Jericho's HCG Diet Log!

[Jericho22]

There is obviously a lot of controversy around the HCG Diet, but after sorting through all the negative crap people post about it I actually managed to find a few successful logs that were very helpful. These success stories inspired me to try it out for myself and post my own log...so here it goes!

Age: 23
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 190 lbs
BF: 20-25%? (haven't bothered trying to test it so this is a complete guess)
Lifting Experience: Less than 1 year

My goals for this diet:
-Lose 15-20 pounds on a 23 day diet and end up around 170-175
-Maintain as much muscle/strength as possible

Daily 500(ish) Cal Diet:
2x Fruit - apple or orange
2x 100g Lean protein - boneless skinless chicken breast
2x Vegetable - Bag salad topped with salsa

The protocol also allows for 2 Italian breadsticks or melba toast, but I'm not a fan of melba toast and I don't know if there is any other acceptable food to swap in for the breadstick so I'm just cutting this out.

Supplements:
HCG 200 iu daily injected subcutaneously
Creatine mono
Jack3d pre-workout

I'm continuing to use creatine and a pre-wo to help maintain muscle/strength and hopefully continue to progress in my workouts. If it seems like this is going to be a problem with the weight loss for some reason I will cut them out, since that is obviously the ultimate goal for this diet.

The protocol calls for 125 iu of HCG but I've seen logs using as much as 175 iu and some people recommending even more than that. I was planning on doing a rather short cycle anyway so with 5000 iu of HCG that gives me enough for 200 iu daily for 25 injections.

Workout:
4x5 Bench
4x5 Bent over rows
4x5 Deadlift or Smith Squat (alternating each workout)

Going to start out doing this 2x per week since I'm not sure how well it's going to work out while on the diet. If I feel good after the first week I might go up to 3x per week.



I'm a little late in posting this as I'm already about a week into the diet, so my follow up posts will have morning weigh-ins, workout results, as well as other notes I have been jotting down about the experience.

I hope this will be helpful for anybody that is considering this diet for themselves, so everybody feel free to join in!

[MidwestBeast]

Go with the apple versus the orange for your fruit source. And I'd personally cut the salsa on the salad. 1 cup of broccoli twice daily will be more beneficial to you nutrient wise.

Good luck, man. And you'll be fine working out; you won't lose any noticeable strength.

[Jericho22]

Go with the apple versus the orange for your fruit source. And I'd personally cut the salsa on the salad. 1 cup of broccoli twice daily will be more beneficial to you nutrient wise.

Good luck, man. And you'll be fine working out; you won't lose any noticeable strength.

Thanks a lot man for the advice and the encouragement, I really appreciate it. I've been eating 2 apples most days since they just seem to be more satisfying than an orange. My salad with the salsa comes in around 40-45 calories since I use a lot of salsa, I figured that wasn't a noticeable difference from the 30 calories in a cup of broccoli. You're absolutely right about the nutritional value though. I'm going to start switching in broccoli for one or maybe both of the salads.

I'm about a week into the diet and just decided to post a log instead of waiting til the end to give a review. I'm going to post my results from the first week later this afternoon, so if I mention an orange or a salad don't think I'm just ignoring your advice haha.

[FL3X MAGNUM]

Always been interested in how this will work. Subbed.

[Jericho22]

3-21-11
190.2 lbs morning weigh-in (starting weight)

Started daily injections of 200 iu HCG first thing in the morning. First 2 days of injection are the “loading phase” before you start the diet. This was a fun way to start a diet, 2 full days of stuffing myself full with whatever food I wanted. I probably should have eaten more the first day since I didn’t really stuff myself; I just kind of ate whatever I wanted. Not really sure how important these first 2 days are but I’m trying to follow the protocol as outlined so the 2nd day I completely stuffed myself with pizza, chips, ice cream, etc. all day long.

Day 1 of Diet
194 lbs (+3.8)

Put on a few pounds of water weight from eating so many carbs, not surprising. I’m not counting this as my starting weight because I wouldn’t be holding that much water if it weren’t for the protocol’s “loading phase” and this would go away after a couple days of eating normally. Now that I think about it, a lot of the weight loss claims by this diet could easily be inflated by 5+ pounds because of this reason.

