Original email for context: I am almost done with my first round and have lost 17.6 pounds so far. I don’t have much left to get back to where I feel comfortable. Can I continue to drop weight without using HCG? By making sure I have a calorie deficit and adding exercise back into my routine? Or do I need to do another round of HCG to lose the pounds?
I love this idea. What I think is that you can always try it, and if for some reason you don’t seem to be getting anywhere, you can then do a short round of hCG and I will mention a few ideas to customize the diet to yourself when so close to goal like that.
As far as methods for weight loss without hCG, please see my post:
5 Ways to Lose Weight Without hCG
FAVORITE WAY = INTERMITTENT FASTING
My favorite most effective method that I discuss in more detail in that article is intermittent fasting. It’s a great way to lose fat gradually when you are close to goal because it keeps your body guessing and prevents you from metabolic slowdown because you are interspersing fasting days with very few calories, with many regular days of plenty of food and calories which makes it easier for your body not to resist you so you can lose those last pounds.
CALORIE DEFICIT & EXERCISE DISCUSSION
In addition to what I mention in that article, definitely calorie deficit as you mentioned would be required. The exercise would be good too – just know that exercise causes water retention so it may mess with your scale results a little- but as long as you KNOW this, you can trust you are doing the right thing. If you exercise while trying to lose weight, you want to be more strategic about your calorie intake and make sure you are still eating enough calories and protein so that your calorie deficit is not too great.
What I wouldn’t suggest is doing intense exercise 5-7 days a week and undereating by too much. In theory, this would lead to excellent efficient fat loss when you look at the numbers, but in reality what seems to happen is that your body feels too stressed out by all that you’re doing, it’s not getting enough fuel or support for the intense workouts, and so it starts resisting and conserving fat to protect itself. That’s just how I’ve seen it go. If you are doing intense exercise, I’d keep your calorie deficit more minimal overall, and on recovery days you can make it more drastic.
Also keep in mind, which you may have read before, that exercise is not really the proper/effective tool for weight loss. Exercise is more about either building muscle and using your body. When you exercise, your body is going to want and need more sustenance, not less. So exercise = building, not reducing.
The right/effective tool for efficient weight loss is really the calorie restriction aspect. It’s the changes to diet that create the most change on the scale.
This is not to say to skip exercise- I love my Crossfit and go religiously 3-4 days a week for the past 7 years. But my point is I guess, if these last few pounds are really important to you to lose, definitely make your focus more about your nutrition and proper calorie deficit (whether that’s a small deficit many days, or a larger deficit here and there interspersed with regular eating) and don’t let exercise be so involved that it counteracts your nutrition efforts.
USING HCG FOR LAST FEW LBS
If you end up going this route, my suggestions for modifying the hCG diet are –
likely you will be using the lowest dosage of hCG typically taken- around 125iu.
many at this point need to increase their calories as needed, to more like 700-800, at least SOME days because at this point, it seems that hCG can’t stimulate leptin enough in leaner people to prevent all hunger, no matter what dosage you are on. You just have to eat more to be comfortable
Eating a higher calorie protocol at this point we have seen to actually help ladies move past stalls and lose better – this might seem counter-intuitive but we’ve seen it happen.
Some have experimented with doing only 2-week rounds and New Beginnings Medical – their TelehCG site – offers a 2-week course of hCG kit. As far as outcomes I’m not quite sure – overall it seems like when a person does P3 correctly (and we have my P3tolife Program now that’s structured to help with that for those who want it), usually you can stabilize just fine.
I hope this helps you!
