[clomoll]

Hello All,

I stopped taking my drops and have remained on the VLCD for the past 48hours... Well 46 hours to be exact. I posted this question in P3 but also wanted to post here.. Since I stopped drops mid day on tuesday, does this mean that my 48 hours ends today at the same time? Can I have P3 food for dinner? will it make me gain??

[Donlupedron]

I believe it's 72 hours since your last dose of drops that you have to stay on VLCD before you can move on to P3. I'm hoping to get there very soon! Congrats making it this far!

[Siffidiolla]

Oh, I read that its 72hours for the injections and 48 hours for drops.. I'm just curious how they calculate the hours..obviously 48 hours is 48 hours, but I'm not sure if I can start P3 tonight because the 48 hours is up at noon... I'll take my chances. lol Thanks for the support on the loss! I think I'm going to change my final goal to 150 instead of 155. Looks like one more round for me after this short break Good luck on your journey!!

[baxodrom]

oh that's interesting i'd never heard that but i'm on the drops too! it would be nice if it is only 48 hours rather than 72! but yes you should be fine as lon as you have completed 48 hours, it shouldn't matter if it's morning, noon, or night when those hours are up.

[amusaasyday]

I had the exact same question! I am not done with drops yet - today or tomorrow, depending on when they run out, but I got seriously confused about the 48 vs 72 hours. The information that came with my drops said 3 days, but almost everyone I have chatted with on the forums told me that is for the injections. I still haven't decided what I'm going to do - split the difference and get up for a midnight snack at 60 hours???

Good luck in P3 and great losses!
~Fatty

[ireleda]

With drops you only have to wait 48 hours. Injections is 72 hours. And they do really mean hours, not days. My last drops were at 7:00 am Nov. 6, and I had a full breakfast at 8:00 am on Nov. 8. But...I wish someone had told me NO EGGS the first day, lol.

Greeneyed girl - Dinner tonight is P3! If I were you, I'd just add more protein and cook it in oil or butter - YUM! Stick with P2 veggies tonight and for another 2 days, double your protein, and if you're stable, add something new like eggs or cheese the third day. I am on P3D10 and jumped in full throttle with eggs on my first morning, then cheese a couple of days later...and had a gradual increase where I had to do a correction day (high protein worked for me), but I am now at .6 above LDW.

Fatfighter - you too only have to count 48 total hours, then make your first P3 meal whichever one comes up after those hours. GRADUALLY increase your calories (double protein and P2 veggies and add oil, butter, etc.) over the first week. Add one new item only every 2 days to see how well you're stabilizing, and go from there.

Good Luck and Happy Stabilizing girls!

[elects]

I'm taking drops and when I go onto P3 I'm suppose to wait 48 hours too. It starts when your last drops are taken. Eg. Taken at 6PM next day 6PM still P2 Food (no drops), day after until 6PM (no drops) will be total of 48 hours. The 3rd day you can start eating P3 food whenever you wake up!

HOpe that helps and not too confusing lol

[creewespock]

OK so this whole 48 hours instead of 72 for drops was totally new to me. I'd never heard it before. I've just done some scouting on the forum and a number of posts from vets like Grammy state that it should be 72 hours if your drops are Rx (which mine are), whereas 48 hours is OK if you're doing homeopathic drops.

[xiaoselangone]

I took the homeopathic drops. I waited 48 hours from my last drop to start eating phase3. I was also worried about gaining because my last drop was in the afternoon. My drops ended Saturday afternoon, so Monday afternoon I made a bigger portion of baked chicken. For dinner I had a mixed veggie omlette with 1/4c fat free cheese. I started eating bacon and all the other good stuff Tuesday. One way that I knew the hcg was out of my system, I was starting to get really hungry that last day

[Fekliopas]

I ate P3 food yesterday evening. I gained 1lb today. I'm hoping its because of TOM. I typically lose on Atkins induction and thats the foods I ate. I had a cheeseburger without the bun. If I gain anymore I'm going to do the 500cal diet. I dont even want to stop but need at least a week break because I want to go another round and lose the last 15-20lbs before christmas. ughhh..The light at the end of the tunnel is so close yet seems so far!

[Paybeskf]

Greeneyedgirl,

DON'T do a 500 cal diet! You WILL gain (I can tell you from experience)....today is day 11 of P3 for me (R1), and I am now back to .2 above LDW after doing the things I said in my post above after gaining 2.2 lbs. in the first 5 days! After my steak and high protein days (approx 1000-1200 cals each day), I have upped by intake of good fats, low carb veggies and LOTS of protein to 1555 cals - and I LOST .4 lbs yesterday! Almost as good as my not-so-great 1000 cal steak and apple day (only lost .6 lbs on that). I plan on upping again today to around 1700 cals to see how I do (I am 5'4, 154 lbs).

Please try adding the good stuff back into your diet for awhile before you go back to the drastic 500 cal plan that will put your body into starvation mode (and you will have accomplished nothing). Your body just needs time to adjust to eating, lol. Keep it up and I'm sure you will stabilize.

