CarbSmart.com Your trusted guide to the keto, low carb, intermittent fasting lifestyle
Updated 2/24/2013
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Well, isn’t this interesting.
Background: I originally wrote this article in early 2012. Autumn 2011, I hade been asked to tape a pilot for a possible low carb cooking show. I was very excited about the whole thing, but like anyone else faced with the prospect of going on television, I wanted to knock off a few pounds between now and then – “then” being early November. After all, I’ve never claimed to be a skinny girl, only to be a skinnier girl. For the past year or two, I’ve been wearing size 10 jeans, which at 5’2″ makes me normal-to-mildly-plump.
Sadly, the pilot was not picked up by a network. Still, it was nice to be asked, and the process was fascinating.
I Tried the HCG Protocol
I had, in the past, tried the much-written-about HCG protocol. I had been willing to try it because it was clear that Dr. Simeons, who developed it, had a deep distrust of carbohydrates. I figured that made him my kind of guy. Indeed, his basic instructions for maintenance are “No starch or sugar for the first several weeks, and be cautious with them for the rest of your life.” The Simeons protocol (full text here: http://hcgdietinfo.com/Dr-ATW-Simeons-Pounds-and-Inches.htm) is radical – inject low doses of HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) once a day, and eat a low everything diet – just 500 calories a day. (I, characteristically, left out the allowed bread stick or Melba toast.)
The Simeons protocol had worked as advertised for me, though it was not a rollicking good time. Still, since then I’d talked to two doctors who did, indeed, feel that HCG was a safe and useful adjunct to weight loss whether you used Dr. Simeons protocol or not. One of those doctors was the fellow who diagnosed me with polycystic ovarian syndrome and attention deficit disorder. Quite a lot of his practice revolves around weight loss, and the effects of diet on straightening out hormones, and the effects of hormones on weight. He knows whereof he speaks.
So I thought I’d try the Simeons protocol again. But something unexpected happened. Since my last go at the Simeons protocol, because of my PCOS diagnosis, I’d started taking my fasting blood glucose every morning. I was on a couple of medications for blood sugar, metformin, and Victoza.
HCG (Simeons) Protocol Effect on Blood Sugar
I discovered that the Simeons protocol made my blood sugar go seriously wonky – up as high as 126 one morning. I started taking my blood sugar after meals and discovered quite quickly that a supper of chicken breast and cabbage (a very tasty salad) left me with sugar of 147 two hours after dinner. Clearly, this was not working out for me. I quit after just two days of the 500-calorie per day phase of the protocol.
(I will insert parenthetically that I know folks for whom the Simeons protocol improved their blood sugar, sometimes substantially. I am not one of them.)
But I had the HCG in the house and the assurance of two doctors I respect that low-dose HCG is safe and helpful for weight loss in general. I decided to keep using the HCG and try the Atkins Fat Fast. I’d read about it for years, of course, but never gotten around to trying it. Based on the work of Kekwick and Pawan in the 1950s,(http://www.scribd.com/doc/28131415/Kekwick_Pawan_1956_Lancet) and Dr. Frederick Benoit in the 1960s, demonstrating substantially greater weight loss with the same calorie count when most of those calories come from fat, the basic gist of the Fat Fast is quite simple: 1000 calories per day, 90% of them from fat. It’s recommended that you have 5 small “feedings” a day, each of about 200 calories.
This is harder than it sounds. No, not because I’m ravenous all the time, I’ve actually been remarkably comfortable on what is, admittedly, still not a lot of food. I don’t have any ketostix on hand, but I suspect I am in quite a deep ketosis, which should suppress appetite. My energy level has been fine, too. No, what’s hard is actually getting 90% of my calories from fat. I haven’t gotten there yet; generally, I’ve hit the 80-85% mark.
What Do I Eat for Those 1000 Calories on HCG?
For breakfasts, I’ve splurged and had three slices of bacon, with two eggs scrambled in all the grease. I’m Breakfast Girl, so having my biggest “feed” first thing worked well.
After that, I’ve eaten stuff like:
- 1/2 ounce of pork rinds with 2 tablespoons whipped cream cheese, and a few sweetened jalapeno slices.
- Tofu shirataki noodles turned into Fettuccine Alfredo by melting in 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon onion-and-chive whipped cream cheese, plus 2 tablespoons Parmesan.
- One ounce macadamia nuts – this is 1/4 cup. Yes, I measured.
- One ounce pecan halves, fried in butter.
- Traditional shirataki made into sesame noodles with a sauce of 1 tablespoon each either almond butter or peanut butter, 1 tablespoon coconut oil, 1 tablespoon chicken broth, 1/2 teaspoon dark sesame oil, 1/2 teaspoon grated ginger, 2 teaspoons soy sauce, a touch of garlic, and Sriracha sauce to taste.
- “Chocolates” made of coconut oil and cocoa powder, plus a little liquid Splenda, and shredded coconut meat.
Servings are very small – for instance, just one of those little chocolates, made in a mini-muffin pan, would be it for a few hours. My breakfast holds me for at least 5 hours, and after that, I have just enough of one of these fatty foods to make me not-hungry, but certainly not enough to feel full – just keeping hunger at bay. It’s just enough food for that, I find.
