Original email for context: I’m into week 3 of my second round of HCG. Im doing the injections. I had quite a lot of luck my first time around but this round is different. I seem to be hungry ALL the time and craving everything! 😕 I’ve been altering my dose but hearing different things from different people. What is your suggestion?
Likely you have already seen my comprehensive hCG Dosage post – and if not, that will help you troubleshoot.
One thing I notice is that hunger and cravings are two different things. I’ve had very little physical hunger at times on hCG, while at the same time having very strong food cravings to eat everything and anything (for me it’s sugary/sweet tasting foods). So identifying if you have both or just one of these things going helps- is the cravings actual hunger, or just cravings?
If it’s really just cravings/desire to eat that’s the issue, for me the only way I found to curb this entirely on hCG on some rounds was to eliminate the fruits and grissini/melba from the diet. Something about the sugar even in the health fruits at the time triggered strong cravings for me making the diet feel very hard. When I removed these, my cravings went away. One way I think this accomplishes this is it makes the diet very very low carb and usually will put you into ketosis which is known for creating a state of no cravings or hunger. So that might be one thing to try – you can see my post on what I replaced the fruits with here: hCG and no fruits.
But of course true physical hunger can certainly cause cravings as well! My dosage post is really the best place to get help with this as it covers all the possible scenarios, but the last thing I’d like to add here is that if you have tried a variety of dosages with real hCG, and you feel the same hunger regardless, and you have only say 15-20 lbs to lose, you may simply need to increase your calories a little- adding a 3rd 100g portion of protein can often help greatly, and additional P2 veggies as needed.
Robin Woodall describes in her book Weight Loss Apocalypse – that it’s very possible that the hCG hormone is acting on the hormone leptin- raising leptin levels in your body so that you feel that non-hunger effect as if you had eaten many more calories than just 500.
Usually there IS a dosage that creates this feeling – but on occasion whether due to being leaner where the hCG hormone just can’t seem to stimulate leptin levels enough, or in some cases even someone who has a lot of weight to lose but they are just super insulin resistant, they may not find a dose that can give them the needed effect. Those are the cases where increasing to 700-800 calories is probably best.
I hope this helps you troubleshoot!
