing 2-3 hours of exercise every day, then you should have no problem following most of the diets out there and successfully losing 2-3 pounds a week, if not a bit more. However, the reality is that most of us do not have that much time a day to spend in the gym, and even if we did, the amount of energy it would take to exercise at a level high enough to elicit noticeable weight loss in a week would be far too high. Luckily, there is a diet plan out there that is custom fit for people who lack the time to exercise consistently, or who cannot exercise much at all due to physical issues. That is where the HCG diet comes in.
Often referred to as Dr. Simeons' HCG diet, this particular diet plan utilizes the hormone human chorionic gonadotropin, or HCG, in order to stimulate the hypothalamus into releasing stored fat into the bloodstream. The added benefit is that the stored fat usually comes from places that are hard to lose weight in, such as the belly, thighs and upper arms. No exercise is required on the HCG diet because of the effects of the HCG, as well as the fact that you must follow a very low calorie diet while taking HCG shots in order to maximize the amount of weight that you lose. It is one of the very few diets on the market that do not require exercise, and probably the only one that offers the kinds of results that it does.
The duration of the diet lasts about 6 weeks or so, and only 3-4 of these will you be following the low calorie portion. The results are in the ballpark of .5lbs to 2lbs, per day! Your individual results will depend a lot on just how much weight you have to lose. Those who carry around a larger amount of body fat will tend to lose more than those who have less, but that's usually the case with any diet. Whether you need to lose 15lbs or 45lbs, knowing that you'll drop at least .5lbs per day should be more than enough.
In order to gain the benefits of the HCG diet, you need to take the HCG hormone via injections, HCG drops or pills. The diet has been around for decades, and the original method for supplementing HCG has been through injections. If you don't mind self-injecting your HCG once a day, then that is probably the best option for you. However, the HCG diet drops and HCG diet pills have been growing in popularity lately due to the fact that they are much easier to administer and don't require any needles. Whichever method of supplementation you use is entirely up to you, as each version is reported to offer similar weight loss results. If weight loss is your goal but you don't have the time or ability to exercise regularly, or if you just want to lose weight fast, then look for some HCG diet information either online or through your doctor. 6 Weeks from now, you could be 30-40lbs lighter.
HCG Diet Phase 1 Side Effects
There are often side-effects associated with dieting, depending on the specific plan which you choose to follow. No carb diets, for instance, often come with the side-effect of putting the body in a state of ketosis. This is when your body lacks adequate carbs to use for energy and must instead burn protein. It can cause potentially serious organ damage, as well as an unhealthy metabolic rate and even kidney failure. In order to follow a diet that has as few side-effects as possible, it is important to make sure that it contains a balanced, nutritious meal plan that will make sure you are getting all of the essential vitamins and nutrients that your body needs in order to function properly. The HCG diet, for instance, was developed by a doctor and includes all the necessary food groups to ensure that those who follow it do not find themselves experiencing negative side-effects.
The HCG diet is broken down into 3 phases, and each one is important in its own way. To get the maximum weight loss results, you need to follow each phase exactly as it is described to you, without deviating from the HCG diet protocol. Phase 1, for instance, is known as the loading phase. It is a 2 day period in which dieters take their daily dose of the HCG hormone and eat as many high fat, high protein foods as possible. Some people like to refer to phase 1 of the HCG diet as the “forced-feeding phase” and rightfully so. During this 2 day period, the excess calories ingested are stored as fat in a special way. During the next phase of the diet, these stores of fat are slowly depleted, allowing your body the energy it needs to get through the day. To ensure that you have enough of these stores of fat, it is often recommended that you eat more than you usually would in a day, hence the “forced-feeding” moniker.
There are a few HCG side-effects associated with overeating, the most common of which being weight gain. In this instance, the weight gain is essential, and as such it isn't something you will want to avoid. However, the gain in pounds is usually minimal, maybe 1-2lbs total over the course of the 2 days. You needn't worry about gaining weight at the beginning of your diet because it will all come off during phase 2, the weight loss phase.
You will want to be careful with what you eat during phase 1 to make sure you don't inadvertently put yourself at risk for other potential side-effects. For instance, if you eat a lot of salty foods during this period, such as fast foods, you may find that the sodium levels in your blood are elevated to an unhealthy level, causing you to feel thirsty. Also, going around on a full stomach all the time can have the added side-effect of causing you to feel sluggish and fatigued.
It might be a good idea to undergo this phase of the diet over the course of a weekend in order to not have your daily life effected by your elevated daily caloric intake. If you're curious about the potential side-effects of the HCG diet, the first place you should go is your doctor's office. He or she can fill you in on any pertinent HCG diet information and help you to put together a plan to complete the diet successfully and safely.
What are the HCG Approved Foods?