Dr. Atkins said not to do the Fat Fast for more than 3-5 days. I stuck with it for six. In the past couple of days I have liberalized, aiming for 1300-1500 calories per day, but staying with the super-high fat percentage.
The results? As I write this, I have lost six pounds in just over a week, and it looks like more, I think. (This may be a result of the HCG. It seems to help the body lose fat where it most needs to lose it.) That makes me very happy.
What makes me even happier is what this super-high-fat diet has done to my blood sugar: It is normal. Normal, normal, normal. I have stopped taking my metformin and Victoza, and my morning blood glucose is consistently in the 80-95 range. This thrills me to the core.
I don’t know whether the very high-fat percentage is responsible for this, or if it’s the caloric restriction or both. My best guess is that it’s the fact that I’m eating considerably less protein than I formerly have – apparently my body is really good at converting protein into sugar. (It should also be noted that I am not drinking alcohol these days, again, in the interests of looking as good as possible for the television taping. I do not know what effect this has.)
I think I have found my new “normal” low carb diet – super high fat, super low carb, moderate protein. I also think I will do perhaps three days of the Fat Fast at least a couple of times a month; clearly, my body approves. I’ve been toying with the idea of doing the Fat Fast Monday through Wednesday, then liberalizing from Thursday through Sunday. This sounds very liveable to me.
We frequently hear low carbohydrate diets referred to as “high protein diets.” I have known for a long time that this was not so, and try to remind people that properly done a low carb diet is a moderate protein/high-fat diet. Still, many people panic at the idea of eating all that fat, and still have a sneaking suspicion that they should choose mostly lean meat and vegetables.
Clearly, for my body at least, this is not so. Not that I’ve been choosing all lean meats; I’m a rib eye and pork shoulder steak kind of girl. But from here on out, I’m likely to eat 6 ounces of good fatty meat, not 12 – and to melt some butter or coconut oil over them. I will be aiming for my minimum protein requirement for the day (about 70 grams), rather than eating the 125 or so grams of protein that has been my usual intake. And I will be searching for new and creative things to do with super-fatty foods.
Thank you Atkins Fat Fast & HCG!
My blood sugar is normal! Without medication! HOORAY!
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© 2011 by Dana Carpender. Used by permission of the author. What do you think? Please send Dana your comments to Dana Carpender.
HGG is stands for Human chorionic Gonadotropin. It is actually a natural hormone produced during pregnancy to help the baby get proper nutrients. Using method of HGG is also very simple. Just place the drops under your tongue. Hold the drops for 1 minute and no eating or drinking for 15 minutes.
Spend a little time researching legitimate sources, and you’d find that hCG is too large a molecule to be absorbed through the mucosal membranes of your mouth, and gets destroyed in the stomach. Like insulin, you have to inject it. It’s a scam for making people money off your ignorance.
@John…BINGO!!! I obtain my HCG from a legitimate, Certified Physician. If you’re not obtaining the HCG in the “Injection (Syringe) form”, it is not legit.
@John and Tanya
This is not true in all cases. I did it sublingual but it was non homeopathic and had to be kept refrigerated. I have lost a minimum of 25 pounds every round and not been hungry or lost muscles. Now of course its some bad ones out there but I did my research on the legit ones.
I used the HCG drops sub-lingual and lost 30 lbs. In my opinion, based on my results, I don’t believe it’s a scam, since me and several of my church friends all did this diet and all had very significant (30lbs or more) weight loss….
I agree I lost weight with my sublingual and had no issues. My hunger left and I did not loose muscles.
Dana
I appreciated this article I believe in low carbing but after so many years of yo yo dieting I started using hcg but am always hungry was curious how many days I could fat fast while using hcg? I would appreciate your opinion thank you
Dawn
I really don’t know, but I don’t see why you couldn’t do it for the 21 days that Simeons prescribed. It’s a less rigorous diet than his. Though you might want to go to 80% fat and a little more protein if you were going to do it for that long.
I can tell you that I have found that, over the short haul, I lose almost twice as fast by fat fasting as I do on HCG — 7.5 pounds in 8 days, or almost a pound a day. On HCG I lost about a half-pound a day.
But, again, I have no hard information on how long it would be okay. I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on television. 🙂
So what you are suggesting is that it might be helpful is to stay on the drops while in phase 2 and do the fat flush? I am on the drops now in phase 2, first round and on day 5 of vlc. The fat flush looks so do-able for me but I’m scared.
karen
[email protected]
Ah. Let me clarify:
I used pharmaceutical grade injectable HCG. Yes, I gave myself a shot every morning. I don’t know if there is any oral form of genuine HCG, and if there is, whether it gets through the stomach without being destroyed. Perhaps a sublingual would work; I don’t know. But it seems to me there is a reason that OB-GYNs/fertility docs — the people who use the stuff most — use the injectable form.
As for homeopathic “HCG,” I have no belief that it will work at all. It contains not a single molecule of actual HCG — it’s expensive water.
Aww, sorry the TV show did not work out. Everyone would be interested, Dana is so real.
I did the HCG as injections, recently, from a legitimate doctor in a diet practice, and lost 27 pounds in 40 days. I did not follow their plan as well as they said, but close. I do not eat bread (gluten allergy), so skipped the Melba toast.