Day 1 SUCKED, but it was kind of interesting. I woke up “hungry” which is usually not a good sign. I say “hungry” because it wasn’t really hunger, more of just the empty feeling that usually comes right before the actual stomach rumbling hunger. I had always thought of this as actual hunger but it turns out they are very different things. I spent basically the entire day feeling like I was just on the verge of being really hungry but never actually got there. Really weird feeling.

Meals for day 1:
Apple
Chicken + Salad
Orange
Chicken + Salad

I noticed that after a while I would go a little crazy over the empty feeling, but eating even a tiny amount of food would make me feel better for a while. I used pickles as snacks, and eating just one pickle spear would give me some taste of food and ease the empty feeling. Tomorrow I’m going to split up the chicken and salad into separate meals so I can eat more often.

Day 2
190.8 lbs (-3.2, +0.6 total)

Today was a lot better than day 1. I don’t know if it just took my body a day to get used to not eating or if it was just psychological but I actually felt fairly normal today even though I was barely eating. I split up the diet into 6 meals instead of 4 which definitely seemed to help.

I also added 2 caps of Mega-T Green Tea supplement I picked up at Wal-Mart. I've taken these before and they seemed to help slightly with energy and a little bit of appetite supression. Plus they're pretty cheap.

Only real problem was a headache that started just before my workout and didn’t go away until after. Definitely killed my intensity but I powered through and managed to still have a decent workout.

Workout:
Bench
140x5 (+10 lbs from last workout)
160x5 (+10)
180x5 (+10)
195x4 (+1 rep)

Was going for 5 reps on the last set but I hit a wall on the 4th. I’m going to attribute this largely to the headache and a general lack of intensity. My highest 1 rep bench is 200 lbs (granted that was several months ago) so 195x4 is pretty intense for me.

Bent over row:
100x5
120x5
140x5
160x3 (+5 lbs)

My back is definitely one of my weak spots, and progress was slowing on rows even before I started the diet. I hit my mark on each set so can't really complain here. Next workout the goal will be 160x5.

Deadlift:
120x5 (+20 lbs)
140x5 (+20)
160x5 (+20)
170x4 (+10)

I’ve only been deadlifting for a few weeks so I started out light, which means I’m progressing easily. I hope at least this one lift continues to go up at a decent rate during the diet since the weights are still fairly easy.

Not a bad workout considering the headache. Only problem was I felt extremely lightheaded and nauseous after each set of deads, even the warmups. The last set I could have easily had the 5th rep but I felt like I was going to spew so I stopped. I’ve had this problem sometimes with high rep deads and squats, but it’s never been an issue with 5 rep sets. Hopefully this was due to the headache and doesn’t continue to be an issue.

[EasyEJL]

it would be hard to believe a 500 calorie diet not working for loss but I wonder outside of placebo effect how much difference the HCG could make.

[Jericho22]

Day 3
188.2 lbs (-2.6, -2.0 total)

Tried to switch it up a bit and had a piece of chicken for breakfast instead of fruit to see if it would make a difference. Didn't go well. I felt like crap for 20-30 mins then I ended up eating the apple and immediately felt better.

Had a little more "hunger" than yesterday, probably due to wasting a piece of chicken in the morning and trying to spread the rest of my meals out a little more. Energy wasn't great today either. I didn't really feel bad, just lazy and unmotivated.

Day 4
187 lbs (-1.2, -3.2 total)

No issues today. Had an apple for breakfast when I woke up, then after that I just ate whenever I started feeling empty. My allowed food lasted all day and I didn't really feel deprived at all.

Day 5
185.2 lbs (-1.8, -5.0 total)

Hunger was nonexistent today, energy levels were up, and I felt good all day. The only time I even started to feel a little hungry was right after my workout, and that went away before I even got home to eat. I had a piece of chicken when I got home (around 7:00) and that was enough to keep me satisfied for the rest of the night.

Workout:
Bench
140x5
160x5
180x5
195x5 (+1 rep)

Finally got 195x5, but my form went to **** on the 5th rep and I threw my back into it a little too much. I'm at the point where it would have been hard for me to progress even on a normal diet, so I'm going to slow down a bit. Next workout I think the goal will be 200x1-2 then increase by just 1 rep each workout.

