I love hCG!

PROTEIN LIMIT
First, what's your LIW/LDW? Whatever it is, your weight equivalent in grams of COOKED protein, plus 20% of it more, is your protein limit/ceiling. If you go above 120% of your LIW/LDW in grams of cooked protein you will likely gain. Don't EVER go above this, even if you increase calories or carbs. And again, I'll emphasize: you're tracking COOKED protein grams. Weigh your food AFTER cooking, and you'll know how many calories you're ACTUALLY consuming; the "raw" foods in a calorie tracker are always higher than cooked, and inaccurate for other reasons.

VITAMINS AND MINERALS
It's important, as you transition to P3, that you get the minimum amount of vitamins and supplements necessary for your body to function. So, the supplement I take: One a Day, their "Essentials" line. I take this one because it has the bare minimum needed for our bodies to function. Also: a magnesium supplement called "Mag64" by Rising. It's Magnesium Chloride -- a more readily absorbable version of magnesium out there, one that has been proven in studies to increase sensitivity to insulin, thereby preventing/reducing "metabolic syndrome"....this is good. Last but not least: I take 2 grams of Vitamin C. That's 2 grams (also known as 2,000 milligrams). This is because vitamin C is a fantastic anti-inflammatory, and you literally just cannot get too much of this vitamin (unlike other vitamins!). It helps with reducing long-term inflammation. So, the three that work for me: One a Day "Essentials," the "Mag64" by Rising, and my vitamin C supplement of 2 pills (which is 2 grams) made by Nature Made.

The multi-vitamin in particular is the most essential part of this routine; it will help your body process all the things it needs to process to get stable. I personally do NOT recommend a multi-vitamin that has the 100% RDA for "everything." This is because several studies have shown that we're getting TOO MUCH of some of these vitamins in our diets when supplements are involved; keep in mind that you CAN get too much calcium, you CAN get too much vitamin A and D, et cetera. Even though vitamin C in big quantities is allowable, that isn't the case for all vitamins.

So, basically when you add a "100%" vitamin to the vitamins and minerals already present in our diet, it's just too much, in my opinion; there are only certain vitamins we can tolerate that much of. RDAs may or may not be accurate, but for now I'm playing it safe. That's why I take the "Essentials" line from One a Day. It gets me what I need, without giving me too much.

SLOW OR FAST?
Since reading several stories here of successful stabilization processes, it seems that the strategy to "go slooowww" works best. If you go from putting food into your mouth at small amounts, even though you're releasing LARGE amounts from your bodyfat, your body won't be accustomed to burning food as much as its accustomed to getting it from your fat reserves. So it's a "switch-over" in a manner of speaking, and this needs to be done gently.

The best results I've seen from folks happen when they just start off eating larger quantities of P2 foods (without fruit). And they re-introduce fat slowly....even though a good amount of it has to be eaten in P3 eventually.

So, Day 1 of P3: eat more of the non-fat meats and veggies you've been eating, and add a lllliiiiitttttle more fat. Gradually add in more fat and veggies, and more fat. In P3 especially, increasing more fat seems to do the trick in getting the hypothalamus to "set" in.

CARBS VERSUS FAT: WHICH TO ADD MORE OF?
In my experience, I've seen fats help people LOSE weight, carbs help people GAIN weight. This is primarily due to the fact that dietary fat is very hard to digest, so the body has to work extra hard to break it down (thus burning calories and secreting LOTS of digestive enzymes in the process). Dietary fat also helps the thyroid out; it stimulates it the most out of any macronutrient (and macronutrients mean "fat, carbs, protein"). Protein stimulates it less than fat, and carbs stimulate the thyroid THE LEAST. This reality is also one of the reasons -- the primary reason -- why so many of us get constipated in Phase 2. We have less digestive enzymes due to eating no fat (or microscopic amounts at the most). Fiber on its own does not "clean you out" -- it works that way when it brings something else to the table (either probiotics occurring naturally, as with sauerkraut, or...through eating saturated/dietary fats elsewhere in your diet). So, if you do want to get back to a LDW/LIW at some point, eating more fat, staying within your protein limit/ceiling, and reducing carbs are all good things to do. Carbs also spike blood sugar (more true with 'fast carbs' such as white flour and so forth than veggies, but nonetheless all carbs do it to a certain extent). So, just be aware of what each macronutrient does to your body and you'll be more aware of how to add in which foods.

AVOID GOITROGENS
Unless you're consuming lots of saturated fats (from animals) or avocado fat (fat from, well, just the avocado itself), any goitrogen you eat will inhibit thyroid function. Eating those fats STIMULATE the thyroid, so it balances out any goitrogenic effect of a goitrogen. Now, you may be asking: "what the HECK is a goitrogen??" Well, it's a class of foods that inhibit thyroid function. Some do this more than others; SOY IS THE WORST. Soy also paralyzes the villi in the intestinal tract the more soy you eat. There are even researchers who believe soy is a culprit in the appearance of Irritable Bowel Syndrome in society that seems to have happened during the last few years. I won't blather on about soy here, but....try to avoid soy if you can. Post on goitrogens and what they are is here, along with a list of foods that often are culprits in gains and inflammatory responses: http://hcgdietinfo.com/hcgdietforums/entry.php?b=16719

IF YOU GAIN, DO THIS
If you have any issues with gaining, you'll need to do a correction day (I strongly prefer the Chicken Thigh Day, as it's effective and doesn't cause a gain), then also a strategy AFTER the correction day to hold the loss. That's called a Post-Correction Day Strategy (PCDS). But, only think of that if you gain; you wouldn't need to know about it unless you do. NOTE: if you DO need to do a PCDS, you'll use an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT calculator then, but don't worry about that now. You can read all about the Chicken Thigh Day (CTD) here and the PCDS on my blog, along with several other useful posts.

Chicken Thigh Day: http://hcgdietinfo.com/hcgdietforums/entry.php?b=16708
Post-Correction Day Strategy: http://hcgdietinfo.com/hcgdietforums/entry.php?b=16711

If you have any questions about this blog post, feel free to leave a question here. Or, PM me for more immediate answers.