A weight loss plateau on the hCG diet is to be expected. This hCG diet plateau may last up to a week or more if you do not take aggressive steps to stop it. Here are the best ways to do so.
The HCG Diet Plateau
This is simply the stoppage of your weight loss from one day to the next. This is why it is crucial for you to weight yourself every day. Normal progress is a weight drop of a half a pound to a pound (sometimes more) from one day to the next.
If your weight loss stops over a few days or a week, you are on a plateau that is usually caused by one or more common problems. Here are the five strategies that have often been helpful in breaking through a plateau. The first one is the best, although you may require a combination of two or more of the following steps to completely break through your plateau.
1) The Best Strategy Overall - An Apple Day
In the classic book on the hCG diet, Pounds and Inches, author Dr. A.T.W. Simeons stated that an apple day was the best and most commonly successful strategy for busting through a weight loss plateau on his protocol. All you have to do is eat nothing but apples all long, up to six of them, and drink as little water as possible. His explanation was that this strategy gets sludgy food moving again and reduces fluid retention. It is hard to explain physiologically, so rest assured that it the most commonly effective way to break through a weight loss plateau on the Simeons protocol.
Excess fluids are removed rapidly from an apple day, so you may see your weight the next morning be two or more pounds less than the previous day. That should put you right back on track for your regular daily weight loss again.
2) Get Bowels to Move Better
Infrequent bowel movements and constipation are also a common problem that can lead to the hCG diet plateau. This makes sense. You must be able to eliminate properly at least daily during the protocol. Two or three bowel movements every day would be even better.
Taking in more water is generally the easiest and most effective way to increase bowel movements. However, if this does not work as fast as you want, simply adding soluble fiber to a glass of water will accelerate the process. The easiest soluble fiber to find and use is psyllium powder. It is the main ingredient of Metamucil, although that product contains too many lousy ingredients to be recommended (e.g., sugar or aspartame, artificial color, etc.). Besides, a good nutrition store will offer pure, unadulterated psyllium powder at a much lower price than any grocery store brand.
3) Stick Closely to the Original Protocol
Many people succeed by substituting lean ground beef as one of the sources of protein, or by mixing vegetables at a single meal instead of one vegetable at a time. These modern modifications of the original protocol may or may not work for you. If you are stuck on a plateau and the first two steps above are insufficient for getting you back on track, then make sure you are sticking closely to the original protocol, without any of the newer modifications of it. If anything, you can change things up by cutting out one piece of Melba toast, just to reduce the carbohydrate impact of your meals.
4) Change Up Your Foods
Chicken breast may be your favorite, and you may not like any other source of protein. However, eating it at every meal might lead to a plateau. Just change out the protein source for lunch or dinner so you don't eat the same foods all the time. The same goes for the vegetables and fruits, too. Changing up your foods may help you bust through a plateau if the first three strategies above don't help.
5) Eat Everything!
If you think that eating less and less will be helpful, what you will find is that a too-low caloric intake will slow down your metabolism. You must eat the minimum daily amount of 500-550 calories to keep your metabolic rate just right for burning the abnormal fat from your body. When this rate goes too low, you will hit a plateau and stop losing weight. So eat enough!
The HCG Diet Plateau
This is simply the stoppage of your weight loss from one day to the next. This is why it is crucial for you to weight yourself every day. Normal progress is a weight drop of a half a pound to a pound (sometimes more) from one day to the next.
If your weight loss stops over a few days or a week, you are on a plateau that is usually caused by one or more common problems. Here are the five strategies that have often been helpful in breaking through a plateau. The first one is the best, although you may require a combination of two or more of the following steps to completely break through your plateau.
1) The Best Strategy Overall - An Apple Day
In the classic book on the hCG diet, Pounds and Inches, author Dr. A.T.W. Simeons stated that an apple day was the best and most commonly successful strategy for busting through a weight loss plateau on his protocol. All you have to do is eat nothing but apples all long, up to six of them, and drink as little water as possible. His explanation was that this strategy gets sludgy food moving again and reduces fluid retention. It is hard to explain physiologically, so rest assured that it the most commonly effective way to break through a weight loss plateau on the Simeons protocol.
Excess fluids are removed rapidly from an apple day, so you may see your weight the next morning be two or more pounds less than the previous day. That should put you right back on track for your regular daily weight loss again.
2) Get Bowels to Move Better
Infrequent bowel movements and constipation are also a common problem that can lead to the hCG diet plateau. This makes sense. You must be able to eliminate properly at least daily during the protocol. Two or three bowel movements every day would be even better.
Taking in more water is generally the easiest and most effective way to increase bowel movements. However, if this does not work as fast as you want, simply adding soluble fiber to a glass of water will accelerate the process. The easiest soluble fiber to find and use is psyllium powder. It is the main ingredient of Metamucil, although that product contains too many lousy ingredients to be recommended (e.g., sugar or aspartame, artificial color, etc.). Besides, a good nutrition store will offer pure, unadulterated psyllium powder at a much lower price than any grocery store brand.
3) Stick Closely to the Original Protocol
Many people succeed by substituting lean ground beef as one of the sources of protein, or by mixing vegetables at a single meal instead of one vegetable at a time. These modern modifications of the original protocol may or may not work for you. If you are stuck on a plateau and the first two steps above are insufficient for getting you back on track, then make sure you are sticking closely to the original protocol, without any of the newer modifications of it. If anything, you can change things up by cutting out one piece of Melba toast, just to reduce the carbohydrate impact of your meals.
4) Change Up Your Foods
Chicken breast may be your favorite, and you may not like any other source of protein. However, eating it at every meal might lead to a plateau. Just change out the protein source for lunch or dinner so you don't eat the same foods all the time. The same goes for the vegetables and fruits, too. Changing up your foods may help you bust through a plateau if the first three strategies above don't help.
5) Eat Everything!
If you think that eating less and less will be helpful, what you will find is that a too-low caloric intake will slow down your metabolism. You must eat the minimum daily amount of 500-550 calories to keep your metabolic rate just right for burning the abnormal fat from your body. When this rate goes too low, you will hit a plateau and stop losing weight. So eat enough!
About the Author:
Learn more about the hCG diet from the perspective of a research scientist, Dr. Dennis Clark, at BestHCGWeightLoss.com. Plus get answers to your questions about where to order hCG.
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