Bent over row
100x5
120x5
140x5
160x4 (+1 rep)

My back wasn't really feeling great after the last set of benching, so I didn't manage to get the 5th rep on my top set here. Still added 1 rep so it could have been worse. I've always found it harder to push myself on back exercises than on chest (even when I do them on separate days), not sure if that is normal or not. Still I might try switching up the order at some point and doing rows first to see if it helps.

Smith Squat
105x5 (+10 lbs)
125x5 (+10)
145x5 (+10)
165x2 (+10)

I suck at squatting. I bitched out and didn't go for the 3rd rep. When this diet is over I'm thinking about going to a upper/lower split so I can get in more leg work, which I have kind of been neglecting.

Overall my strength didn't seem low after 5 days of barely eating, but it definitely felt harder to really push myself on my top sets.

[Jericho22]

it would be hard to believe a 500 calorie diet not working for loss but I wonder outside of placebo effect how much difference the HCG could make.

I agree completely, and that seems to be the main point that is brought up by people that try to dispute this method. The simple fact that I'm giving myself a shot every morning and have a VERY strict meal plan is definitely making me stick to the protocol every day.

My answer to that question is that I can't imagine eating 500 cals a day and not feeling like I was starving myself. There is no way I could stick to that under normal circumstances. I tried to drop some weight before this by eating around 2000+ cals and I had a hard time dealing with the cravings that would set in when I got hungry.

If I can actually stick to eating 500 calories a day, and not feel hungry, that tells me that the HCG has to be doing something. What is it doing? I have no idea, but that would have to be one hell of a placebo.

[Jericho22]

Day 6
185 lbs (-0.2, -5.2 total)

This was the first day my weight didn't drop at least a pound. Not sure if it could have had something to do with the Jack3d or the workout last night, or if that was just a coincidence. I'm not going to worry about it too much unless it happens again tomorrow.

Today was food day at work. That sucked. On a normal diet I would have probably gotten hungry at some point in the day and I may have gone crazy with all the food that was lying around, but I wasn't hungry at all today so it really wasn't an issue.

Day 7
183.4 lbs (-1.6, -6.8 total)

Nice to see a big drop after only being down 0.2 yesterday.

I went over by about 100 calories today because I gave in slightly and had 2 mini muffins instead of the orange I took to work. Need to remember to take an apple next time and maybe this won't happen

Normally I wouldn't think much of 100 calories, but in this case that's a 20% increase...we'll see what kind of effect this has when I weight in tomorrow.



And now we're up to date on the log! Today is day 8, I will post results tonight after my workout.

[laserbluess]

i thought all the HCG diet things were trying to sell people into using HCG orally. im not sure i could survive on 500 calories a day for more than 2 days.

correction, im not sure people around me would survive for more than 2 days if i were to only eat 500 calories a day.

[MidwestBeast]

Normally I wouldn't think much of 100 calories, but in this case that's a 20% increase...we'll see what kind of effect this has when I weight in tomorrow.

The other factor is the source those calories are coming from. I wonder how much of a role that plays, as the other carbs you're taking in are from fruit and it also burns off about as many calories to eat that apple as its worth to begin with.

Regardless, good log and good job so far. The great thing is that after the first few days, the hCG will be fully kicked in (probably quicker since you're dosing it higher to boot) and you'll be releasing the fat stores as your energy source, so you won't actually be hungry. The hard part is the mental desire to eat. If you can stay mentally tough, you'll be fine. You'll actually feel pretty good and your workouts won't even suffer.

The hardest part will be getting used to looking flat, too. Beat your ego and you'll do just fine.

[Jericho22]

i thought all the HCG diet things were trying to sell people into using HCG orally. im not sure i could survive on 500 calories a day for more than 2 days.

correction, im not sure people around me would survive for more than 2 days if i were to only eat 500 calories a day.

I am using HCG injections, which were used in the original protocol and as far as I know is the only true form of HCG. My understanding is that the drops are some sort of homeopathic mixture which is basically a very very diluted form of HCG. I know there are doctors advertising the method now and a lot of them may very well be marketing the drops because a lot of people will be put off by having to inject anything into themselves every day. Not sure if the drops are effective or not but I wanted to test out the actual method, not just whether or not the drops are BS.