Atkins alone worked ok, for me once about 20 years ago… I was vegetarian and discovered I needed to lose 30 pounds before my wedding… did so with only eggs, cheese, and salads. It was easy. 30 pounds in about 45 days.
I’ve got all of the Dana Carpender cookbooks, and love them! Without her cookbooks, low carb would be impossible for me. I’d eat eggs, cheese, and salad and get bored. And OHHHH, Cheesecakes, and LC “kahlua”… I am a big fan of Dana, she is sensible about this. Her online magazine “LowcarbEzine” was the highlight of owning my computer! Great stuff!
Congratulations, Dana!
Signed,
Joy S (Indiana gal, too! – Go I.U.)
Hi Dawn, I know this thread is older. Did you try the hcg drops with the atkins fat fast? I am on drops right now and thinking of doing the fast. Any thoughts would be SO appreciated.
Karen
[email protected]
I did the hcg diet and it totally messed me up. I can’t eat ANY carbs now without gaining 3 to 5 pounds. I have been doing the low carb high fat diet for weeks now and have not had a drop of sugar. I also suspect that I am having painful cysts each month…I never had those before. I am miserable as I am 15 pounds heavier than this time last year. I got down to 114 on the hcg diet, but gained everything back and then some. I have been 118-120 pounds for the past ten years, so this is really difficult for me. I read all of these comments on websites about how hcg totally wrecked their metabolism. What do you think? Have you tried hcg only once?
No, I did a couple of rounds, and didn’t have a problem — except, of course the problem of eating that strictly for 21 days. Doesn’t seem to have harmed my metabolism at all. However, as I said, it turned out not to be great for my blood sugar.
Dana
I have been doing the HCG drops. I have lost up to 15 lbs during the 21 day VLCD. I too had the same thoughts about the Simeon protocol being low carb. I do not eat carbs if I can help it.
I tried the keto diet (I am very strict on myself while on the diet) I can loose about 5 lbs on it but it comes right back even though I stay off the carbs. Frustrated.
I too am 5’2″ and weigh about 135 to 140. I should be about 120. I try and try to get there and fail alot. I am working on my doctorate in sports man. with and emphasis in sport medicine, my bachelors was in exercise science. I know a tremendous amount about all this imformaiton and I know what the recomended Rx is for loosing weight. It does not work for me at all. More frustrated.
Do you have a day by day plan for using the hcg and keto diet?
Do you have to go the whole 21 days?
Do you follow the Simeons protocol; 2 days loading, 21 days on HCG, 3 days off HCG but still VLCD???
HELP
Treva Shott-Gozashti
How can anyone be going for a doctorate and NOT know how to spell? It is “lose ” not “loose” ..I even see nurses and more educated people constantly making this mistake, and others, causing comprehension problems and safety issues…. considering that medical mistakes are the 3rd most common cause of death in the USA, much of it dosing of medicine mistakes….how can you trust your health to people who can’t spell?
Losing with the ‘miracle’ HCG ‘drops” is due to 500 calorie limit, NOT any cause of the $$ drops…it must be injected!
Please educate yourselves first before ANY diet..try researching and learning.
Are you kidding me? You arr complaining that you weigh 118-120? How tall are you 4 feet?
Whatever anyone’s body image is to them, it’s not up to us to criticize it.
Let’s all feel successful on our journeys.
Sincerely,
Andrew
Is there any chance you could publish a small cookbook (or even a pamphlet) of fat fast recipes? I know I’d buy it!
Diana , this fascinates me I am a long term Atkins girl, I quit eating sugar over 15 years ago and eat the Atkins way , doing the induction about 4 times in the past 10 years . It changed my life , then I got pregnant with my 1st baby at the age of 48 . I gained 48 pounds during pregnancy and have lost about 35 of it . I can not seem to loose the last 15 pounds no matter what I do . I have just started a round of HCG for the 1st time . The hardest thing was to give up that creme in my coffee for the 1st 21 days . What your saying is that you lost weight anyway with HCG, even while eating high fat?? That would mean that the HCG worked on the stubborn fat on the body even while you were taking in fat , or did the Atkins way make the HCG work better , i think you are onto something big, do you have any new information on this ? Will the Fat still come off not eliminating the fat on the diet the 1st 21 days ?? I spent $350 to do the HCG and the Atkins was not working on the last 15 pounds for me so i don’t want to do this if it will mess up the HCG and the way it makes the body release fat in the stubborn areas like the stomach.
I don’t see an answer to this, but I’m extremely interested. I’ve done the HCG once before and I know it works, but allowed myself, during a year of stress and major changes, to eat unrestrainedly and not exercise, with the expected results, so I’m trying it again. However, I’m having a really hard time mentally with the low fat aspect of the diet this time around (specifically, I’m constantly craving cheese in any and all forms). So far I’ve been on 7 days and lost 8 lbs so it’s going great, but a minumum of 16 more days fighting these urges is painful to contemplate. Being able to add some fat back in during Phase 2 rather than waiting for Phase 3 would be a huge help for me. Did you try it and what were your results?
I could not do without the cheese and the heavy creme I was use to as and Atkins Girl . After being on the Hcg diet for 23 days without the fat …I lost 23 pounds …I was so happy with that the next 23 days I added the fat back and ate Atkins style and still lost another 10 pounds , with my experience Atkins low carb and hcg go hand in hand and work well together.
