I'm curious how this works: you eat a log, then take hcg--doctor prescribed/administered? And then go on a 500 calorie diet? What keeps your body from triggering starvation mode? And what does hcg do to cause weight loss?

The reason this diet works is because it severly restricts your calories! There is no magic to the "hcg drops". In fact, if they are homeopathic, there is literally nothing in them. Homeopathic products are made from minerals, botanical substances, and several other sources. If the original substance is soluble, one part is diluted with either nine or ninety-nine parts of distilled water and/or alcohol and shaken vigorously (succussed); if insoluble, it is finely ground and pulverized in similar proportions with powdered lactose (milk sugar). One part of the diluted medicine is then further diluted, and the process is repeated until the desired concentration is reached. Dilutions of 1 to 10 are designated by the Roman numeral X (1X = 1/10, 3X = 1/1,000, 6X = 1/1,000,000). Similarly, dilutions of 1 to 100 are designated by the Roman numeral C (1C = 1/100, 3C = 1/1,000,000, and so on). Most remedies today range from 6X to 30X, but products of 30C or more are marketed. A 30X dilution means that the original substance has been diluted 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times. Assuming that a cubic centimeter of water contains 15 drops, this number is greater than the number of drops of water that would fill a container more than 50 times the size of the Earth. Imagine placing a drop of red dye into such a container so that it disperses evenly. Homeopathy's "law of infinitesimals" is the equivalent of saying that any drop of water subsequently removed from that container will possess an essence of redness. Robert L. Park, Ph.D., a prominent physicist who is executive director of The American Physical Society, has noted that since the least amount of a substance in a solution is one molecule, a 30C solution would have to have at least one molecule of the original substance dissolved in a minimum of 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 molecules of water. This would require a container more than 30,000,000,000 times the size of the Earth. Please feel free to ask anyone practicing homeopathy about these rules. Please feel free to look this information up on your own as well! Here is a link that might be useful: Homeopathy is literally just water

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

You can (sorta) "create" low-lactose several ways.... #1. Our adult son and now our granddaughter are both lactose intolerant and have used a low-lactose whey-based milk substitute called Morning Moo's (www.moosmilk.com) for many years. I make homemade pudding mixes with it, use it as a substitute for evaporated milk by making it "double" strength. I use the dry powder in mashed potatoes for really extra fluffy mashed potatoes. I add the powder to potatoes boiled in a small amount of water to make potato soup. I make flavored cocoa mixes using the dry powder and flavored non-dairy creamer powders, but it also comes in a chocolate flavor. This particular whey-based milk substitute has the best flavor of these types of whey-based products - nearly like milk. It's inexpensive per gallon when you purchase it in large bulk quantities (24.25# bucket - or larger). Our son (almost 31) has used a whey-based milk substitute "milk" since he was 4 years old on the advise of a pediatrition. Yes, there is some lactose, but most people who are lactose intolerant can consume low levels of lactose without any problems. #2. Another point to know... There is a percentage of lactose in dairy products (see link below). As a general rule of thumb, the higher the fat content the lower the lactose. The longer a cheese has aged, the lower the lactose. That's why most people who are lactose intolerant don't have any problems with consumption (in low to moderate amounts) of things like butter (0.8-1.0%) or cream. There's very little lactose in it. #3. Fermentation also alters the lactose. I make homemade kefir (using almost any kind of milk), and it reduces the lactose to a very low, very digestible, level. I use homemade kefir as a substitute for buttermilk and use it in our smoothies everyday (along with some kind of 100% fruit juice - 50/50 and other additions like flax meal, etc.). The longer you ferment the kefir, the thicker the curd gets. You can drain the thick curd like you would yogurt for yogurt cheese, and depending on how long it drains, I use it as a substitute for plain yogurt, cream cheese, sour cream, and even a cottage cheese type product. Do a Google search for - Dom's Kefir Insite - for more information about kefir. #4. Keep Coffee-Mate Single-Serve Portions (the size used for individual use in coffee/tea) on hand (I can get a box of 50 at Wal-Mart). They are lactose FREE and don't require refrigeration. Perfect for adding to oatmeal - as I found out during a recent ice storm when we were without electricity for an extended period of time. I could make instant oatmeal with water heated on our camp stove, and added the liquid from 2-3 creamers to the oatmeal. You can also mix the powdered non-dairy creamers with water and make "milk" for topping your morning cereal. -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: Lactose Percentages of Foods