HCG Diet Phase 3 (P3) Tips

HCG diet Phase 3 (P3)  is very critical to your long term weight loss success in your HCG journey. You’ve worked hard to lose the weight in Phase 2 by maintaining a VLCD (very low calorie diet), and now it’s important to stabilize your body at the new weight so that you can prevent any gains. HCG diet P3 is where you reset the hypothalamus.

If you have reached your weight loss goal and don’t need to do another round of HCG, then P3 will be your maintenance phase. If you have more weight to lose, then P3 will be part of your first round of the HCG protocol. In either case your goal is simple, to keep the weight off.

By following these HCG Diet P3 Tips you should be able to maintain your weight loss, avoid and gains, and avoid the need for a steak day.

Check your weight daily – By checking your weight daily you can manage any small gains. As soon as your gains exceed 2 lbs try a steak day to adjust the gain. Your goal is to never gain more than 2 lbs. Remember how hard you worked to lose the weight and commit to keeping the weight off so that you don’t need to lose it again. A 2 lb gain is much easier to manage than a 5 or 10 lb gain. By checking your weight daily you can manage any gains while they are still small.

Read labels – Remember that it is vitally important during P3 to avoid all sugars and starches. These are often hidden in foods where you would least expect them. Condiments such as ketchup often contain sugar as a sweetener. Other sauces and condiments often contain starches as a thickening agent. Even something as simple as boxed or canned vegetable broth often contains sugar. You’ll be surprised with what you find, so it’s best to get into the habit of reading all labels.

Week 1 – Increase your food intake to approximately 1000 calories a day including 6-8 oz of protein per meal. In addition to avoiding all sugars and starches it helps to maintain a diet low in carbohydrates. Many dieters like to avoid their daily fruits and bread sticks for the first week of P3. You can slowly reintroduce fats into your diet but don’t overdo it. You can add cream in your coffee or tea but continue to drink lots of water to balance out the acidity and caffeine. In P3 you can add fish with a higher fat content such as salmon, trout or shrimp scampi. You can also begin to use butter, oil or cooking spray in your frying pan.

Breakfast: Fried eggs or an omelet with a serving of veggies
Lunch: 6-8 oz of protein, a small salad with dressing (check labels for sugar!), and a side of veggies
Dinner: Change it up. Have a different protein and different side of veggies for dinner than you had for lunch.

Try to eat a little at each meal and if hunger becomes an issue try to get in a mid morning and mid afternoon snack.

Add only 1 new food every other day – P3 can be a true test of willpower. Now that Dr. Simeons says that you can eat “anything you wish” with the exception of sugars and starches it’s hard not to let the flood gates open. However, it’s important to add only 1 new food item every other day so you can determine which (if any) foods are causing gains. For example, if you add eggs on Monday, weigh yourself on Tuesday and Wednesday. If you have not experienced any gains then add another new food on Wednesday. Continue to weigh yourself daily and confirm that a particular food is not causing gains before introducing another food.

Week 2 – Increase your daily calorie count to about 1200-1500 calories per day. You can do this by adding in more veggies and more fats such as cheese, nut butter, nuts and other low carbohydrate type foods. Be careful with nuts as they cause gains for some dieters.

Week 3 – Work your way up to your total calorie limit.

Determine your daily calorie limit – For women your recommended daily calorie intake is 11 times your current weight. For men it is 12 times your current weight. For example:

A woman whose current weight is 150 lbs, multiplied x 11 is 1650 calories per day.
A man whose current weight is 200, multiplied x 12 is 2400 calories per day.