I stumbled upon this while doing the 40 day hcg protocol, with 1000 calories/day (I aim for 800 and figure I screw up from time to time, mostly from fat. I figured the hcg plan works on caloric deprivation, not the specifics of protein vs. fat, and strict carb avoidance. So why wouldn’t it work better to just make it largely fat, to get into a deeper ketosis and avoid gluconeogensis? So, that’s what I’m doing. I actually haven’t had that much trouble finding things to eat. My rule is to aim for 200 calories – I’ve actually been surprised that, for the first few days, I was falling short since I wasn’t getting some of the measurements right. For instance, I thought 10 olives would work, then I found out I actually needed 20. Here are some of my typical meals:
1/4 cup of macadamia nuts
GG crispbread with lots of butter (I’m eyeballig the “lots” to be about 200)
2 tablespoons of coconut oil mixed with raw cocao butter
8 ounces of plain Greek yogurt (if I can find it, they all seem to only carry low fat) with a bit of wheat germ, Stevia, green tea extract, and iodine)
Dinner is my protein meal: chicken broth and vegetable broth with 200 calories of shrimp
I was concerned about Atkins saying to only do this for a few days, and me doing it for 4, so I have two break days – one weekday I eat a large meat meal, and one weekend day I eat a carb-up meal. Both of these meals are combined with a day of IF, and they must be 2 days apart.
Very interesting. What have your results been?
Hi Dana – can i eat hazelnuts on the fat fast? I found hazelnut butter with hazelnut oil in it and it says it’s got a 80% fat content with 1.2g carbs per tablespoon. so a meal for me would be about 3tbs. would this be ok? Or should i stick to macadamia and peacans?
If you could let me know asap so i can do my pre xmas fat fast that would be great! 🙂
So, regarding the protocol I posted above – it didn’t work at all. The steak days were fine; but a cheat meal once a week set me back exactly one week every time, so I was just spinning my wheels. I think the problem is combining a cheat day with the hcg – as in, once off the program and maintaining for a while, a cheat here and there, or once a week, shouldn’t hurt, but doing it with hcg just causes massive rebound. I decided that I needed to moderate and liberalize the eating, but in combination, have no cheats of any sort – including steak day. So my compromise was to increase the calories to 1000 by increasing the size of dinner, adding some steamed vegetables with butter or the like, and increasing the range of dinners. My favorite turned out to be squid cooked in the oven with macademia nut oil. The results – doing that for 20 days (no way 40 days is going to work with this level of strictness) it came to 3 pounds per week. That’s about twice what I can lose with normal low-carb dieting. Not great, but I feel it’s healthier and less likely to screw with my blood sugar than the traditional hcg diet.
Here’s what I notice, though – on a traditional low-carb diet, it takes me about 3 days to get started, during which I feel lousy and don’t lose weight, since I’m not in ketosis. This goes to 2 days with low calories and using coconut oil for MCT. With hcg, though, it takes less than 1 day to get into deep, deep ketosis (dark purple/black on the sticks) and there’s no loss of energy or headaches. So in addition to a rate that’s twice as fast, I also start losing faster. Plus, I’ve tried low-calorie, low carb diets before without hcg – I couldn’t stick to it as I felt so miserable. So the hcg definitely helps.
I’m finishing up a cycle now, then I plan to go more traditional low-carb, with higher calories, plus fruit, milk, and some sprouted grains, since I plan to compete in the Crossfit Open this year and need to get ready for that. After the Opens, I want to try another round of hcg, but combine it with MIC injections.
I’m also curious, maybe for the round after that, about doing a milk fast with hcg – half a gallon of raw whole milk a day gives 720 calories. Clearly, this would require vitamin supplements and MIC, but I wonder how it would feel. I’ve done semi-milk fasts before, milk during the day and a solid meal at night; this would be a variation.
Very interesting. I’ve been considering doing another round of HCG/Fat Fasting. I don’t feel lousy Fat Fasting, but I am a little hungry the first couple of days as the ketones build up. Too, I find that, as Simeons said, with HCG the fat loss seems to be from all the right places — in my case, my abdomen. (Gee, a girl with insulin trouble being apple-shaped. There’s a shock.)
Guess it’s time to go see my HCG/low carb friendly doc, huh?
Some questions: Did you still do 1000 calories WITH the hCG? or did you stick to the 500 calories? Did you try another round doing all fat fast days?
I’m curious – just watched FAT HEAD and it got me thinking that for my body, more fat and less carbs might be better for me even with the hCG.
I do 1000 with hcg. Lower is never going to work for me.
WOW. I am so thrilled to have found this thread. I am a HUGE supporter and believer in HIGH fats and Fat Fasting. I am currently in the prowl for any and all info regarding combining it with the HCG protocol. I know it is currently forbidden to have fat on the HCG diet but given what we now know about the body and macronutrients and the brain, etc. isn’t baffling that this protocol hasn’t been updated!!! I would LOVE to combine these two methods. I am curious about two things:
Is the body able to stabilize properly after using fat fasting during hcg?
IS the fat being lost truly the abnormal fat and not muscle, structural fat and water?
Anyone know any more on this??
combining these two methods would REVOLUTIONIZE the HCG protocol.
