Learn About the Hcg Diet

So how will you know if you are on the right dose of hCG? How should you feel exactly? These are good questions, especially if this is your first time trying the hCG Diet because you're not quite sure what to expect (kind of like wondering what it's like to give birth to a baby when you're pregnant for the first time!) Why does the dosing of hCG matter? DOSE MATTERS. Should I print up some shirts for us hCGers? I can't reiterate the importance of this enough. Reasons having the right dose for your personally while on hCG: 1. First of all, if you are hungry on the hCG Diet, it will be totally intolerable and you will give up. It's totally miserable to be hungry all the time and not sustainable. Not to mention you will probably run your family members out of the house because you'll be so grumpy. 2. Secondly, and more importantly, having no hunger on hCG is a good indicator that your body really is using your stored fat for fuel. Experiencing excessive hunger then would indicate the opposite. It is possible that being on too high or too low a dose of hCG that causes you hunger will cause your body to hold on to fat instead. This could cause you to not lose weight at all, or to lose muscle. I don't think I have to say this not what you want while eating only 500 calories each day! I have seen far too many people not address hunger issues soon enough- if you are abnormally hungry, please check into the possible causes right away so you can get the best results for your time on the hCG Diet. How Should I Feel on the hCG Diet as Regards Hunger? Let's talk about it in a nutshell first, then we'll expand on the topic in a little more detail. In a nutshell: Aside from the first few days of the diet (we'll talk about those in a minute), for the majority of the time you are on the VLCD (very low calorie days) of the hCG Diet, you should not be hungry most of the day. However, at mealtimes, times like noon and 6pm, it's normal to be hungry to need to eat the designated hCG meals. That's why we do eat that small amount of 500 calories. You are going to feel the need to eat something, so it is normal to be hungry at those times. So just because you do get hungry a couple times during the day, if it's time to eat your meal, that's fine, that doesn't mean that you are on the wrong dose. The key here is that when you do get hungry and then eat your small meal of 200-250 calories, when you complete eating it you should then be satisfied and no longer hungry for several hours afterwards. You're not going to feel “full”, but you should be no longer hungry. You may consistently have an “empty” feeling in your stomach that you are not used to, especially if you're used to eating to the point that you are really “full.” Remember, there is very little actual food in your stomach, so an “empty” feeling is normal. This is different than actual hunger.

So in general how you should feel on the right dose of hCG: Most of the day not hungry, hungry at mealtimes, even more hungry if you wait too long to eat one of your meals, but then once you eat your meal you should be satisifed and no longer hungry for several hours afterwards. For those with blood sugar issues you may find that you need to eat a little something in the mornings. Many though will not need to eat anything until lunchtime. The first few days of the VLCD of hCG: The first few days that you are on the low calorie portion of the hCG Diet require it's own explanation, because during these first few days it is normal to experience a little more obvious hunger than you will experience for the majority of the diet. It can be a little harder those first few days to tell if you are on the right dose of hCG, because even if you are on the right dose, you may feel hungry.
Reasons for hunger the first few days on the hCG diet:

When you start the loading phase for the hCG Diet, the majority of people load the traditional way- that is to load up on any and all foods- this means the foods will not only be high in fat, but high in sugar and refined carbohydrates as well. To explain the sensation that this can cause, have you ever done something like eat a large meal full of carbs like tons of pasta late at night and got really full, then the following morning you find yourself waking up very hungry, much hungrier than usual? And it seems strange doesn't it, because you think to yourself, “I ate a lot more than usual just 6-8 hours ago, yet I'm starving when I wake up!” Whereas when you just eat normal meals, you do not wake up feeling extremely hungry. Why does this happen? Here are a couple articles regarding why you feel hungry soon after a large meal: The SKINNY on why you feel hungry an hour after eating that 350 calorie bagel Why Am I Hungry After a Big Meal? Why Are We Hungrier in the Morning When We Eat Late At Night? I'd like to quote just a small excerpt from Dr. Braverman's article on his pathmed.com website regarding simple carbs and resulting hunger: “Simple carbs drive down ghrelin initially, but this hormone then rises within a few hours to above normal levels; causing you to feel even hungrier than when you started eating in the first place!” Ghrelin is a hormone responsible for those growling sounds you hear coming from your stomach at times. So loading with lots of carbs and sugar for the hCG diet could cause a lot more stomach growling at first. So when you load for the hCG diet the normal way, consuming vast amounts of not just fats but sugar and carbs as well, you may be hungrier in those first few days because of that drastic change from having an excess of carbs and then suddenly cutting your body off from those carbs cold turkey. Wisegeek.com also mentions regarding Ghrelin that, “research seems to demonstrate that ghrelin suppresses the utilization of fat in the adipose tissue.”

