[rozalinasi]

So for phase 1 I plan on eating tons of PB, healthy fats, avocados, nuts. Any other ideas?

For phase 2, I want to continue my gym routines, but I train hard. I do 30-40 mins cardio daily and heavy lifting every other day. I don't want to stop this routine - its taken months and years to get me to this point. Should I then increase my calories - maybe to 700? The extra 200 cals will probably come from protein shake and another serving of chicken or something.

DId you guys find your training to help or hinder your progress?

For phase 3, maintenance. Did you guys find that your exercise helped to stabilize the weight quicker and more steady? I'm afraid of losing weight and then hopping on the scale and BOOM - 10 pounds gained. But I'm hoping the gym will help me use up the calories as I increase.

Also, how much should I be eating for this phase? I understand days 1-2 are loading on fats, 3-30 are VLCD, and days 30-50 are....

Apparently this is where the hypothalmus is reset. Does that mean what ever I eat those 20 days, will be my new maintenance? People have told me my maintenance is 2400 with all my training, and maybe 1800 for my lightly active off days. Does this mean I go from eating 500 cals from p2 to 2400 the next day? This is what scares me, such a sudden jump... which could also happen on the scale.

Please help clear some of my questions! Thanks.

[UncoonsKala]

There's no one that can help me...? Not a soul?

[RokeIdeadioke]

Well, this is a very helpful forum, isn't it.

[CiccoineFed]

Actually, it is a very helpful forum. Could be that all those athletes are at the gym and will respond later. I'm not one of them, but just wanted to let you know that there is a lot of help here. Sometimes you just have to be patient till someone who can answer your concerns is online.


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[investor]

Okay lol sorry bout that. I'm just very anxious to start this! Despite counting calories religiously and exercising religiously my weight has always been the same. I'm really just under the impression that my metabolism is shot from all this dieting. So you can imagine my excitement if my hCG arrives today! That means load tomorrow and the next day, and then I begin .

[TobaccoNUE]

Well, this is a very helpful forum, isn't it.

Or just perhaps they see that you have answers to your won questions and dont see a need to attemtp to contribute.

did you read pounds and inches?

[fudelholf]

If you are into heavy lifting and doing hcg check out bodybuilding.com. I think they address hcg more from the angle you are looking for. I work out on the diet because my body is used to it. After the first week of P2 I add in an extra ounce of protein at every meal. But I don't always know how that translates into calories. I definitely have to back off my more challenging workouts during the diet or I really start dragging and get discouraged.

I hear you about having put in the work for months and years and not wanting to lose that....but if you are here I assume you are overweight which probably also took you some time to achieve (well, you said yours has always been the same...but it sounds as if dropping weight is important to you). Kind of a crossroads and deciding which is most important (strength maintenance vs. weight loss) might be a good starting point.

You can work out on hcg....but I would caution you closely monitor yourself since you aren't giving your body much to work with. You are burning half your daily calories just in that cardio routine.

I'm a 35 year old guy, lost 32 in round one which ended in February, started P2 yesterday and was 6 lbs over my LIW so I kept off 26 successfully for months and four of my six pounds gained came in the last two weeks when I knew I was starting a new round and let my guard down a bit. The diet works. The good news for you is that your workouts probably have provided you with good discipline. DO NOT CHEAT and follow the diet to perfection....that's all there is to it!

[bertanu]

I didn't answer because while I consider myself a bit of a fitness fanatic, I don't consider myself an athlete. I would back off on the cardio during P2, take it down a notch and just do gentle exercises like swimming or yoga. Keep the weight training but don't overdo it. Listen to your body, it will message you. Some people add a bit more protein, or a protein shake on exercise days. According to Pounds & Inches, regular exercisers have an easier time stabilizing, but I also think that has to do with what & how you start eating in P3. If you stick to the no added starch or sugar rule, and increase the fats/proteins/veggies during P3 then I think you'll do fine.

I rarely count calories, and do not accept the calories in/calories out paradigm. Eat cleanly, move your muscles, consult the scale and the tape measure and everything should be OKey-dokey.

[TeksPaisimi]

Okay, thanks guys!

Lol, sorry about the earlier post. I am a pretty sarcastic/funny person. Internet is not always the best form of communicating that. Don't worry, I have read P&I.


Well, I think the blessing of hCG is that it teaches how to really watch what you eat - and shows that what goes in really does make a difference (scale weight wise.) All of these changes contribute to healthy life style habits after stabilization phase.

So when it comes to working out, I do not think/see myself continuing these intense training sessions. I merely thought the harder you train, the cleaner you eat, the better you look. Considering my diet history, that little motto of mine does not apply to me, as my metabolism / thyroid is far too damaged from taking dieting/exercising to excessively.

So maybe I will lighten my exercises. I'll do lighter weights, and do light cardio - walking, swimming, etc. I used to do 4-5 mile runs. Even 10 at one point but like I said, it all seemed to backfire on me. So maybe chilling out on the exercise will help me to a healthier lifestyle later on.

Again thank you for the replies

[veizKinquiz]

Okay, thanks guys!

Lol, sorry about the earlier post. I am a pretty sarcastic/funny person. Internet is not always the best form of communicating that. Don't worry, I have read P&I.

Kool Kool

What are you goals for working out. Are you looking to bulk up or slim down or gain strength, or endurance? What most ppl dont get is that we have gentic tendencies for a specific application and we can really only focus on enhancing what we have to start off with.

