The hCG diet plan is a great protocol for boosting fat loss in a hurry. However, avoiding the repeat use of it should be the goal. Too many folks fall back on old lifestyle choices, regain weight, and then depend on hCG to rescue them. Here are a few simple steps to keep this from happening again.
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Step 1: Eat Less Often
Whatever amount of food that you feel you need in a day, get it in fewer meals. Every time you eat you spike up your blood glucose and insulin levels. This is not bad all by itself. It is just that your body needs time for using up blood sugar and letting insulin return to its baseline level. That return normally takes at least two hours after a meal. Moreover, as insulin levels decline, growth hormone levels increase. This is particularly important for lots of metabolic processes, particularly fat metabolism and muscle repair. Growth hormone peaks out at about 4-5 hours after a meal.
The ideal time between meals is therefore at least 4 hours. If you snack in between meals, you undermine all the good that your insulin and growth hormone can do for you based on your eating pattern. By the way, that nonsense that you might have heard about eating frequent meals all day long to ‘keep the furnace fueled’ is just that: nonsense.
Step 2: Go Low Carb
You really don’t have to go ultralow on your carb intake. Just cut back. In fact, if you merely cut out processed carbs – pastas, pastries, breads, sugary foods and drinks, etc. – you will be way ahead when it comes to fat metabolism. It’s not that hard to do. This might take some time, but it is WAY worth it.
Step 3: Avoid Disastrous Food Combinations
While you are on your way to going low-carb, make absolutely sure that any carbs you eat are not also consumed with fats or oils. This is a disastrous combination due to its negative impact on your liver metabolism. The liver is like a traffic cop for fat metabolism. It can handle fats very well, or it can handle carbs very well (if not too much). The combination, though, sends the liver into fat storage mode.
If you are not sure what this means, just realize that the worst offenders are deep-fried and high-carb. I am sure that you know what they are.
Eliminate Ruinous Food Ingredients
The top three ingredients to avoid are:
- High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) or any derivative of it
- Aspartame (Nutrasweet)
- MSG in all its nefarious disguises
HFCS is fruit sugar gone awry. Your liver is incapable of metabolizing it like it would any other sugar. That means that fructose converts almost immediately into fat, which goes either into storage or into circulating triglycerides. Neither is a good outcome.
If you only get fructose from eating whole fruits, that is fine. The combination of fiber and other nutrients in whole fruits mitigates the negative impact of fructose in fruit.
Aspartame is simply the worst toxin ever foisted on the public as a food additive. Never, ever let it pass your lips. This is a book length subject all by itself. Fortunately, one of my university colleagues, Prof. Woodrow Monte, has written that book. See more details at his website on this topic at While Science Sleeps. WARNING: This information will keep you up at night.
MSG is derived from a normal amino acid (glutamic acid) that occurs in every protein. When proteins are broken down into their component amino acids, depending on the process, ionic glutamic acid pairs up with sodium to become monosodium glutamate. It is used as a flavor enhancer in thousands of foods.
Detecting MSG on an ingredients label almost takes a degree in chemistry. You can see a more complete explanation of its dangers and where you will find it on the Dr. Mercola website here.
For our purposes here, one of the side effects of consuming MSG is weight gain. Even it that weren’t the case, it is still an absolutely horrible food additive.
Take Some Action
You may still feel the need to do the hCG diet plan now and again. That’s fine. However, if you simply take some action on the above steps, you will slow down and even reverse any weight problem that you have right now. If and when you do the protocol again, these steps will help you be more successful during and after you do so.
All the best with your hCG diet plan,
Dr. D