HCGChica’s Little Pre-hCG Diet Thing

Note: Totally optional. Not a part of the original protocol at all.

This is not some really involved cleanse or 2 month thing and doesn’t involve buying any special fibers or herbs. I’m sure there would probably be great benefits to doing this, but I find it just ends being feeling like a little too much to add to a protocol that’s already fairly involved, and that can lead to simply never starting because of overwhelm.

Basically for a week to 10 days prior to loading on hCG, I not only reduce my carb intake drastically, I also purposefully eat a higher fat diet.

This may be totally unnecessary for some of you, and may not be healthy for some of you- this I cannot tell you- you will have to check with your doctor and use common sense based on your own individual circumstances.

For me, this has been a GREAT thing to do prior to hCG and has really helped my experience with hCG go more smoothly for the last 3 rounds.

Why This Was Good for Me to Do Before Starting hCG

I have what I call a sugar addiction. Really and truly. It’s easier for me to admit now, because one, it’s under control, and two, once I started talking about it, I discovered there are LOT of other people out there who resonated with me and told me they are in the same boat.

When I initially did the hCG diet for the first time, I simply started the diet like I had read to do.

I experienced some pretty severe carb/sugar withdrawals. Others have reported feeling extremely crappy, flu-like during the first week of the diet as their body detoxes and goes through withdrawals.

While this phenomenon may not be completely avoidable, my own experience was this effect was MUCH less of a problem by doing my little pre-hCG diet thing.

Basically, your first week on the diet can feel MUCH easier in some cases by doing this.

The feelings of carb withdrawal are not nearly as strong when they take place BEFORE starting hCG because you can be eating more calories, and higher fat, during that time, which I found really helps to mitigate the symptoms- whereas, if you wait to be on hCG to go through that, the symptoms feel a lot more pronounced because basically, there’s nothing to buffer it – no fat, no other foods, no calories.

It’s just you and hardly any carbs, hanging out together for the first time.

It’s helpful to have something to comfort you while you adjust to this new relationship, like some more calories from other sources like fat, which you can do before hCG starts.

2 Things You Can Achieve Doing This:

a. To clear your system of carbs so that your body will enter ketosis as soon as you start the VLCD (very low calorie diet) portion.
Why it’s good to be in ketosis: being in ketosis means your body has switched from using carb intake for fuel to using your fat for fuel. Being in ketosis causes you to feel not hungry. HCG will do this for you anyway, but getting into ketosis right away as well will make the first few days of the protocol while your body is adjusting to the diet much easier.

b. For anyone with strong daily sugar cravinge, binge habits, or candida issues, I have found this to be the quickest and most painless way to eliminate these cravings. It is specifically the high fat while eliminating all sugar entirely that cuts the cravings quickly and more painlessly. Key point here folks!

How to Do It

a. Eat low carb, high fat

b. No sugar or starches

c. Do not worry about calorie intake

d. Foods to eat (just examples):

High fat meats: bacon, pork chops sauteed in butter, lambchops, chicken thighs with skin (or chicken breast with butter)
Veggies: low carb veggies doused with olive oil or butter- brussel sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, avocado, squash,
snap peas, snow peas, mushrooms, fennel, bell pepper, green beans, etc.
Dairy: eggs, cheese, heavy whipping cream, sour cream butter, etc.
Sweeteners: Stevia, Erythritol, Xylitol, as needed.
Baked good ingredients as alternatives: flaxseed meal, almond meal (in moderation), coconut flour

e. Foods to avoid:

All fruit (if you are desperate berries are a good lower carb fruit)
Higher carb veggies: potatoes, yams, sweet potatoes, carrots, peas
Grains: Wheat, Oats, Barley, even sprouted grains, rice, corn, etc.
Beans: hummus, baked beans, lentils, split peas, refried beans, black beans, etc.
Nuts: These are higher carb than you might think- small amount okay in moderation
Sugar: None of the obvious sugar- white sugar, maple syrup, honey, etc. You are smart you
know what I mean.

So remember, this isn’t some instruction from some medical facility or some highly researched experiment – this is just something I tried on my last few rounds that I felt led to a much better result for me personally in multiple ways, and I’m sharing it in case you choose to try it – if you do and you feel it worked for you well, I’d love to hear from you through the contact me page on my site!

Importants to Consider if You Do This

• Weight loss at the start of the hCG diet may be different as in appearing lower.

Why:

When you start any diet pretty much, there is almost always a fairly significant loss of weight on the scale that first week or so, after which it slows down. The reason for this whoosh of weight loss is usually because a person is losing several pounds of water weight. Water weight is gained and lost fairly easily.

That’s why in some cases I don’t really believe that you are losing less fat during the following weeks of the hCG diet- I think the first week is just inflated losses on the scale because of the water weight woosh.

So the beginning of the hCG protocol is no different than other diets in this regard. Between whatever you were eating prior to the hCG protocol if it was not too healthy, combined with the loading phase where some may eat a high volume of foods laden with carbs and sugar (although you might want to check out my post on what clean loading is on hCG and why I do it) often times a person has a very high amount of weight loss in the first week on the diet – sometimes 7-12 pounds.

If you do this pre-hCG diet thing, it’s likely that you may lose this water weight during this little pre-hCG period of time instead of when actually on hCG – so that by the time you begin the hCG protocol, you won’t have as much water weight to be losing- making it appear as if your first week losses are less than the average person. But is that true? Not really right? While your scale losses may be lower, the difference is simply that you already lost the water weight pre-hCG and now the weight you are losing is fat, which does not come off nearly as quickly as water.

I hope that makes sense. Just wanted to clear up any confusion that may occur if you lose 3-5 lbs less the first week than what you see everyone else losing and think somehow doing the pre-hCG diet thing is less effective. It’s more likely that what I explained above is what is going on.

• If you are not addicted to sugar and have been eating pretty healthfully or eating a very low carb diet for a long period of time prior to starting hCG, this may not be the best choice for you.

Why:

I’ve been doing more reading recently about the role that healthy carbs play in healthy hormone levels. Enough time has passed now of people doing the Paleo diet and Low carb diets for some discoveries to have been made that, especially for women, chronic low carb diets with not enough healthy carbs from time to time at least, can contribute to adrenal fatigue, thyroid hormone problems and other disregulation of hormones. Some very good explanation of this I read recently in the book The Fast Metabolism Diet – the focus of her book is on healing the metabolism, so I don’t necessary believe all that she says would apply to every situation, but she has some interesting insights into how not having carbs as part of your diet some of the time, can over time, slow down your metabolism because of it’s effect on your hormones.

So that said, while this pre-hCG Diet thing is only for a week to ten days long, I just want to mention if any of you are starting this protocol after already being on a low carb diet for quite some time, it’s possible that some carbs before you start the diet may actually benefit you – you might want to just read her book for more info on that.

I think the vast majority of us beginning this diet are coming from a place of poor eating habits, in which case, I still feel clearing your system out a bit for a week before starting can be a great jumpstart.

But you know I always do my best to try to cover all scenarios so that EACH of you has the information you need to make the best choice in your own situation.

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