[bunkalapa]

Skip the protein shake and eat REAL food. if you want to work out have three servings of protein instead of two, make them slightly bigger servings too. that will help pick you up to 700-800 calories.

Also no need to go easy on the weights if you're eating the extra protein. Obviously don't push new boundaries, but at the same time no need to scale back on that.

where you need to scale back is the cardio. I'm on my second round of hhcg. I was doing crossfit (extremely intense workouts combining lifting,cardio, bodyweight exercises and even gymnastics) and have stopped while on this diet. I am still lifting weights with a short warmup on a rowing machine.

What I noticed on the diet is that I felt like had more energy. This was likely from the lack of grains in my diet (grains cause imflammation in your system, this is scientifically proven). I didn't need massive amounts of caffeine at my 6am deskjob start time, I was pretty awake and alert. However this energy was totally misleading, I first noticed this on medium paced hike I went on with friends. I was feeling great but 30 min in I started getting really tired. My theory is that metabolizing fat for energy is much slower than sugars/carbs which are quick dirty energy. If you attempt to do 40 min of fast cardio that you are used to, you are likely going wear yourself out quick.

The lifting on the other hand, I was able to keep that up, I'm still doing about 90% of what I was before I started the diet.

I'm not sure how much weight you have to lose, myself it is about 50lbs (30 done first round, hoping for 20 this last round). Realistically you have to expect to lose some muscle if you're going to lose a large amount of weight such as myself. You can minimize this by continuing the lifting and eating extra protein, REAL protein, not shakes.

I'd personally ditch the cardio or do it really lightly. You may be scared of losing endurance and stamina, but realize whatever you lose will easily be gained back especially since you'll be so much lighter after the diet!

[intifatry]

Good stuff BA....I was doing crossfit and had to stop in my first round as well. I completely agree about the cardio. My lifts always been fairly consistent on hcg but you do have to be careful about pushing even the lifts too hard. I found myself getting a little lightheaded and winded when I pushed extra hard and it wasn't gradual but rather came on in an instant.

If your body is used to working out, it's completely fine to continue on this diet. I enjoy the working out part of it because I feel like I'm toning even further while dropping some weight.

[vesiasmepay]

Yes I forgot to add that my lifting is slow and gradual now, not like your typical timed crossfit workout. I just do the straight single rep, five times, style workouts, increasing as I go, but keeping my final lift below my pre diet maxes. I could see how doing sets with a lot of reps could induce light headeness. We are eating hardly any carbs/sugars so that get definitely come on quickly (which is why I advise against the cardio).

I have definitely noticed some stuff got harder. When I had stopped crossfit I had just hit 300lb on my back squat, I had some trouble getting 265 up a couple weeks ago.

As for bodyweight exercises, I'm much better with push ups and pull ups now that 30lb is off me

[bppstorr]

In R1 I lifted heavy 3 times a week to maintain muscle. You can't build muscle on a caloric deficit like this. I just wanted to keep what I had. This time I am doing a full body (heavy weights 3 sets of 5-8 reps) workout 3-4 times a week. It is a quick 40 min. thing and then I do 10 min. of steady cardio. I do eat 1.5 oz of extra protein after. You can see my pics at the end of R1 in my album if you want. How are you doing so far? I do notice I am weaker but I am okay with that because I know it is normal for the cals I am eating.

[Susanleech]

definitely agree with you on that, you can't build anything, the goal is try and maintain as much as you can, and in reality if you lose 20lb+ you are likely going to lose a little muscle with it, but the keeping at the weights and extra protein should minimize it.

[Lt_Apple]

Aww guys thank you SO much for the replies I haven't been checking my threads lately

Thank you for all this info. Well I didn't work out the first week and the weight quickly fell off, like in 4 days I think I went from 140 to 133. I know lots was water weight and muscle because I took measurements and they hadn't changed. So that's when started lifting again. I picked up the 8 pound weight (I usually use 12-15 for bicep curls and arm exercizes) but the 8 pound weight seemed so heavy. So I'm training on 8 pound and will work my way back up. So yeah,muscle loss right there. :/

Also have no been doing cardio. My cardio sessions were really intense - hiit and steady cardio, heart rate up to 170 for about 30-40 minutes. No way I could sustain right now. So I do an hour light walking around my neighborhood. MUCH more pleasant than my old work outs lol.

And to be honest I'm feeling very normal, not tired what so ever. Occastionally I will get a little dizzy a half hour after eating fruit, so I cut my fruit servings. I think thats just because fruit sugar spikes blood sugar levels and then they drop, leaving me dizzy. I've always had dizzy problems in my past, so I'm thinking of just cutting out fruit for alittle bit or having it in half a serving with protein.

I have upped my protein in place of the fruit and feel much much more at ease. Now my weight loss is still around 132-133 so I have a feeling now that the first few days are up and the water weight is gone, I think that now hopefully I will start burning the fat stores not muscle or water.

I'm also taking r-ala and guggulbolic by syntrax - supposed to help preserve muscle on keto diets. And also l carnitine at night. Lately noticed some joints and muscle ache, and some tingling down my legs... is that normal? I heard potassium helps with that so I take 4x 99mg potassium / day.

Ok guys, thanks so much for responses. love the information coming