Your comprehensive resource to answer your questions about the hCG diet protocol.
I highly encourage doing your research before embarking on this HCG protocol. This page is a work in progress guys…..just so you know there is MUCH more to come.
Please also see my HCG HOW TO section for video and blog posts on this topic.
What to Eat on the hCG Diet
Approved foods and drinks list for the hCG Diet
The original food list as Dr. Simeons wrote it in his Pounds and Inches book are as follows:
Proteins: beef, chicken breast, veal, fresh white fish, lobster, crab, or shrimp.
Vegetables: spinach, chard, chicory, beet-greens, green salad, tomatoes, celery, fennel, onions, red radishes, cucumbers, asparagus, cabbage.
Starches: breadstick (grissini) or Melba toast
Fruit: apple, orange, strawberries, grapefruit
The juice of one lemon daily is allowed for all purposes. Salt, pepper, vinegar, mustard powder, garlic, sweet basil, parsley, thyme, majoram, etc., may be used for seasoning, but no oil, butter or dressing.
Basic Rules: Calories are not to exceed 500 calories.
Please see “how to portion out your calories on the hCG diet” in this same section. The makeup of the 500 calories is extremely important.
How to portion out your calories on the hCG Diet
The diet is designed to basically have two small meals a day that are made up in this way (all foods chosen from the approved foods list):
Lunch:
1 protein (100 grams)
1 vegetable
1 fruit
1 grissini or melba toast (note: many hCG dieters leave this item out entirely- seems to add to cravings and difficulties on the protocol.)
Dinner:
Same as above
Not to exceed 500 calories.
Dr. Simeons said it was allowable to spread your meal throughout the day if you like, for instance, to have your lunch fruit for breakfast instead. However, you would never have 2 fruits or 2 proteins in one sitting.
Tea, Coffee, and Water with sugar free sweeteners in any quantity is fine. I highly recommend using stevia as your sugar free sweetener as it is one of the more “natural” ones to choose from, although in the end I guess they are all processed in one way or another!
Do I have to eat the full 500 calories on the hCG Diet each day? Is it ok to eat less?
In short, NO you don’t have to the full 500, and YES it’s okay to eat less- depending on a few factors.
Explanation as follows:
-In the original protocol that Dr. Simeons wrote in Pounds and Inches, he stated that the diet was not to exceed 500 calories.
-He then stated that aside from the 2 protein portions, anything else a patient didn’t feel like eating may be omitted.
-If you do what Robin Woodall in her book Weight-Loss Apocalypse: Emotional Eating Rehab Through the HCG Protocol suggests, you should try to use your time on the protocol to eat to hunger, which in simple terms means basically to eat only when you are actually hungry and stop when you are satisfied. This means on hCG you may you find yourself at times eating less than 500 calories. On some days your hunger is so nonexistent that you only need 300-350 calories* to satisfy your hunger on a given day.
*Remember though that you must always eat your 2 proteins at the very least.
Additionally, be truthful with yourself- you would never want to eat less than 500 calories just to get ahead or lose more weight if you are indeed feeling hungry or weak on less than the 500.
Do I have to eat the full 500 calories on the hCG Diet?
I will quote what Dr. Simeons said in his book pounds and inches here: “Those not uncommon patients who feel that even so little food is too much for them, can omit anything they wish.”
So in short, no.
However- do keep in mind, do not get carried away with this- you should eat to hunger which means if you are truly not hungry for 500 calories in a day while on hCG, and you end up eating say 300-400 calories instead some days, so be it. However, if you are technically hungry but purposefully trying to eat less than the 500 calories in an effort to lose more weight, this is not a proper way to view things (as I’m sure you’ll agree). Sometimes we can find excuses for ourselves to try to get quicker results in the short-term but we need to remember that it’s long term health that we should be concerned with.
Myself? The amount of calories I eat varies. I don’t actually weigh/count anything but the protein as Dr. Simeons instructed, however, just to get an idea, some days I’ll plug in basic amounts of what I ate into myfitnesspal just to check. What I find is that many days on the hCG protocol I’m so not hungry, especially at the beginning, that I only find myself eating 300-400 calories in a day. Other days I find myself needing not only the full 500 but sometimes even close to 600 calories, so that’s what I eat.
My hydrostatic body fat testing has shown that eating under the 500 calories when my hunger dictates has not been a problem for me- meaning I did not lose excessive amounts of muscle doing this, and I’ve kept off my fat loss from hCG very comfortably since then as well.
So if you let hunger be your guide, as Robin Woodall so wonderfully explained in her book Weightloss Apocalypse, you will get the best weight loss in the healthiest way out of the hCG Diet protocol.
Where can I find a lot of hCG recipes? I need variety in my Phase 2 food!
Oh, so you’re not like me eh, one of those creatures of habit who always orders the same stinkin’ meal at a restaurant and eats the same exact smoothie everyday?
For those of who are so bored or sick of what you’re eating on hCG that it’s threatening your round, the most highly rated hCG cookbook out there, with over 200 recipes for you to play with and keep you sane, is Tammy Skye’s hCG Diet Gourmet Cookbook – there are 2 volumes actually! The first really does have over 200 recipes, and the 2nd volume has 150 recipes more!
Anyway, you can purchase one of both of those cookbooks here:
Does hCGChica have any hCG recipes?
YES!!! We have a growing list of custom Phase 2 hCG diet recipes with mouthwatering photos to inspire you here:
Is Stevia the only sweetener allowed?
Technically, the other cancer causing ones are allowed as well, you know the aspartame and nutrasweet stuff. Whether or not you utilize that is up to you. What’s hard about all this is who knows, we may find that stevia causes cancer in a few years too you know? And there also has to be the consideration of what I like to call sanity saving. If having a very small amount of something is going to save your sanity, and allow you to get over a hump that will aid you to your 50 lb weight loss, even if it’s not the best thing in the world, I might just choose to do that right? So yes, I had a few diet cokes on hCG. I wouldn’t make it a daily thing, but when desperate, a diet coke over an entire Pizza binge on Phase 2 – well you make the choice. When it comes to the sugar alcohols, I think you have to be more careful as it seems that these can more likely interact with your blood sugar and effect your weight loss. When in doubt leave it out (unless desperate) and track what you do so that you can adjust when needed.
What did you eat for breakfast without fruit on Phase 2?
I didn’t eat any food for breakfast on Phase 2 myself – to this day actually I have no need for breakfast myself, going on like 4 years now, but for those who need it, some have eaten a half portion of protein even, say 50 grams of chicken, or added in a 3rd protein serving that they eat for breakfast. For those with blood sugar issues however, it may actually be very important for you to eat something for breakfast, and to eat something with a little sugar and carbs- meaning, your fruit.
Rayzel have you tried chocolate delight?
Yes I have. I did this my first and 2nd round. I chose after that to no longer use coconut oil during Phase 2, so that wiped out my access to chocolate delight. I do have a pinterest board with hCG chocolate delight recipes. But you also might want to give my post on things to consider when thinking about Coconut Oil and hCG as well.
The amount of protein needed at each meal, is it pre or post cooked?
Dr. Simeons indicated that the 100 grams/3.5 ounces of protein, twice a day, was to be weighed raw.