Weight Loss 101 - Eating On An HCG Diet

By Marion Goldsmith

"If you are interested in losing weight with HCG hormone therapy, it is important that you also follow a special diet as well. By combining a low calorie diet with your hormone therapy, you will be able to obtain the greatest benefits from this weight loss program.

Reducing Your Caloric Intake

In order to follow the HCG diet correctly, you will need to reduce your caloric intake to just 500 calories per day. Obviously, you would be able to lose weight with a 500 calorie diet even if you weren't getting HCG hormone treatments. If you cut back to this many calories without the help of HCG, however, you will likely lose muscle as well as fat. Obviously, this isn't healthy and will not result in a toned body.

HCG helps to prevent the loss of muscle as you reduce our caloric intake. In addition, HCG makes it easier for you to cut back to this many calories because it acts as an appetite suppressant. During the first few days of the program, you might experience mild hunger after reducing your food consumption. By the second week, however, most people find small servings of food to be quite satisfying. This is partially because the HCG helps to release calories from your stored fat and these calories then circulate throughout your body. In addition, your hypothalamus makes adjustments to your metabolic rate, which helps you feel full faster.

The Diet Plan

There have been some changes made to the basic diet plan recommended to those on the HCG diet, but the original diet plan is as follows:

• Eat nothing for breakfast. You may drink tea or coffee, but it cannot include sugar and you can only have up to one tablespoon full of milk within a 24 hour period. You may use Stevia or Saccharin.

• Lunch consists of 100 grams of either veal, chicken breast, beef, lobster, fresh white fish, shrimp, or crab. All fat must be removed before cooing the meat and it must be weighed while in its raw state. It must be cooked through grilling or boiling and without any added fat. This meat is to be accompanied by one vegetable.

You can choose from the following vegetables:

o Asparagus
o Beet-greens
o Cabbageo Celery
o Chardo Chicory
o Cucumbers
o Fennel
o Green salad
o Onions
o Red radishes
o Spinach
o Tomatoes

Lunch also consists of one piece of Melba toast or one grissino breadstick as well as an orange, an apple, one half of a grapefruit, or a handful of strawberries.

• Dinner is the same as lunch, though you are encouraged to mix and match the meats, vegetables, and fruit you choose for each meal.

Other diet plans have been introduced since the original, namely those that revolve around eating all organic foods. Therefore, it would be a good idea to read about other diet plans in order to determine which one you think will be best for you."

Marion Goldsmith is the public relations director of HCG Medical, a medical hcg weight loss clinic located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Marion is a former medical weight loss physician has written articles on a variety of topics, but currently focuses on HCG weight loss.