Hi Lala and Dana (and anyone else doing LCHF or Atkins + HCG)
Has anyone continued on with this type of diet? I’m on my first round of hcg and almost done, but I believe in the low carb/high fat way of eating.
Updates on your progress good or bad.. Suggestions, ideas.. All welcome! Thanks guys!
Mel from Alberta Canada
I had been doing hcg drops for 14 days loosing 13 lbs. I decided to test the fat fast after watching loseit4ever vlogs and reading her blogs. I did 5 meals of 1oz. each of macadamia nuts days 1&2. Lost 2 lbs. Then found other info about eggs and mayonaise, so I added two eggs and 2 tsp. mayo replacing one nut meal. Lost 2 lbs. Then tried 200 calories of bacon, two deviled eggs, 2 mac nut meals and one 200 calorie serving of chocolate mouse.
You’re wasting your money with hCG drops. Research it…it’s a scam. Has to be injected. Period. Any benefit you got was likely just the diet and placebo effect.
Stumbled on this today as I am now starting HCG again. I just lost about 40 lbs and would like to lose another 40. I finished up my last round in early March and am on the 3rd day of Phase II. Having a hard time starting back up and was thinking about following this “atkins style” version. Yesterday I ate a grilled chicken caesar salad and a rather large burger with blue cheese for dinner (I did eat my apple/orange and melba toast as well). Still lost but figured I’m still losing water from Phase I. I will forgo the melba today and perhaps the fruit.
Also thinking about adding some cardio this time around as I normally do not work out while on the 500 cals. I’ll give it a try thru the weekend and see how it goes. I usually lose at least .5 to 1 lb a day on HCG so I should know quickly if this is doomed to fail 🙂
Dana,
Have you had any trouble stabilizing after doing the combination HCG/Fat Fast?
Did you do the full 23-day round with a few days of Fat Fast in a week?
Thanks.
Wow, the original HCG diet called for zero fat on phase 2. He said you want to starve the body of carbs and fats so it would burn your body fat. He talked about HGC not working for some people because their makeup or body moisturizing lotions contained fat in the oils. He would kick people off the program if they cheated twice during phase 2. The originator was Dr. Simeons. He Started working on it in the 1950’s and eventually set up a clinic to treat over weight people. He wrote the book ‘Pounds and Inches’ which can be found on the internet, that details his treatment.
Lastly I’m sure a lot of people know this but just in case. You should not be hungry at all on phase 2 if you are using real HCG. There were people who thought they were but were starving on the low calories because their HCG wasn’t legit.
Hi Dana, thanks for your fat fast cookbook, i purchased it for Kindle.
My diet issues parallel yours. I am a type II *very* IR diabetic, who eats very low carb, high fat, moderate protein, now that I’ve learned that’s what works best for me. I also found that the hcg protocol diet made my blood sugar numbers kind of wonky, even though I never eat the breadstick or fruit. But worse, the switch from the low fat of protocol P2 to eating fats again in P3 caused me gallbladder pain. I’ve done a number of Rx hcg rounds, and experienced bad gallbladder pain each time I entered P3. I know it’s the stretch of eating hardly any fat in protocol P2 that sets me up for this pain, because when I eat my normal high fat, low carb, moderate protein diet, I never experience any gallbladder issues.
So therefore, I’ve been researching the possibility of doing fat fast with hcg, so as to keep my body used to fat and my gallbladder happy. I use fat fast now frequently as a maintenance tool, and usually do 600-700 calories, rather than 1000-1200, so would have no problem doing that for P2.
My concern, and question to you is, did you have trouble stabilizing and maintaining the weight lost in a FF P2?
I’m starting a new round tomorrow, with only about 15 more pounds to go to hit my goal (started at 310. Goal is 155.) I don’t want to mess up my stabilization. But also don’t want to put my gallbladder at any more risk.
I’m not sure how my FF/P2 is going to look… I worry about insufficient protein if I try to do it every day. Perhaps alternating days of protocol and FF? or alternating 2 days FF, 1 day protocol?
I see as recently as late Feb, you posted wanting to do another hcg/ff round. Did that happen, and how were your results? Would you like to compare notes?
BTW (particularly other readers mentioning 23 day rounds) I always do at least a 30 day hcg round, as I find it very hard to stabilize after shorter rounds. I am not alone in that, the hcg board I am on is where I learned that longer rounds = easier stabilization, as many found that to be true.
Thanks,
Karen
I am doing a macadamia nut day after hcg – second round. I haven’t been able to stabilize in phase 3, gaining 5 lbs. i’ve been eating approx 120 cal per day, granny smith apples occasionally, green veggies and protein. I feel hungry all the time and try to just eat more protein if i can’t control myself. I also started eating ‘yes to cookies’ – macaroon, chocolate, ginger. I think he cookies are what has thrown me off, but I don’t understand really, because they are very low fat, super low carb if any and no sugar. I think i’ve been just over eating, but when i add it up, i’m truelly not eating more than 1500 cal max, almost no carbs, sugars or starches at all. If i do eat any carbs & sugars, it is in the apples and/or cookies. So, I’m confused about why I’m gaining… So, I’m trying the fat fast today to see if i can correct it. I dont know how i will stabilize after the fat fast though considering my issues thus far. I tried a ‘chicken thigh’ day a few weeks back (7 fatty chicken thighs + tons of water + apple cider vinegar). It worked great and then i tried it again and it back fired on me the second time i tried it – gaining only a pound though… Which was surprising since i felt like i had eaten a ton of chicken. I also tried steak days multiple times which left me ravenous without much reward the next day. So, my question is… If the fat fast on macadami nuts works for me, how do i stabilize after? I may have already messed up the day as 1000 calories of macadamia nuts doesnt satisfy my hunger. Today i probably ate 1400 cal of mac nut, coffee with whipped cream and approx 50 cal of grilled chicken. Hmmm… Any suggestions?
