Thread: Discouraged. Cheated. Feeling down and not good. :( VLCD#19

I just looked at your past posts and I'm a little aghast. You are 5'4" and that goal is harmful for you. You really should stop. You are already too low for your height. You were at a good weight for your height before you ever started. You can do yourself harm when you do a round this way. Hope you feel better.

I think we are all just concerned for you. The support here will cheer with your successes, hug you with your sad times, dust you off if you fall off the wagon, and help you down from the wagon if you seem to have missed your stop.

It could be that you are just one of those fine-boned, small-framed people, but I worry about your low goal as well.

You mention that you have a high body-fat percentage. Do you mind telling us what that is and how you were tested for your percentage? When checking your ranges, are you reading the charts for men or for women? Women have a very different requirement for body-fat that is much higher than men's.

You might consider removing the "before" number from your thoughts. You could be more muscular now than you were then. You might have lost fat on HCG and left the muscle that you had, so your overall number would be different, even though your body is trim and done losing weight. Your body shape, composition, and requirements could have changed with a different lifestyle or with age. And many, many of us here find that after HCG we weigh more but are slimmer and healthier than we were "back in the day before gaining all that weight".

When you're on a strict regimen, all off-protocol foods look tantalizing. I find the mental part of this program to be the hardest. But aside from sticking to the protocol when other foods are calling your name, a huge part of that mental aspect is learning how your body really feels, and what it really needs. It is easy to get caught up in the numbers on the scale. It is easy to think "just a little bit more" and want to keep going when you should stop. But when you're attentive, you also learn to notice when your body is tired or needs feeding or watering. You learn to feed yourself healthily, and even how to make healthy treats that don't spike your insulin or make you feel crummy.

It can be difficult to do, but take a good, realistic look at yourself and the way you are feeling. Is your body good for you (an actual healthy body, not some unattainable, carefully-posed, Photoshopped, airbrushed body)? Are you getting enough food and nutrients? During P3 and regular-life, do you exercise? We do need exercise, generally speaking, but if you're dissatisfied with your appearance even at this low weight, perhaps you would be better served by some muscle building and sculpting from yoga, Pilates, dance, weights, or the like.

I hope that you get things sorted out soon. I don't want you feeling lousy and bingeing on any phase; that's not a happy way to live. It seems to me that your body is telling you to stop trying to lose fat. In Pounds & Inches, it talks about upping your P2 foods to finish the round and then moving on to P3. Talk to Grammy or one of the other experts on the timing of things, and read P&I for details as well. You want to transition smoothly and safely on to the next phase, whenever you do it. Good luck to you.

We don't know you and cannot see you so we cannot judge your weight, but if you understand where most of us are coming from, your weight and height are alarming. I think you should talk to your family doctor for some advice and not someone that you pay for weight loss products ... just my humble opinion - good luck to you and I hope you feel better - if I could give you a hug, I would ... take care

You have to understand we've seen girls end up in the hospital while pursuing an unrealistic goal like yours. You can do yourself real harm. Pounds and Inches even says this:

Film actresses frequently explain that they must weigh less thannormal. With this request we flatly refuse to comply, first, because we undertake to cure a disorder, not tocreate a new one, and second, because it is in the nature of the HCG method that it is self limiting. It becomescompletely ineffective as soon as all abnormal fat is consumed.