Former Marine fighting fat

what kind of hcg are you taking? if it's injections- you are NOT suppose to exercise at all. with the injections, you are limited to a 500 calorie diet with limited foods (and amounts). there are no substitutions. if you choose to exercise, you'll experience more hunger and your body will go into starvation mode-- which could explain the gain.
however, if you are on the drops/pellets... there are alterations of the original plan...

in my experience, FOR ME, I cannot have lettuce, tomato and onions in one meal.. I need to stick to 1 veggie-either lettuce OR tomato OR onion ( and I do better with the green veggies too).

if you absolutely need to exercise for your sanity, you may want to add some calories with the allotted foods

Originally Posted by kapluzie123

what kind of hcg are you taking? if it's injections- you are NOT suppose to exercise at all.

I just re-read the manuscript to find the quote about 'if you exercise before hcg you can exercise while on it as well'...it wasn't in there. I could've SWORN it said that in the original pounds and inches, thank you for having me double check. Just talked to my friend who knows how important exercise is to me, he says I should just stick to the hcg for now and maybe to meditation and yoga. I had great success the first round with no exercise, this is def a speedbump, but one I can get over. and yes, it's injections that I'm on.
Do you know if I'm able to hike on it? Can I start working out again during p3?
Thank you for your help!

It’s been pounded into your head ever since you started trying to lose weight; the only way to get rid of the pounds is to eat less and to get up and start exercising a lot. Then you find out the HCG diet plan that tells you to reduce your food intake, take the HCG injections or oral HCG drops, but refrain from strenuous exercise. It almost seems impossible to believe; how can a diet work without strenuous exercise? Is it really possible to drop pounds without doing some kind of rigorous workout three to four times every week? What about building muscle to burn fat or working off excess calories?

Dr. ATW Simeons clearly states not to exercise strenuously on HCG diet. Some people new to the HCG diet plan have trouble comprehending why exercise is not recommended on the HCG weight loss process. While it is true that a bit of moderate exercise such as walking won’t hurt you, a lot of exercise or strenuous exercise can backfire on you while on the HCG diet plan. It is because, despite the fact that taking HCG makes you feel full, even on a five hundred calorie per day diet, the low intake of food is not sufficient for strenuous exercise.

NO exercise at all is needed on this diet. If you were working out prior to the diet, feel free to continue but not a lot or strenuously. When you start exercising on a HCG diet, the body will perceive it doesn’t have enough energy sources to rely on and it will believe you are starving. This reduces the metabolic processes and severely slows, if not all together stalls the weight loss process. This is why it is so vital that you refrain from strenuous workouts until you have achieved your set weight loss goals while using an HCG diet plan. In addition, you are already burning abnormal fat with the very low calories diet while on hCG diet. Extra exercising will result in the loss of lean muscle tissues instead.

Does being on an HCG plan mean that you have to give up exercising forever? No. In fact, once you have lost the weight you set out to lose you can put yourself on an exercise regimen to keep the weight off permanently. Meanwhile, during the dieting process, limit your exercise to brief walks, stretching, and very low impact exercises. You will find that your dieting efforts will be far more successful because you maintain a fast metabolism with a low calorie intake.

Stacy thank you for your attempt at helping me, but I'm not exercising because it was 'pounded into my head' or because I don't believe hcg will work without exercise. This is not my first round, so I'm well aware that the diet works without exercise, but thank you. If you read my original post I workout because I enjoy it, it's a form of release for me. Your third paragraph was very helpful and informative though.

During my first round, I found that I would gain/stall with weight-lifting exercises and Turbofire, but see losses with low intensity workouts like Pilates and swimming. My second round it was reversed! Go figure. Try isolating your workouts by type/intensity and see if one kind triggers more of a stall.

The biology behind the "only light exercise" clause is because when you work out your muscles take water from other parts of your body and hold it to assist in muscle recovery. It creates temporary inflammation around the muscle zones - and moves fats around your body to protect and cushion the muscle.

