Original email for context: I need to lose 35 pounds. How long would this normally take on HCG? I need to not stop if possible or at bear minimum go as long as possible without a stop.
I really don’t like giving hard numbers in cases like this because it’s really not possible to be absolutely sure of the time it will take. But I can give you a general range. You will need 2 rounds. Probably 1 long 6 week round, and 1 short 3 week round.
For most women, while they lose more some days and less others, typically once it’s averaged out over the entire duration of being on the diet, the weight loss average ends up being about .5 lb/day. So if you were to calculate that out 35 lbs / .5 = 70 days to lose that. That’s more than 8 weeks, which I don’t personally recommend staying on the diet that long. That said, you may lose it faster, there are just really no guarantees.
An example:
My first 40ish day round I lost 27 lbs. If that was you, then you’d only have another 12 lbs to lose which you could probably lose on 1 more 3 week round of hCG with a break in between.
Some women do extended rounds (longer than 6 weeks)- I have discussed this a bit here – but by and large most women will feel best by not doing it longer than 6 weeks at a time- please see my post on why slow your weight loss journey down.
There are quite a few factors that affect pace of weight loss.
For instance:
1. How thin will you be if you lose 35 lbs? Will you be extremely super-fit, or just average? Trying to get to a very fit/very little excess bodyfat state would take quite a bit longer because your body will fight you those last several pounds and it will be slow. However, if losing 35 lbs will make you just average healthy where you can see some normal woman fat here and there, that might be reachable more quickly comparatively. Another example, if losing 35 lbs will still leave you say, 30 lbs overweight, it is possible in that case to potentially lose all 35 lbs or close to it in one 6 week round. The higher you are, the larger the weight loss ratio you will typically experience. In your case, since you said you only need to lose 35 lbs, I’m assuming this isn’t the case.
2. Might you stall here and there due to some unknown reason? This happens all the time – there’s really no way to plan in advance to not have a stall.
3. You might cheat. It’s true, you might. And while you want to avoid it of course, you also want to be able to have room in your life and expectations to give grace to yourself should this occur.
If you put your expectations too high for achieving a certain amount of weight loss in a certain number of days, all this does is create pressure for you about something that ultimately you do not have full control over. This can cause a lot of frustration and negative feelings when the weight loss process ends up being a lot more…..shall we call it organic?….than you had scheduled out in your planner. ;0
My best advice is to definitely do a full 6 week round and just how much you’ve lost at the end. If by the end of 6 weeks you are still feeling like “Hey, I’m handling this, I could totally do this 1 more week”- then perhaps stick to it one more week- but typically I wouldn’t expect to lose more than 2-3 lbs in your 7th week. So you can see that likely you will need to do 2 rounds for 35 lbs total.
Here’s a few more articles that might help you:
Is it normal to lose 1 lb per day on the hCG Diet? How much did hCGChica lose?
Why am I not losing 1 lb per day on hCG?
I hope this helps you decide!