Does anyone know if HCG is safe for a 15 year old female? My daughter has always battle with weight issues. She is about 5’8 and weights approximately 260lbs. It’s hard for her to diet, but looses so very slowly when she does that she gets discouraged.
I understand you want to help your daughter, but i would be wary of adding hormones to a young girl’s system whos hormones are already likely to be screwy as hell due to the normal changes of puberty! I would HIGHLY recommend a low carb (by that i mean LOW, below 50 grams, closer to 20-30 and all of that from leafy vegitables, you can find lists all over the place, but generally if it is a starchy root veg, or something like peas or corn, its a no no, NO fruit, except maybe small amounts of berries when she gets close to her goal weight, and ABSOLUTELY NO STARCH OR SUGAR, avoiding white foods usually gets you started on that point.) HIGH FAT, the LAST thing you want to do is reduce fat on a low carb diet, you have to have SOMETHING to keep you from starving, and fat is brain food, and will teach your body to burn fat for fuel. A good ratio is something like ten percent or less of your food (by percentage of calories) should be low carb veggies, thirty percent should be protein, and SIXTY percent should be fat. This is a healthy (despite what shills of the agriculture industry, aka the ADA, AHA, and other alphabet soup members of the gov have taught you AND your doctors to believe) SUSTAINABLE way of eating, NOT a diet, and results in achieving a healthy weight level in an appropriate time. It isnt a crash diet, or something that will leave her feeling hungry, self disgusted, and hopeless. There are lots of good websites on line to help her (and it wouldnt hurt you or any other member of your family either, as a matter of fact, best way to help ALL of you, overweight or not, is to ditch the carbs for the WHOLE HOUSE, and stop fearing fat! (in your food, or, to be honest, even on your body!! Teach her to love herself and to eat for her health cause carbs are poison, let the weight take care of itself!! you should BOTH watch a fairly short, kinda funny documentary called “fathead” on youtube, it is NOT a low carb movie, but it will help you understand WHY this WOE works, even if the author didnt understand it himself while he was making it! Im all over the place here because its late and my brain doesnt function well when im tired, but please, for your daughters sake, check out low carb, high fat way of eating. Above and beyond weight loss, which is incidental and not really that important in the grand scheme of things, this way of eating can correct or control high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, alzheimers, seizures, and any number of other health problems, most of which were created by the current low fat, high carb way weve all been pushed into eating in the last sixty or seventy years… fathead will tell you more about THAT as well. Check it out. OH did i mention that low carb, high fat food is delicious and filling??? And that you dont have to count calories or pretty much anything else as long as you stay away from bad food? And you can have bacon? big selling point for me LOL.
I’ve always wondered if I could continue to use my HCG injections along with This way of eating and lose, well I started on Wednesday april 9 weighing in at 193 today two days later I am at 187.6
Oh, Sharon, please tell me what you actually ate for those couple of days where you lost so well! Have you been able to continue losing fairly well since then, though?
I’m on hcg right now & wanting to try fat fast in combination with it, too!
Btw, yes, I’ve done atkins induction, fat fast & strict hcg protocol (at different times) in the past.. they all work. Hcg was the only one that got the resistant fat off my tummy and thigh areas, so I’ve been trying it again, but can’t hack the cravings this time for some reason. That’s why I thought of the fat fast in combo with hcg injections.. I could really use some avocado! Ha! And thanks for sharing your experiences!
I am testing this theory as of now. I am on day 2 and have lost 1.4 pounds so far. No loading. Doing atkins induction. 🙂
Follow my progress at http://michellewhite03.blogspot.com/
Hi Michelle, Can u update us on your progress? I’m so curious how everyone made out. I’m all about low carb/ high fat. And also on HCG.
thanks!
Mel from Alberta
Mel from Alberta, Seems we are the only two from 2015 comments. I did HCG for 40 days last fall, used the drops under my tongue and was hungry almost everyday. Lost 23 pounds and 30 inches, but had to take a family trip during my first round of maintenance and didn’t stabilize well. I gained back about 10 pounds and 10 inches so I am currently doing the Atkins induction waiting for my friend to get here so we can do another round of HCG. Plan to use the fat fast if I get stuck.
So do you use the HCG and Atkins phase one induction or just with the fat fast? there doesn’t seem to be much information on combining these two diets. Looking for additional information.
Just curious if there are any updates – how is everyone doing with the HCG/Fat Fast combination?
Sharon.. i know you had an old post, using HCG along with high fat, low carb or atkins and it started to work for you, would love it if you could let us know if it worked in the end!! Thanks much!! I want to help my 15 year old.. and HCG is too restrictive alone.. for her, thanks!!