I didn't really explain it in my first post but the whole theory (as Beast mentioned in the last post) is that the HCG makes your body mobilize it's fat stores to use for energy, which greatly diminishes the need for energy from outside calories through food. All I can say is that so far I actually feel good, not like I'm starving myself at all, and I have enough energy to get through my workouts and continue to improve my lifts. Logic says I have to be getting energy from something because there is no way I'm getting it from 500 cals of food.

[Jericho22]

Regardless, good log and good job so far. The great thing is that after the first few days, the hCG will be fully kicked in (probably quicker since you're dosing it higher to boot) and you'll be releasing the fat stores as your energy source, so you won't actually be hungry. The hard part is the mental desire to eat. If you can stay mentally tough, you'll be fine. You'll actually feel pretty good and your workouts won't even suffer.

Thanks Beast!

Have you tried this diet before? I ask because all of your advice seems to be spot on and you basically just described exactly how I've been feeling.

You're absolutely right about the mental part being the hardest. Day 1 just the thought of not being able to eat was driving me crazy. If the higher dosing saved me from having to feel like I did on day 1 for a couple more days then it was well worth it, because that was by far the worst I have felt through 8 days. Once I made it through that first day I should be able to make it the rest of the way.

[Jericho22]

Day 8
183.2 lbs (-0.2, -7.0 total)

Only down 0.2 pounds today, damn those muffins! Still this is the lowest I've weighed in 3-4 months, after only 7 days on the diet. Can't complain about that.

Had a side of broccoli with my chicken for lunch and I have to say it was delicious. I'm still finding that it works a little better for me mentally to split the meals into smaller, more frequent feedings. I felt a bit empty in between lunch and my pre-wo apple. It was easy enough to deal with, I just found it interesting since I hadn't had this feeling AT ALL for the last several days.

I upped my Jack3d to 2 scoops today and holy crap I had a lot of energy. Now I remember why I love this stuff! Felt great for my workout all the way through, even after my workout I had a lot of energy so I went home and cleaned for an hour.

Bench
140x5
160x5
180x5
200x3 (+5 lbs)

Top set felt great and I was freakin psyched. After the first rep I felt like I just blasted through a huge mental wall. Logically I know it was only a 5 lb increase, just like I've been doing for weeks, but the little bitch in the back of my mind kept remembering how hard it was the last time I put 200 pounds up on the bench (barely got 1 rep with a spotter).

Bent over rows
100x5
120x5
140x5
160x3 (-1 rep?)

I was psyched up from the bench and still had great energy and focus from the Jack3d so I think I've simply reached a plateau here. This doesn't seem to have anything to do with the diet since the rest of my workout felt great. I was going for 5 reps but I stopped after 3 because I realized I was jerking the weight way too much. Starting next workout I'm going to drop the weight a bit and go for 8 reps instead of 5. I might take the same approach with squats.

Deadlift
120x5
140x5
160x5
180x5 (+10 lbs)

Deads are still progressing faster than anything else and don't feel really heavy yet. Only issue here was that I felt really light headed after the last couple sets. Felt great during the set but once I dropped the weight I think I just stood up too fast. Need to remember this for next time.



Overall this was as good as I've felt during a workout in a long time so I can't say the diet has had any negative effect in that area. A lot of people (probably some with a lot more training experience than me) have said the same thing in their logs and reviews. Very encouraging day!

[EasyEJL]

I didn't really explain it in my first post but the whole theory (as Beast mentioned in the last post) is that the HCG makes your body mobilize it's fat stores to use for energy, which greatly diminishes the need for energy from outside calories through food. All I can say is that so far I actually feel good, not like I'm starving myself at all, and I have enough energy to get through my workouts and continue to improve my lifts. Logic says I have to be getting energy from something because there is no way I'm getting it from 500 cals of food.

outside of the fact that there is no scientific documentation showing that, or hinting at a mechanism of action that would cause it to do that.... And if you want to quote the orginal study keep in mind that was done with women, who do naturally product HCG during pregnancy so its effects in women would be wildly different than those in men.

Basically the diet is ketogenic in nature as its 50g or less of carbs a day. So both the fat loss + getting energy from stored fat is explained pretty well by that alone. The only thing I can see the HCG doing is raising your testosterone levels and keeping them high even though you have basically no saturated fat intake.

[MidwestBeast]

Thanks Beast!

Have you tried this diet before? I ask because all of your advice seems to be spot on and you basically just described exactly how I've been feeling.