HCG liquefies excess fat for weight loss. It does require a different chemical reaction and is a much longer process.

If the fat is liquefied (and it can take a couple days each time) - but then not there when your body needs to use it for fuel (cause it's being transfered to the muscles for padding during a heavy work out) - it's not being burned. Just moved around. Your brain needs to then direct your metabolism to another source of fuel - and if there isn't one immediately available - you have starvation mode and that will bring gain instead of loss.

Most types of working out (AND massages) are counter-active to the vlcd part of HCG. You just want to keep the liquified fat in the same general place during the day and available for metabolism. ...I suspect this is why yoga and stretching works well with HCG. Swimming might be okay as well ?? (low muscular impact?).

Once you hit P3 - try adding L-Carnatine supplements right away - and you should be able to get immediately active without any inflammation. I found it made a world of difference for me. L-Carnatine supports muscle recovery during high level activities - so you can stabilize quickly while working out. I used to be incredibly active (couldn't imagine life spend sitting down) - and that supplement let me climb a mountain, drink a bottle of water and keep on going like nothing happened.

I didn't add L-Carnatine during P2 - but when I begin round 2 I might try adding it in for a couple days to see what happens.

I was on the same boat as you are but I finally figured out how to lose the weight. I did half a serving of the protein at BF one protein serving at lunch and one serving of protein at dinner. I did not burn as many calories as you did but this actually helped the scale move down below the point when the scale started moving up. If you are planning on working out as much as you do, maybe you should try a whole serving of protein for BF (can be just a lean protein shake too)! Hope that helps!

Understanding WHY it's not ok to workout is so much easier than just hearing 'you can't work out on this diet'. Thank you so much for breaking it down for me I only did insanity yesterday and today I had a 1.4lb loss. I think I'm just going to stop working out though. I've been working out and eating clean for a year now with indulgence only once a month, and while I've gained muscle, strength, and endurance, it hasn't changed the number on the scale. I only have two weeks left of injections, and I know hcg is effective if done correctly from my previous round. I have notes throughout my house counting down the days. Not because I'm tired of the diet, but because I want to work out again! I'll try the supplement mentioned for p3 as well. Thank you thank you, thank you!!!

chunkynomore- I also am a multi round user of injections. I LOVE hiking. I was advised that I could hike but not strenuously. after my 2nd round I tried the insanity workout-- and it definitely increased my hunger.
during my 2nd round, I participated in a Zumba fundraiser, and let me tell you- it was a very strenuous workout and I almost collapsed. In the middle of the workout everything started to go dim and I started to lose my balance. I sat down immediately and drank a liter of water. That was the end of my exercising on protocol. But let me say, I also have naturally low blood pressure- so that could have aided in my response to exercise.

everyone's body is different- as you know already-- it's trial by error unfortunately.. some exercise may be ok for you but not for me. None of us want to make a mistake, but keep in mind you are only human-- trying to find the best way for YOUR body/mind. good luck to you. and keep up posted on how it works for you.

Hi Chunkynomore--- Good to see you on HCG. It sounds like you are getting fit. Your new muscles weigh more than the fat you are losing. You've lost 12.2 lbs in 11 days. That is awesome. Good for you. Relax and stay with it. You are making good progress. I wish I was able to lose like you. Hang in there.

One thought -- have you had anyone measure your body fat/body muscle?

Maybe you're gaining muscle/losing fat?

Like you, I feel better while exercising due to endorphins. But the euphoria I felt on while using Rx HCG had nothing to do with endorphins because I had stopped exercising. Was it the HCG? Was it the VLCD? For 40 days, I still cleaned my house and tossed a ball with my son, but otherwise no exercise. And I lost 28 lbs. Interestingly, not only have I maintained for 40-some days my weight but also a wonderful, stable feeling. I really think unstable blood sugar and stressed-out adrenals affected my brain before HCG.