The HCG Diet Food Guide

The HCG Diet is based on the use of HCG combined with a very low calorie diet to change your metabolism to burn the extra fat and lose the extra pounds. Only certain foods are allowed during the diet. The diet consists of a loading phase (Phase 1), a very low calorie diet (Phase 2), and a maintenance diet (Phase 3). The following are the food guidelines and restrictions for doing the HCG True Diet.

Phase I

For the first three days, you are loading up on HCG. You may eat what you want during these three days, but eating a well balanced diet in moderation is recommended.

Phase 2

After the third day of HCG, you are allowed to eat only 500 calories a day, split between two meals a day of lunch and dinner. Breakfast is just a liquid beverage with minimal to no calories.

Breakfast:

Any non-caloric fluids in any amount. This could be coffee without sugar (nonsugar sweeteners are okay) and a tablespoon of milk.

Lunch and Dinner

You are allowed these two meals only per day. Each should total around 250 calories each. Each consists of 3.5 oz (or 100 gm) of some type of protein food (see below), enough vegetables and fruit to total 250 calories each. You should record the foods you eat in a food journal and see how easy it is to keep track of your diet. The number of calories in a serving of these foods is listed below. Select from the following foods:

Protein Foods: 3.5 oz. (100 gm) per meal

All visible fat must be removed before cooking, and the portions should be weighed raw. An approximation of the size of a portion is the amount of the foot that would resemble the size of a makeup compact. It must be cooked without additional fat. Avoid eating the same protein foods for both lunch and dinner.

• Veal or ultra lean steak (free-range only). NO Ground beef no matter how lean.
• Fresh white fish (halibut, swordfish, bass, flounder, pike, tilapia, john dory, snapper, crab meat, lobster, shrimp, scallops. NO salmon, eel, tuna, herring, dried, pickled or smoked fish.
• Chicken (chicken breast only, no skin)
• Boiled egg and 3 boiled egg whites (Adapted for vegetarians)

Fresh Vegetables: at least 3.5 oz (100 gm) per meal

Do not mix vegetables. One choice only per serving.

• Spinach, green salad, tomato, celery, fennel, onion, red radish, cucumber, asparagus, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, chard, chicory.
• NO starch or sugar heavy veggies, such as pumpkin, beetroot, potato, carrots, peas, or corn.

Fruit: 2 per day, at least 6 hours apart

• Apple, strawberries (6 lg/10 small), orange, ½ grapefruit.
• NO substitutes.

Grain

• One grissini, or
• One melba toast

Your daily caloric intake total per day should be 500. If your choices from the above list total is less than 500 calories, and it will, eat an additional portion of a vegetable and protein.

Fluids: Minimum 2 liters (11 glasses, 8 oz each) of water daily

• Plain Water
• Tea/coffee without sugar (any quantity)
• Soda water, mineral water
• 2 diet soft drinks (up to 2-12 oz. cans)
• Crystal Lite
• Only 1 tablespoon fat-free half and half or milk daily.

Extras:

• No margarine, butter, oil, or dressing.
• Check labels for content of sugar, fructose, sucrose, corn syrup, etc. Anything with these is NOT allowed. You may use artificial sweeteners sparingly and only for Phase 1 and 2. NO SUGAR!
• Salt, pepper, vinegar, mustard powder, garlic, sweet basil, parsley, thyme, marjoram, and other spices are freely available as seasonings.
• Juice of 1 lemon daily

Calorie Content of the HCG Diet Foods

There are many websites that give you calorie amounts of the foods you eat. A good website to determine calories in food is The Calorie Counter website (http://www.thecaloriecounter.com). If you can’t find the calories on the web, check the package for calculations whenever possible. Always remember to record what you eat in a food journal every day. Here are some examples of foods that you can eat on the HCG diet and their respective calorie amounts:

Fish:

• White Fish - (3.5 oz) avg 98 cal
• Cod (3.5 oz) - 83 cal
• Crab meat (3.5 oz) - 100 cal
• Flounder (3.5 oz) - 90 cal
• Haddock (3.5 oz) - 88 cal
• Halibut (3.5 oz) - 110 cal
• Lobster (3.5 oz) - 98 cal
• Red snapper (3.5 oz) - 110 cal
• Shrimp (3.5 oz) - 110 cal
• Tilapia (3.5 oz) - 94 cal