Most diets out there come with their own lists of the things you should and should not eat. These lists are as varied as the diets themselves and some are easier than others to follow. Regardless of whatever restrictions may be associated with a given diet, the easy part is usually the eating. The hard part is usually exercising vigorously and frequently enough to cause your body to begin to shed pounds. Often, both diet and exercise go hand in hand when it comes to weight management. The HCG diet does not require that you exercise during your weight loss phase, but it is recommended that you begin an exercise program once the diet is over in order to maintain your new body weight and keep any fat from coming back.
The diets on the market today run the gamut from easy to difficult. Often, you are required to purchase your food from whichever company supplies you with the diet. They'll usually tell you that if you don't buy the food from them, the weight loss isn't guaranteed or some other such nonsense. In reality you can lose weight eating just about anything. The amounts, however, will vary depending on how healthy your choices are. The list of approved foods on the HCG diet is full of healthy choices, and these are the kinds of things you should be eating both on and off the diet. The list of approved foods is designed to incorporate all of the 4 major food groups, but the amounts are somewhat different due to the nature of the diet.
On the HCG diet plan, you are given a comprehensive list of foods, as well as the portion sizes in which to consume them. It's important to pay close attention to portion sizing as one of the main components of the HCG protocol is the 500 calorie a day diet that you follow during phase 2. If you eat too many calories, then less energy will be gained from the stores of fat released by the HCG hormone and the result will be less total weight lost. 500 calories a day may seem difficult, and for some people it is, but it's what must be done if you want to lose weight quickly.
If you happen to find yourself too hungry to stay on 500 calories a day, then you may want to take a look at the 800 calorie version of the HCG diet. It is almost exactly the same as the 500 calorie a day version, with the exception that you consume 300 more calories per day. While 300 calories may not seem like a lot, it is quite a bit different than 500. It allows a dieter to fit in two or three decent sized snacks throughout the day, or even an entire extra meal. Provided that you stick to your list of approved foods, the extra calories shouldn't have too damaging an effect on your diet, though you may find that you lose a little bit less than those who follow the 500 calorie a day version.
If you'd like to know more about the HCG diet list of approved foods, you should check out Dr. Simeons' book Pounds & Inches. It goes into great detail about the types and quantities of foods you eat on the HCG diet and gives some helpful hints for maximizing weight loss and avoiding common pitfalls associated with dieting. You can also check out the HCG diet forums for some good information on foods not present in the original HCG diet, but that people have found worked well for them.
The HCG Diet Works Fast to solve your Weight Problem
The fitness industry is booming. Millions and millions of dollars are spent every year on supplements, gym memberships and all sorts of other fitness and weight loss related items. In an effort to cash in on a piece of the action, people have been coming up with all sorts of fad diets and weight loss tricks that, according to the testimonials, offer the most amazing results you could possibly imagine. The truth is that the people who often give testimonials for fad diets are usually trained and supervised by professionals in order to elicit the best possible results. Regular folks who follow the diets usually see a far weaker result when they do the diet, but of course nobody tells you that beforehand. There is one diet out there, though, that seems to have very positive results with the overwhelming majority of people who try it out, and that is the HCG diet.
The HCG diet is not your typical diet program. It doesn't require copious amounts of exercise of the course of several months in order to lose weight. It doesn't require that you abstain from a certain food group indefinitely, or risk regaining any lost weight. The reason the HCG diet is so effective is because it works on a hormonal level to encourage your body to release stores of fat into the bloodstream. In conjunction with a low calorie diet, these released stores of fat act as an energy source and are quickly used up by the body to power its many functions.
The weight loss experienced by people who successfully complete the HCG diet ranges anywhere from .5lbs to 2lbs a day. The reason that such rapid weight loss is possible is because people undergoing the HCG diet are to eat only 500 calories a day over the course of a 3-4 week period. Now, this may sound tough, and to many people it is, however there are ways to go about that will make it easier. If you want to find HCG diet information like this, a good place to start would be the seminal book written on the subject, Pounds & Inches by Dr. A.T.W. Simeons. In his book, Dr. Simeons describes his HCG diet protocol that you must follow in order to maximize your weight loss. He also provides tips and information regarding the low calorie diet, offering several ways in which you can eat that will help minimize hunger.
If you'd like to speak directly to people who have lost weight on the HCG diet, and get real HCG diet information directly from those who have already gone down the path, then look around online for the HCG diet forums. There are several different HCG diet forums out there, but all of them are full of people either going through the HCG diet currently, or that have done it in the past. Ask some of them for their results, and you'll probably notice that the majority of them lost between 20 and 40lbs over the course of the diet. There are several different versions of the HCG diet, and results tend to vary from person to person, but the one constant is that they all lost weight extremely quickly and were able to keep it off thanks to the HCG diet.