Additionally, I found a number of forum threads discussing how people feel when they switch over to a low carb diet and many of them mention a period of a few days where they experience carb withdrawal. Here's a good article describing this: Getting Through the First Week. You had all these carbs, now all of a sudden your body isn't getting any, and your body has to make that adjustment. Your body will be craving those carbs for a few days, and it's not getting any. Having a higher fat diet makes it easier to get through carb withdrawals, but of course if you're on the hCG Diet you're not taking in fat. So it is normal the first couple days, especially if you've loaded the traditional way to be hungry those first few days. Try to avoid being in the grocery store on VLCD 1 at around 3pm! I made this mistake my first round and was almost in a daze while walking my cart through the piles of delicious looking foods and feeling quite hungry. But within a couple days, that passed and I was no longer hungry anymore- I was able to have my two small meals each day and feel totally fine the rest of the day. The faq page of lowcarb.ca mentions this about carb withdrawals: “Many people, but not all, experience unpleasant symptoms during the initial period of switching to low carb eating, such as intense cravings for sugars and sweets, or maybe headaches, fatigue or irritability. This is not a sign of illness, or a reason to quit. Your body needs to clear itself of the excess carbs in your system left over from your previous high-carb diet. Once your blood sugar and insulin levels have evened out, you will feel better, and cravings will disappear. Most people find this only takes a few days, for a few though, it may last over a week.” So do give yourself a few days on the diet before messing with your dose too much, because you may experience some hunger anyway. Benefits of Loading Clean/Low Carb on Hunger for the hCG Diet The last 3 rounds of the hCG Diet, I have done something a little different, which is to load “clean” or low carb. I load on high fat and high protein foods and I eliminate sugars, grains and carbs completely, including no fruit. The only carbs I have during the loading phase for hCG are low carb veggies. This is not something you have to do by any means, but one of the reasons I choose to do this is because I find I am not as hungry those first few days on the very low calorie part of hCG. I think this is because my body is not making that huge carb transition as I would have been if I had loaded the regular way. Additionally, I eat low carb for 7-10 days prior to loading for hCG as well, so by the time I'm loading and by the time I start the low calorie part of the diet, I'm basically at the point where my body has already cleared itself of excess carbs so it's a little bit of an easier adjustment for my body. I was still a tad bit hungry the 2nd day on the diet this past round but nothing at all like the hunger I experienced the first few days when I loaded “dirty” (aka with sugar and carbs). So if you choose to load for the hCG diet with sugars and carbs as part of your diet, give yourself those first few days, unless you're totally ravenous all day long or something, for your body to

adjust to less carbs and the hCG to get into full effect in your system. After the first few days, if you are not finding yourself less hungry on hCG like you should be, it's time to start thinking about adjusting your dose of hCG to find that no hunger sweet spot. If you choose to load for the hCG Diet "clean" or low carb you may find the first few days of the VLCD to be pretty painless and well and have little or no hunger actually. That has been my experience, and one reason I choose to always load clean now. The Right Dose of hCG- Finding the No-Hunger Sweet Spot The majority of people on hCG will find a dose somewhere between 125iu-175iu for hCG injections to be their sweet spot. So the three most used doses I'd say are 125iu, 150iu, and 175iu. I'd suggest 150ius as a good start point. If you don't have much weight to lose you might try a starting dose of 125iu and go from there. On a rare occasion, a person may need as high as 200iu. Typically 125iu is the lowest dose a person would every take on the hCG Diet, however I have also read on a rare occasion that menopausal women may need a dose as low as 75iu in order to not feel hungry- please keep in mind this is not normally the case though. By and large, the majority of people, young and old, male and female, do best with the least hunger on a dose between 125-175iu. There's really no set facts here- I'm just relating my observations based on my own experience and the experience of the many people that I've watched on youtube. Many weightloss clinics prescribed hCG injection doses of 200-250iu and most of the time, the patients are starving on this dose! Then they come on to youtube and the hcg community on youtube tells them to reduce their dose, and then their hunger goes away. As you lose weight and get smaller, you will most likely have to reduce your dose. I now find 125iu's to the best best dose for me. When I started I injected 150-165iu which was fine when I was more overweight. As I got smaller, I found myself getting hungrier on this dose, and reducing to 125iu elminated my hunger again. I have noticed this same trend in many others as they lose more weight with hCG. Dr. Simeon's original dose that he used was 125iu, injected intramuscularly (IM), into the muscle. When I first started the hCG Diet back in February 2011, most were injecting 150iu subcutaneously (SQ), into the fat layer. The idea behind the higher dose was that it was suggested that not as much hCG would be absorbed subcutaneously, so a little more was needed. I don't know if that is true or not because I am finding a larger number of people these days, including myself, doing quite well with 125iu, despite using subcutaneous injections- they are not hungry and they lose weight well. So a couple options with dosing: - if you were to start at 125iu and you felt very hungry, that would be a pretty easy fix as you can be almost positive you need to raise your dose, since 125iu is typically the lowest dose used.

- if you start with a dose of 150iu hCG, you may need an increase or decrease. One way to figure this out is to gauge when you are feeling hungry. If you are feeling hungry especially towards the end of the day, that may be an indication that your dose of hCG is too low and you need to increase it. If you are feeling very hungry earlier in the day, that may be an indication your dose is too high and you need to lower it. - an even more reliable way to know what dose change to make, once the hCG has been in your system already for at least a week, is to skip a dose entirely one day. That will make it pretty clear- if your hunger is much better on the day you skip a dose, you need less hCG. If you are markedly more hunger on the day you skip the dose, you need more hCG. As you can see, dialing in the right dose of hCG is a bit of a guessing game and requires you to tune into your body a bit- however, it's not as hard as it sounds most of the time, and once you do find a good dose, ensuing rounds of hCG will be easier to get your dosing right from the beginning. Whatever you do, don't let yourself be hungry on the protocol. [pullquote]Whatever you do, don't just let yourself be hungry on the protocol.[/pullquote] This is not necessary nor it is healthy or advisable and it makes sticking to the diet almost impossible. It's not about willpower okay? The hCG hormone in the right dose is supposed to make the diet fairly comfortable, to an extent. Of course we're all going to have emotional and social reasons for wanting to eat- that's not going to just go away of course, but the physical aspect of eating 500 calories or less on the hCG diet should be manageable and fairly easy when you have the right dose of hCG. Giving myself as an example, my 5 th round of hCG, when I “eat to hunger”- that is only eating when I'm hungry and stopping when I'm not hungry anymore, I'm only eating 300-400 calories a day, I'm not hungry most of the day at all, I feel great, my energy is the same as if I were eating 2000 calories on a normal diet and I'm getting a lot done. I hope this helps! Find that sweet spot!

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