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There are times when you’re a little lady who only has about 10 lbs to lose and you might just accomplish that in a couple weeks time. What then?

And if you’re wondering if the hCG Diet is worth doing when you have just 10-15 lbs to lose, please check out my interviews with similar ladies who’ve had success with that.

How to Handle Finishing Your Weight Loss on the hCG Diet Early

Dr. Simeon’s original instructions were that in order to re-set your hypothalamus function, a round of hCG should be done for no less than 3 weeks – actually 23 injections to be exact. Which includes the loading days while you take hCG so technically it would be the 2 days loading + 21 days of injections on the 500/800 very low calorie diet – VLCD + the 72 hours of the VLCD without hCG at the end = 26 days from the start of taking hCG until day 1 of Phase 3. If you wonder what these hCG diet specific terms are, check out the hCG Diet Dictionary here.

In his words, from the Pounds and Inches manuscript, page 51:

“We never give a treatment lasting less than 26 days, even in patients needing to lose only 5 pounds. It seems that even in the mildest cases of obesity the diencephalon requires about three weeks rest from the maximal exertion it has been previously subjected to in order to regain fully its normal fat banking capacity. Clinically this expresses itself in the fact that when in these mild cases treatment is stopped as soon as the weight is normal, which may be achieved in a week, it is much more easily regained than after a full course of 23 injections.”

Let’s cover a couple ideas:

• What to do when you’re done losing weight but still have several days left of Phase 2.
• How to conclude Phase 2 properly in this case – the 72 hour period while hCG is leaving your system
• Possible alternatives
• Doing the hCG Diet for Less than 3 weeks

Perhaps you don’t have a whole lot of weight to lose- maybe just 5-10 lbs.

What do you if you lose all the weight you want before you get to the end of the minimum 3 week round?

Dr. Simeons original instructions were to continue the diet for a full 23 injections (and remember, these injections include the days you load), but that you were to increase your calories to 800-1000 calories in order to simply maintain your weight until you reached the 23rd injection, then get off hCG the normal way as described in my 72 hours to get off hCG blogpost.

To be honest, this sounds like it would be a really hard thing to do. I mean it’s hard enough even when actually having that satisfaction of weight loss. That is combined with the fact that many ladies actually do continue to lose weight at the 800-1000 calorie level on hCG. However, this may not be the case if you are truly at that “goal” weight, I’m not sure.

How Does This Change Getting OFF hCG?

The main thing for you that would be different is that during the 72 hours, you wouldn’t be trying to hold to that 500 calorie mark, you’d still be eating your 800-1000 calories, again, simply trying to maintain till the hCG leaves your system, at which point Phase 3 can begin and you can up your calories even more like everyone else.

What Would Happen If You Just Got Off of hCG Early?

I’ve wondered this myself! This is still unknown territory. The thing is, I agree it would really suck to be stuck on hCG for a week when you weren’t attempting to lose weight – so I can see why a person would want to just simply get off after a week or two when they reach their desired weight.

All I can tell you is Dr. Simeon’s reasoning behind saying to stick with a minimum of 23 injections.

In his practice, he felt that it took about 3 weeks for hypothalamus to re-set. And it’s true we don’t want to forget that this is a huge part of what we’re attempting to achieve with this protocol- it’s not simply about the weight loss, it’s also about attempting to really change the way our body works for us on a daily basis- how it burns fuel for us – our core metabolism.

That said, Dr. Simeons himself was always experimenting and stated at the outset of his book pounds and inches that much of what he says in his book should still be considered hypothesis and should be experimented with more in the future.

So the only way to find out if you CAN get away with doing the diet for less time is to experiment with it.

Some of us are in a place where we feel ready and able to experiment with something different, while others of us feel most concerned with doing what we can be sure of.

IF you do choose to experiment with doing a round of hCG for less than 3 weeks

I would love to hear your feedback about the following things:

– How did stabilization go?
– How did Phase 3 go?
– Are you maintaining the weight you lost with your shorter than usual round of hCG?

To me, these would be the identifying markers for whether doing a round for less than 3 weeks was a successful way to do it or not.

From what I’ve heard so far:

Some have done 2 week rounds and felt it went well.

It seems like more of the feedback though that have done 2 week rounds share that they couldn’t really stabilize or maintain it as easily as when they had previously done longer rounds of at least 3 weeks.

HOWEVER. However. Many people struggle with stabilizing their weight loss after the hCG diet in Phase 3 – whether they are on hCG for 2 weeks or 2 months. What I’m finding is that when you follow a structured detailed plan for Phase 3 – the likelihood of stabilizing and maintaining your hCG diet weight loss is MUCH greater, and I think it’s likely that this may be the case if you do a 2 week round as well. I have just such a plan – in March of 2017 I released what’s called the P3tolife Program – a full structured program for Phase 3 and beyond and the ladies who follow it stabilize and maintain! It’s as simple as that. Check out the P3tolife Program here.

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