I just started injections 4 days ago and knew I would be doing HFLC diet instead of the prescribed diet because I had success with HFLC in the past. In 4 days I have lost 7lbs. I also decided to become a vegetarian two weeks prior so I am doing high fat vegetarian its not bad… and pretty easy. I eat between 600-900 calories depending on if I am hungry. I am hungry I eat and when I am not I don’t eat. My source of protein are eggs, hemp seed, and Sunwarrior protein shakes (which is vegan/vegetarian). I don’t use the shake often.. only if my protein is low. I eat all kinds of vegetables that I crave… like cabbage and kimchi. I fry my veggies in oil… walnut or avocado. The only fruit I have is avocados so far. I know I can add berries but I am not craving anything sweet. I also eat nori seaweed snacks if I feel like something crunchy like chips… they are SO good… the brand is Gimme and its organic. Anyway, I am down quite a bit in 4 days. I assume it will slow down but maybe not??? I am hoping to get down 100lbs. I have done it before… 116 actually with diet and exercise but I could not maintain the rigor of that lifestyle so I am trying something different that I think I can maintain long term.
I did HCG a few years ago. I used powdered HCG from a pharmacy, reconstituted it, and did it sublingually. When I loaded eating carbs I gained 6-8 lbs on two load days, was hungry the first few days, and was super strict. I lost well but had trouble stabilizing because it was strictly by Simeone and he was sorely lacking in P3 info.
The next time was a couple years later and I loaded for two days LCHF and lost during the load days, was not hungry (had macs a few times) and stabilized perfectly.
I lost about the same – first round was 36 days and the second was 24.
I just started taking sublingual HCG yesterday. And I’m doing a liquid fast. I feel & look great, but I always do when I do a liquid fast even for just a few days. I don’t know if the HCG is working – or even how it’s supposed to work. Also, I don’t weigh myself – I can just tell that my clothes are loosening … but, again, don’t know if it’s my liquid fast or HCG or a combo of both! Stay tuned … will update in a week.
I did the HCG drops under the tongue last fall and lost 23 pounds. Went to California to visit family while in second half of maintenance and gained back 7 pounds, which I have been fighting with for 7 months. I would like to do HCG again but don’t want to do the load days because I have trouble stopping the loading (lol) . Has anyone tried the HCG without the load days and started with the Atkins fat flush?
I am very new to all this and gave some questions. I just started the hcg injections and my Dr has me doing under 50 carbs thou I have been averaging 20 to 25 and wants me doing over 125 protein which have been averaging 140. I guess I am just confused since everything I read on hcg is 500 caliries.
Hi everyone I think that combining HCG and LCHF is the best way to use HCG. I lost 120 pounds using HHcg then switched to LCHF and I have now been doing injections and LCHF for 8 days and I have lost 11 pounds! I have searched and searched for information on combining these two diets and have not been able to find too much info out there.
I’ve read thru all the posts and it’s all very interesting! 2011 I did 3 rounds of hcg and lost over 70 lbs. 2015 was a tough year and I gained almost 30 back… between stress and prednisone it was hard to not eat all the salty carb foods!!
I’m now starting another round of sublingual and really want to combine the LCHF with hcg. Can’t hurt to try as I’m only a week in p2.
I’m going to take all the info here and research more on these fat fasts and add in some IF 2-3 days per week.
Good luck who ever else is trying this!!
Can you share what you eat for a day & what results are now?
Hi Everyone,
I too agree that HCG injections combined with a VLC/HF diet should in theory work very well. Even without HCG, being on a very low carb/moderate protein/ high fat diet your body will switch from burning carbs ( glycogen) for energy to using fat and Ketones for energy. If the basis of the HCG protocal is that the HCG helps your body metabolize and burn fat more easily, it stands to reason that switching to a high fat/ ketogenic diet would only help this proccess along. I have been thinking about this idea for a few weeks but couldnt find much info on the subject of combining HCG with a ketogenic diet. This was the first thread Ive found.
Im on HCg injections now and have been wanting to try this. I will post how it goes!
How did the hcg diet go for you while eating low carb / high fat and mod protein????
Hey Guys, Tony from Port Moody, BC. Can’t believe I stumbled onto this site. I”m 37 and currently on P2 of the HCG diet myself. I’m using the pharmaceutical grade injections. This is my third time doing the protocol. The first two times (in 2012) was extremely successful (I lost 80lbs), however I lost way too much weight and had to gain 20lbs back as per my Doctor.
Since then I tried the protocol in 2013 for a brief period and then took a break, but never continued. Had very lack luster results from it. Got married in July of 2014 and during our honeymoon put on some weight and had been gaining slowly since. I finally stopped at 227lbs. Gained back more than I weight before. So here I am on P2 and had been doing ok for a while. Down to 204lbs (started January 21, 2016). I’ve platued this week though and have been a bit stressed about it. Have also had trouble sleeping.
Getting to my point however, I’ve researched the ketogenic diet extensively and have even tried it. Lost a few pounds here and there, but my problem was eating way too many calories on the diet. I know the diet works. Have read many books on the ketogenic diet and have always wondered the same thing about the Ketogenic diet and HCG. If HCG burns fat easily then combining it with a high fat diet would make it that much easier. However finding any information on combining these two diets, much less results is next to impossible. This is the first thread I found that has people questioning the theory that you can’t have fats on HCG.
