I have lost both 88% fat and 34% fat on the Hcg diet, as I noted in the question above. This will be a bit of a long answer because there are few things to consider that I need to share with you. The only time I experienced what I would call a high level of muscle loss was on my 1st Round of Hcg. All subsequent rounds of Hcg (all 4 of them) I have had a high percentage of fat loss that I’ll venture to say is impossible to beat on any other diet, in the time frame that Hcg accomplishes it. But why the difference?
First of all, I have to give you my real-world experience of maintaining my weight loss after Round 1. I had no problem- really. It was so easy. I easily maintained my weightloss, despite losing so much muscle, during the following 3 months until I started Round 2 of Hcg. This was very surprising to me, because usually this much muscle loss would seemingly create a rebound of fast weight gain due to “slowed metabolism” and the body’s need to recover all that muscle. I ate lots of healthy high fat, low carb food, didn’t count calories, and was eating way more than the oft quoted “1200 calories” that many feel they must eat to maintain their weightloss.
This leads me to believe that Hcg DOES prevent the loss of necessary muscle. You see, when you are overweight, not all of your weight gain is fat. Your body will naturally acquire some muscle along with the fat gain, in order to help your body carry that extra fat your frame is carrying around so you can still sit down, stand up, walk around, etc. If you are severely overweight you will have a lot of extra muscle that another person of your height, who is not overweight, won’t have. Example/Proof: I am 5’1″. A normal weight range for my height and frame size is anywhere between 106-118 pounds according to this life insurance chart. When I first started Hcg I weighed 171 pounds and had 112 pounds of muscle. So, if I had kept ALL my muscle through my weightloss journey, and got to a normal weight of, let’s be generous and use the high end of 118 pounds, that would mean that at 118 pounds, only 6 pounds of me was fat (since 112 pounds of me is muscle). This would then mean that my bodyfat percent would be 5.1%. According to the ACE bodyfat percentage chart, this would mean that I was near death- that is not enough fat for my body to carry out it’s important natural processes to keep me alive and healthy. While there is varying information out there on what constitutes the minimum essential fat for women, one thing they all agree on is that 5% is far too low. The very lowest body fat percent for a woman that I’ve seen any organization mention while still maintaining proper health is 8%, and most organizations put minimum bodyfat percent for women between 10-13%. And this is just for what’s considered essential fat. Very few women attain that low of a body fat percent, and most women who are fit and healthy will have a body fat percent anywhere from 18-25%. Here is an excellent post on body fat percent by Builtlean. If we were to take it a step farther and say I was at the low end of a healthy weight for my height on that weight chart, at 106 pounds, that would mean I would have more muscle than my actual scale weight, which is physically not possible of course, so I would be dead lol.
Soooo, while yeah at first I freaked out when I realized I’d lost so much muscle the 1st round, after research and a look at the facts, I realized in order to be a normal weight on the scale for my height, and to have a normal amount of muscle mass for a person of my height, I would actually need to lose some muscle, as you can see from my explanation above. The fact that my body stabilized and kept the weight off so easily only confirms that it was the natural course of events for my body. As I continued to lose more weight with the Hcg Diet, my fat loss percentage was much higher, as I now had closer to the normal range of muscle for someone of my height.
The takeaway point here is that I believe after seeing the proof from my body fat testing, that Hcg will cause you to lose weight in the proper way and in the proper proportions to lead you to the most balanced look for your height and health. If you have taken any time yet to look at before and after photos of people who have finished losing weight with Hcg, you will probably be struck, as I was, at how well proportioned the individuals are. To be honest, for me anyway, this is far better proof than any statistical information. It was viewing the myriads of before and after Hcg photos and me thinking time and time again ‘man she looks great!’ that made me feel more confident to try the Hcg protocol out.
This all said, lets discuss one more question on this topic of Hcg and muscle loss…..
Posted in: Common Concerns about the Hcg Diet
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