Original email for context: I started the HCG diet a couple days ago was fine on the two loading days and the first day of the 500 calorie diet this morning I woke up with a dull headache and by 1:30 it was so bad I was vomiting. I googled this reaction with the HCG diet plan. And it doesn’t look very promising. I don’t want to give up but it’s really sickening. I don’t think I can do it another day if that keeps up. What are your thoughts?
There are few possible reasons, they are not honestly all clear, but I will share some info in case it helps you.
So let’s talk about the more likely causes of nausea and throwing up on hCG.
There is a thread on the hCG Diet Forum here of people discussing nausea and throwing up on hCG, due to a variety of reasons.
- Most likely reason: Electrolyte imbalance. I have a help hub article on why this is so and how to fix it here.
As an example of this, in this thread a woman who was having these extreme symptoms: “Nausea, headache, lightheaded, vomiting and diarrhea” ultimately went to the hospital and discovered that, ” My sodium levels were low hence why I was throwing up water!! They’ve given me salt tablets and had me on a drip to improve my sodium levels. It wasn’t much fun throwing up on my way to the hospital either.”
It seems funny that something that seems so basic as having our sodium or potassium or magnesium levels off could cause such drastic symptoms, but that’s really the case. - 2nd most likely reason: hCG is the pregnancy hormone and sometimes women have some of those pregnancy type symptoms at first on the diet – nausea, “morning sickness”, breast tenderness or swelling, spotting. Typically this does go away though after a little while. You can easily go from nausea to vomiting if you smell or eat the wrong food that makes the nausea worse.
- Certain supplements without enough food (b vitamins, zinc, etc) can cause severe nausea and vomiting if not taken with enough food. Since we are eating far less food on hCG, this can be the case more easily all of a sudden and we might not realize it.
- You actually got the flu – seriously this happens.
While I never vomited on hCG, I do remember my very first loading days of Round 1, we went to dim sum chinese food – I figured that would be a great way to “load” for the hCG Diet! I was surprised to find that all the smells of the heavy greasy food made me absolutely sick to my stomach and nauseous and I did not feel like eating that fatty food at all.
Of course if this were something that continued and didn’t go away, it seems prudent to check with your doctor and weigh things out as to whether it’s wise to continue on hCG or not.
For most, this feeling should pass, but it can feel crummy for a few days during this time.
Real briefly, because I don’t want to draw more attention than it deserves:
One kind of “scare tactic” I’ve seen that you may be referring to, that I’ve see in a few online articles that don’t favor hCG seem to be making misleading statements about a condition called Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome – please see my help hub article on this topic and why that’s highly unlikely to be the cause with the dosage of hCG we are taking.