Beef:

• Very lean beef (3.5 oz) (avg 152 cal)
• Eye of round (3.5 oz) - 160 cal
• Top sirloin steak (3.5 oz) - 130 cal
• Top round steak (3.5 oz) - 166 cal
• Bottom round steak (3.5 oz) - 154 cal

Chicken:

• Chicken breast, no skin (3.5 oz) - 87 cal

Veal:

• Veal (3.5 oz) (avg 114 cal)
• Veal, sirloin (3.5 oz) - 110 cal
• Veal, loin chop (3.5 oz) - 117 cal

Vegetables:

• Asparagus (3.5 oz) - 20 cal
• Asparagus (2″ tip) - 1 cal
• Asparagus (small spear) - 2 cal
• Asparagus (medium spear) - 3 cal
• Asparagus (large spear) - 4 cal
• Broccoli (3.5 oz) - 34 cal
• Broccoli (1 cup - 88g) - 30 cal
• Broccoli (5″ spear - 31 g) - 11 cal
• Celery (3.5 oz) - 15 cal
• Celery (medium stalk) - 6 cal
• Cabbage (3.5 oz) - 24 cal
• Cabbage (1 cup shredded) - 17 cal
• Cauliflower (3.5 oz) - 22 cal
• Cauliflower (1 cup) - 28 cal
• Cauliflower (3 flowerets) - 12 cal)
• Cucumber (3.5 oz) - 12 cal
• Cucumber (small) - 19 cal
• Cucumber (medium) - 24 cal
• Cucumber (large) - 34 cal each
• Cucumber (English long) - 60 cal
• Lettuce, all varieties (3.5 oz) - 20 cal
• Lettuce, all varieties (1 cup) - 8 cal
• Lettuce, all varieties (small head) - 32 cal
• Red radishes (3.5 oz) - 12 cal
• Red radishes (one medium) - 1 cal
• Salad (3.5 oz) - 15 cal
• Spinach, raw (3.5 oz) - 20 cal
• Spinach, raw (1 cup) - 7 cal
• Spinach, frozen (3.5 oz) - 23 cal
• Spinach, frozen (1 cup) - 41 cal
• Spinach, cooked (3.5 oz) - 31 cal
• Spinach, cooked (1 cup) - 48 cal
• Tomato (3.5 oz) - 20 cal
• Tomato (cherry) - 3 cal
• Tomato (plumb) - 11 cal
• Tomato (small) - 16 cal
• Tomato (medium) - 22 cal
• Tomato (large) - 33 cal

Fruit

• Apple (small) - 55 cal
• Apple (medium) - 72 cal
• Apple (large) - 110 cal
• Orange (navel) - 69 cal
• Orange (Florida) - 65 cal
• Orange (California) - 59 cal
• 12 large strawberries - 72 cal
• 20 medium strawberries - 80 cal
• Pink Grapefruit (California) - 92 cal
• Pink Grapefruit (Florida) - 74 cal

Grain

• One breadstick (grissini) - 15 cal
• One Melba toast - 12 cal

Phase 3: Maintenance

After you have used HCG with a very low calorie diet for 40 days, you must discontinue the HCG. You may first notice that your stomach has shrunk and that you continue to want to do the low calorie diet for a few more days to weeks.

For the first few weeks after stopping HCG, all foods are allowed except starches and sugars, always controlled by morning weighing. In other words, if you start eating too much food you will see it on the scales. If this happens, cut back immediately to your body’s daily resting needs, otherwise called your BMR (basal metabolic rate).

For the second three weeks, gradually add starches and sugars in small quantities to your diet. Once again, you should control the amounts by daily morning weighing and correction of the excesses immediately. Don’t let yourself go and give up on all the hard work you have done to get to weight loss success. Keep motivated.

At the end of the 6 weeks after stopping HCG, you may do another round of HCG if you want to continue to lose more weight. HCG should only be used for 40 days because your body develops an immunity to it and its effectiveness is minimal after 40 continuous days. However, after a maintenance “resting” phase of six weeks, this immunity has gone and you may do the HCG effectively again for another 40 days. This cycle may be continued as many times as needed to help you lose the weight you desire.

Phase 4: Lifetime Eating, Exercising and Staying Healthy\

After you have lost all the weight you desire, gradually introduce more foods into your diet.