You're absolutely right about the mental part being the hardest. Day 1 just the thought of not being able to eat was driving me crazy. If the higher dosing saved me from having to feel like I did on day 1 for a couple more days then it was well worth it, because that was by far the worst I have felt through 8 days. Once I made it through that first day I should be able to make it the rest of the way.

I actually did try it for a very short amount of time. I got 8 days in on it at 125iu / day. The reason I stopped was the same reason I cut my last cut (at the start of the new year) short - I started gaining weight lol. I was losing 2 pounds a day for the first 4 days, but after that I stalled out for a couple and then it started going back up. There is no logical explanation for that, as far as I'm concerned, with a 500 calories only being taken in. That being said, I'm glad I at least tried it and I didn't mind it one bit.

I'm waiting to get into an endocrinologist to hopefully find an explanation out as to why my body is reacting the way that it is. I may even try this again after the fact. I'd read two different accounts of bodybuilders specifically utilizing this and having great success.

Another thing you can do, use a little of the zero calorie spray butter on your broccoli

Keep working hard, bro.

[Jericho22]

outside of the fact that there is no scientific documentation showing that, or hinting at a mechanism of action that would cause it to do that.... And if you want to quote the orginal study keep in mind that was done with women, who do naturally product HCG during pregnancy so its effects in women would be wildly different than those in men.

Basically the diet is ketogenic in nature as its 50g or less of carbs a day. So both the fat loss + getting energy from stored fat is explained pretty well by that alone. The only thing I can see the HCG doing is raising your testosterone levels and keeping them high even though you have basically no saturated fat intake.

I'm not saying it's true or not, just outlining the theory that's been around for 50+ years. My only point in favor of the theory is that of all the oppositions I have read, I haven't seen anybody that can explain how an active human body can function on 500 calories a day and not feel like crap.

This is the first keto diet I've ever tried, if you want to call it that, so I really don't know a whole lot about how they work. Although after this I'm planning on going to a Primal/Paleo type diet which could easily turn into a type of keto diet if I'm pretty strict with the fruits. Then I can have a better comparison of how this feels as opposed to a normal keto diet.

[Jericho22]

I actually did try it for a very short amount of time. I got 8 days in on it at 125iu / day. The reason I stopped was the same reason I cut my last cut (at the start of the new year) short - I started gaining weight lol. I was losing 2 pounds a day for the first 4 days, but after that I stalled out for a couple and then it started going back up. There is no logical explanation for that, as far as I'm concerned, with a 500 calories only being taken in. That being said, I'm glad I at least tried it and I didn't mind it one bit.

I'm waiting to get into an endocrinologist to hopefully find an explanation out as to why my body is reacting the way that it is. I may even try this again after the fact. I'd read two different accounts of bodybuilders specifically utilizing this and having great success.

Another thing you can do, use a little of the zero calorie spray butter on your broccoli

Keep working hard, bro.

That is definitely weird that you could gain weight on 500 calories. I could see maybe going up a little bit for a day or two just due to normal fluctuation but I would think it would have to go back down quickly.

Do you know if it's normal to not lose weight on workout days? I worked out last night and woke up today 0.2 pounds HEAVIER, even after losing only 0.2 pounds yesterday. So today is day 9 and I weighed in exactly the same as I did on day 7

I'll have to see if I can find the stories from the bodybuilders that used this diet, that would definitely be interesting. People that oppose this method always jump to the fact that it was originally used for only obese people.

[EasyEJL]

honestly I doubt your scale is accurate to .1 lbs to begin with, plus just variation in hydration can be as much as a 2-3 lb difference a day. Thats part of the initial couple days rapid loss by the way, depleting glycogen reserves which also lowers retained water.

[MidwestBeast]

Thats part of the initial couple days rapid loss by the way, depleting glycogen reserves which also lowers retained water.

Definitely this.

That's why I also am not a fan of the way that the diet is popularly marketed, anyway. They want people to do a "gorge" day, which will lend itself to allowing you to rapidly lose a lot of that weight, as well. But yeah, the majority of the weight that comes off so quickly at the beginning is just simply watching your body go flat and losing the glycogen stores.

As far as the bodybuilders using this goes, I just googled hCG and bodybuilding or something generic like that and came across one of the stories that way. The other one was someone I talk to on a personal basis.