I'm sure that the reason that they tell you not to exercise is because you are on a very low calorie diet, and are not eating enough to exercise. The reason why this diet works is because you are eating very few calories. There is no magic in the HCG shots.

I began the HCG shots on Sept 1st and as of today I have lost 11 pounds, not bad for someone who has tried everything within the past 3 years only to watch the scale continue to climb. As much as I am thrilled with this diet, I don't find it as easy as some profess. For instance, I seem to battle hunger pains daily, and though some days are better than others I am hungry a lot. I also have days where I crave starchy foods, breads mostly. A few days ago I was on the third day of a plateau with horrible hunger. I decided to take Trudeau's revised advise and get a 30 minute accupresure massage (fully clothed). Amazingly my hunger was gone for 2 days and the next day there was a 3 pound drop in weight. though I'd love to be able to get a daily massage, weekly is much more realistic. Can any one tell me if such hunger is normal during the protocal, if so what can be done about it?

For 3 weeks you should ideally follow the "maintenance phase" in order to allow your body to stabiliaze at your new weight. After your 3 days of eating 500 calories once discontinuing the HCG, you can start to eat other foods, but avoid sugars and starches whenever possible. They say it is imperative to weigh yourself every day, without fail, and if you gain more than 2 pounds, have a "steak day". This means, you go all day without eating anything, but drinking as much of the allowable liquids as you want. Then, for dinner you have a huge steak with either a raw tomato or an apple. This must be done on the day your weight goes above 2 pounds from your final weight on the HCG. I have not gotten to this phase yet but this was the information I was given with my HCG order (I am using the sublingual homeopathic HCG drops). Good luck!

Gagarl35, I am writing this for you and others who will read this thread. My wife was 60 when she did the diet. She wanted to loose around 20 lb. She went the minimum and lost the weight. I watched with interest and decided to do it if she was willing to help. She is the cook and it meant a lot of work for her with the food preparation. She agreed. I was 67 at the time and lost 65 lbs in two sessions from 235 to 170. I kept most of it off for a year but eventually gained 20 lbs. I did another session, I got that 20 off and have been maintaining that weight eating mostly protein. Gave up the toast for breakfast. The best part of the diet is we both gave up carbonated drinks. We drank coffee, green tea, and lots of water during the diet and have wine for dinner now. We sweetened the tea with Stevia. Now that is all we use except for the homemade ice cream she makes with Xylitol. No Splenda or Nutri-Sweet. Both will make you put on weight because your body doesn't get it's sugar fix so you eat more carbs to make up for it. Friends and relatives saw what we did and used the protocol with much the same success. The only one who had problems was our daughter. She doesn't eat a lot of meat so it was hard to get the protein. She did loose the weight when all was said a done. There are two ways to use the HCG. Shots or Bi-lingual. Those are the only ways a hormone can inter your blood stream. We all used the drops. Our instructions said you were to keep it under your tongue for a minute. That is the only place it will inter your blood. I made sure I kept it there for well over a minute and advise others to do the same. Once you swallow it, no more will inter your blood. The other thing some people had a problem with was they couldn't understand how your body could function on 500 calories. If you read Simeon's protocol, you will learn that when women are pregnant, the HCG in their body allows them to use their stored fat if they can't find food. It is from when we were hunters and gathers. This is so their body would not use the good fat in muscles and joints except as a last resort when the stored fat is gone. It is the only thing that releases the stored fat that is usually in the belly of men and thighs in women. Once your body gets a high enough level of HCG, it will release and use your stored fat if it can't get enough calories from what you eat. That is why you don't want any fat in your diet or skin products. You eat 500 calories and your stored fat supplies 1500 or more for what your body needs each day. That is why you lose a pound a day or more from the right places. If you run out of stored fat, your body will let you know and you will have to stop the HCG and up the protein. That happened to my wife. My typical breakfast was and orange smoothie with 1 orange with Sweetleaf Vanilla Creme liquid Stevia, . For a change she made it with 1/2 orange and 3 strawberries or 6 strawberries. One orange or 6 strawberries are max for a day along with 1 apple of any size. The main thing with lunch and dinner is the weight of the meat/protein with little or no fat. The vegetables weren't as exact. Two handfuls was the rule. She used Brag's Apple cider vinegar for dressing on salads with a few spices. I am easy to please and will eat most things. One of my favorites was a 93/7% hamburger patty with 1/2 an onion and 1/4 of a bell pepper sauteed with garlic in fat free chicken broth. She sliced a small tomato and put it around it. We have it now and during the maintenance period with cheese and more fat in the hamburger. A few times she made a Sorbet with lemon juice and Stevia as a treat The bread stick is important. We used Safeway Select with sea salt. I usually had them at night with an apple. You are supposed to eat 2. Sometimes I would have one of them between meals to take the edge off if I needed it. As I stated before,drink lots of liquids. On warm days we had iced green tea with Stevea. We do the same now. Your body expels most of the waste from burning calories through your breath and urine. There is not much solid waste lbs wise. I decided it was more accurate for me to weigh first thing in the morning after I urinated. I have weighed before and after a bowel movement numerous times and can't see a difference. If you wait until after a bowel movement, you can have all kinds of variables affecting your weight depending on how much you have eaten or drank if it is later in the day. The best thing about this diet is that it gets you off of sugar for a month or more. Stay off it. You will be much healthier in the long run. I am still amazed that I have no desire to drink a soda pop. Water is just fine. We hope it works as well for all who try it as it did for us. BobnBernie