Two weeks into the HCG diet I had what I considered to be a fatty meal while visiting my mother. Riced cauliflower and tandoori bbq’d chicken as well as chicken chop suey. I definitely ate more than I was supposed to and for sure thought I was going to gain the next day. Except I dropped 2lbs the next day. Which has been bugging me since. I felt the chicken and chop suey had more fat than I was allowed and yet I still dropped which is why I’ve been thinking about combining HCG with high fats.
Anyone else have experience in combining the two? Results?
Today is my first day of the VLCD with injections and i was going to try to stick with the original protocol with the limited food list and only 500 calories. But i am extremely interested to hear that people have had such great results with modifying the original plan. I did HCG injections about 6 yeas ago and lost 30 Pounds, well unfortunately i have gained 20 of it back. I had good results with HCG about .50 pound loss a day, but i really hated how strict the food list was. That is why i have put this off for so long, we lead a very active life 3 kids all in sports and doing HCG makes it tough as we are such a active family, so i really have to plan 3 weeks that is fairly quiet and not a ton of functions.
I would love to hear more info on the lchf diet while taking injections
Dana – Any updates on your thoughts now combining HCG with LCHF? I’m on Day 36 of a 40 day round of injections and have used two fat fasts to break stalls with success (it’s pretty common to use them in the HCG world). I’m considering extending my round and doing another 30 days of injections to lose the final 10lbs I need to. I’ve read a ton of info and know about Keto/LCHF extensively. I’m trying to figure out how it would work to increase fat and still burn it via the HCG. Dr. Simmeon’s original protocol was based on the idea of accessing that visceral fat, which it has done for me…..but I’m stalling.
Anyone have an update of combining HCG with LCHF I would love to hear it. I need to decide if I want to extend my round and go rogue to crush these last 10lbs. Wish there was more info about combining these two things, because the real HCG injections absolutely work. Thanks!
Can somebody help me know exactly what to eat daily and just how much. This info is amazing and im starting injections tomorrow. I could use some direction and wisdom. Thank you
My experience: I used the HCG drops (hcg1234 from amazon). They worked very well for me during Phase 2. I lost 17 lbs in the first 3 weeks. The 3rd week I stalled for a day so I did a Fat Fast that day in which I only ate 5 meals of 1 oz Macadamia nuts (total of 1000 calories), I still took the HCG drops. I did that for 6 days, did not feel like I was starving. The fat from the nuts actually made me fill fuller. I lost 6 lbs that last week. (I only did 4 weeks of Phase 2). During the 72 hrs of ending phase 2, when you’re not supposed to take HCG, I ate what the protocol allowed. Now in Phase 3, I went up on my calories to 900 from phase 2, 500 calories, basically doubling up what I ate in Phase 2. By doing that, I found myself actually gaining. WHAT THE HECK?! I did one ‘steak day’ and it worked, but I didn’t want to keep buying steaks every time I gained, so I had to find an another way, I knew one was out there, just have to find it. So, after a week of researching, I FOUND OUT WHAT WORKED FOR ME! I’M SOOO HAPPY THAT I CAN FINALLY STABILIZE. What works for me it that if I eat 1500 calories every day where at least 90% of it is fat, I won’t gain! I keep a daily food journal of everything I eat. An example of one my meal plan: Coffee w/ 1 tbsp of coconut oil, creamer and stevia; 2 scrambled eggs cooked in 1 tbsp of butter, 1 oz of macadamia nuts, green salad with egg salad on top (3 large boiled eggs mixed with 3 tbsp of mayo), 1 oz cream cheese on top of celery stalk, 30g of pumpkin seeds, 1 apple, homemade bone broth with an egg and water, water, water. This has worked for me, all cravings are gone, I am not hungry, in fact, sometimes, I have to force myself to eat just to keep up to 1500 calories and every morning I weigh myself. NO WEIGHT GAIN!!
I hope that this helps someone.
This is a very interesting blog. I am currently on Hcg injections week 1. I am guessing that the science behind this should be supported. I am cutting out the fruit (except for berries) and adding the fat. I am going to keep it at 800 cal but I am thinking I will lose more and feel fuller. Thanks for posting this. I am following the ketogenic protocol for macro percentages. I will let you know how it goes.
Hi! Just wondering if you could post an update.
I had been following a LCHF diet of about 800 calories and lost 45 lbs before i hit a plateau. I have about 40 more to lose so i’m trying HCG injections. i’m in the first week of P2 and i’m so hungry. I’d like to go back to at least having my bulletproof coffee in the mornings. It just doesn’t seem right to cut out ALL fat. my nurse said i could continue taking fish oil supplements.
Please let me know if it is working for you. Thanks!
If you found this thread on Fat Fasts and HCG, you should have a look at Irwin Cohen’s book called The Hippocratic Diet”. All about how to Fat Fast
Hi Dana,
I tried doing both at a time but it was difficult to meet the conditions of both. I found some valuable stuff to share https://purehcgdietdrops.com/atkins-diet-vs-hcg-diet/.
Do you have any results of taking HCG Drops with Atkins?