[uncoodync]

Ive been told so many different things that i'm frustrated. I didnt think we needed to be counting calories in P3. I thought its high fat and high protein. Im going to do Atkin's induction until next monday. Excluding Thursday. I'm going to eat like a normal human being LOL. I have a wedding next Saturday and plan to have a few drinks as well. I'll be sure they are a rum and diet coke so that there will be no carbs in it. I'm so sick and tired of dieting and having to have absolutel no social life because of the diet. I pretty much planned to have times where I can see my friends during this week I am taking off of P2. How bad is that? LOL One more round of P2 and I should be to where I want to be. Unless I lose it by the low carb way before I get back to P2. Im just ready to be finished and maintaining. can you sense my frustration! LOL Everyone in the forums is so great!! I love that we can all vent and have support on our journey!

[PetrZimin]

From P&I:

"Concluding a Course
When the three days of dieting after the last injection are over, the patients are told that they may now eat anything they please, except sugar and starch provided they faithfully observe one simple rule. This rule is that they must have their own portable bathroom-scale always at hand, particularly while traveling. They must without fail weight themselves every morning as they get out of bed, having first emptied their bladder. If they are in the habit of having breakfast in bed, they must weigh before breakfast.

It takes about 3 weeks before the weight reached at the end of the treatment becomes stable, i.e. does not show violent fluctuations after an occasional excess. During this period patients must realize that the so-called carbohydrates, that is sugar, rice, bread, potatoes, pastries etc, are by far the most dangerous. If no carbohydrates whatsoever are eaten, fats can be indulged in somewhat more liberally and even small quantities of alcohol, such as a glass of wine with meals, does no harm, but as soon as fats and starch are combined things are very liable to get out of hand. This has to be observed very carefully during the first 3 weeks after the treatment is ended otherwise disappointments are almost sure to occur.

Skipping a Meal
As long as their weight stays within two pounds of the weight reached on the day of the last injection, patients should take no notice of any increase but the moment the scale goes beyond two pounds, even if this is only a few ounces, they must on that same day entirely skip breakfast and lunch but take plenty to drink."

"Beware of Over-enthusiasm
The other trouble which is frequently encountered immediately after treatment is again due to over-enthusiasm. Some patients cannot believe that they can eat fairly normally without regaining weight. They disregard the advice to eat anything they please except sugar and starch and want to play safe. They try more or less to continue the 500-calorie diet on which they felt so well during treatment and make only minor variations, such as replacing the meat with an egg, cheese, or a glass of milk. To their horror they find that in spite of this bravura, their weight goes up. So, following instructions, they skip one meager lunch and at night eat only a little salad and drink a pot of unsweetened tea, becoming increasingly hungry and weak. The next morning they find that they have increased yet another pound. They feel terrible, and even the dreaded swelling of their ankles is back. Normally we check our patients one week after they have been eating freely, but these cases return in a few days. Either their eyes are filled with tears or they angrily imply that when we told them to eat normally we were just fooling them."

Whenever I'm in doubt, I always refer back to the Simeons protocol...every time I read it I get more and more out of it.

I also once read on the boards I think that if you are in the habit of dieting then you should calorie count to make sure that you are getting enough calories in P3, rather than trying to limit yourself out of fear that you will regain lost weight.

I think BethM also made a post once about how for P3 Week 1 she ate 800-1000 cals, then Week 2 1200-1500 and finally Week 3 1500+ i.e. whatever your maintenance amount is.

Hope this helps.

[MinisuipGaicai]

This was incredibly helpful to me, Mysterywhitegirl. Thank you for posting it. Especially the part about over enthusiasm. SOOOO true!!! I guess I need to refer back to my P&I again as I move into P3. I'm off drops as of tonight so Sunday night should be my first P3 meal, although I might just wait for Monday AM...

Thanks again!
~Fatty

[Veveseinlep]

Thank you for the posts! I guess I'm safe if im doing the induction... I was meaning that if I gained too much i would just go back on the diet. I haven't met my goal, yet. I agree it gets addicting. I love watching those numbers go down. Today is my first full day on P3 and to be quite honest, I'd rather be on P2 so I'm not worried about gaining, and the menu is so much easier. Almost cheaper, too!

[mikajuise]

Don't get too stressed about a little weight gain (as long as it's under 2 lbs. above LDW or LIW), you're starting to eat more than what your body's used to, so it may go up and down a bit at the start. Mine fluctuates daily, and it is kinda scary getting on the scale every morning, lol. And the reason I count calories is because I'm still not really hungry at meal times, so I need to make sure I'm getting enough in so I don't gain weight. And I also want to know my threshold in case I go a bit over, I'll know right away and can correct for it. I happen to really enjoy coconut manna (I eat it by the spoonful ) and that is 100 cals per T. I eat 3-5 T per day, so I need to see what my intake is so I don't go waaaayyyy over.

Enjoy P3, it's alot more interesting foodwise than P2!