Shaun, We try to keep our sodium between 1000 to 1500 mg/day, so I know where you're coming from! It's tough at first, but we found that after about 4-6 weeks your taste buds start to change and the lower salt food starts tasting much better. So if you've just been doing this for a month or so, there's light at the end of the tunnel. You asked about eating out: that's tough but not impossible, even if your budget doesn't run to higher end restaurants that will essentially cook anything you ask for, from scratch. We've had some luck with Macaroni Grill (but you have to be kind of emphatic with your server about your request.) They may sort of think you're just being picky, not that you have a serious medical need. In our case it is literally a matter of life or very serious consequences. My DH is the one with the restriction, but I follow it, too, for solidarity and simplicity. He usually makes the request, then I follow up with clear statement to the server about how important it is that nothing be pre-seasoned. Or if it has been already (vegetables are a big prob here as they are parcooked in salty water during prep) I ask that the food be rinsed very well in running water then briefly reheated. You also can usually expect that you're getting a bit of left-over seasoning from previous food cooked on the same hot top or grill. We just make allowances for that. We never eat restaurant bread as as it is very high in salt - often higher than other commercial breads. This is because most "restaurant-made" breads are actually from commercial mixes where salt has a role in ingredient shelf life and simplified gluten-handling at the restaurant. If we don't know about the bread, we just ask that it not come to the table. Baked potatoes, though naturally low in salt can be high if they are salt-baked, so ask about that. Pizza and pasta sauces ar pretty much out, too. (Except for homemade, of course.) And almost all sauced dishes are too complex to parse and usually loaded with fats, as well. We save those kind of dishes for at-home cooking where we can control the sodium. For instance, I make Pad Thai at home, but would never risk it in a restaurant. However, grilled chicken breast, or steak, or broiled fish are good bets. Plain salads (sans dressing and croutons) are usually do-able. Vegs. that are not parcooked are OK, too. We don't restaurant desserts for other reasons, so that's not an issue for us. If it was, i think we'd ask for it in a take-away container and eat it at home in smaller quantities. For chain restaurants when traveling, we've had excellent success at Ruby Tuesday's. They are invariably pretty accomodating about our needs and their salad bar is vast and allows one to chose. We also make a point of speaking to the manager after the meal to praise their flexibility; it's apparently a corporate policy to meet low-sodium requests with equanimity. And as a rule that works. Are you aware of the several excellent very low sodium cookbooks? I can post some names of ones I've found useful, if you need them. I'm sure you realize by now that what "normal" people consider low sodium is way over the top when you're on a medically necessary low sodium diet. I am on a nagging campaign to get the big cooking mags to lower their recipes' sodium content. Fine Cooking at least posts the sodium content in the back of their mag. Cook's Illustrated still has their head in the sand and some of the recipes are absurd (even for people with no sodium restrictions.) Are you listening, Cook's Illustrated? Get with the program! I noticed that there was mention of Morton's Lite Salt. Be sure your doc OK's that for you. People on medical salt restrictions often can't use that safely because of the higher potassium levels. Sorry! For household salt, I use Diamond Crystal Kosher salt. It's 290 mg for each quarter teaspoon. About half of what ordinary table or Morton's Kosher is. It's not that it's less salty -salt is salt - it's just that texture makes it fluffier, so less sodium when measured by volume. And the larger volume makes it easier to measure and control. I also use a tiny scooch of Maldon Sea Salt, as a finisher just before serving on some things. Again its crystalline structure makes it different, and I think adds a useful "hit" of saltiness, even at tiny quantities. After endlessly fiddling around with my regular set of measuring spoons trying measure teeny quantities accurately, I found a set of tiny scoops (with silly cute-sy names) that I have calibrated so I can add 25-50 mg of salt accurately. And accuracy is important when you're banging up against a firm limit that isn't just your taste buds. (And as an aside if I know we're planning to eat out in the evening, or while traveling I double down on the salt restriction earlier in the day to make sure we have room for a bit of a splurge later-or restaurant food that isn't what it seems.) Early on I was pretty intensely focused, but after a couple of years, I've relaxed a bit and some very salty things are regularly served here, just in very small quantities and/or well-balanced with other things. Our diet rules are also much more complex than simple salt restriction because of other medical/diet issues, so I have had to learn where to be flexible and where to find ways to make food inviting and tasty. After all you'll starve to death faster than hypertension will kill you if you got so bummed out about your food that you stopped eating it with relish. I was too scared to try this at first and probably too rigid about the rules and not in a good way, according to my DH! As for specific (tasty) prepared products with lower-than-expected salt levels: I can share some that I've found, but maybe we should start a new thread so others trying to find the info can access it easily. I spent so much time in my supermarket peering at label after label that I eventually attracted the manager who thought I was doing something nefarious. And I've found that even on familar products that you're used to using you need to re-check the label when you buy new containrs as the companies often reformulate the products and upping the salt level is a favorite trick. If you find that be sure to call and give 'em a piece of your mind about it! We do use some prepared/convenience foods, but we choose them very carefully and often divide an entree into two portions and add it to a big salad and home-cooked veg. to fill out the meal. Some days you just need the convenience factor. Some, but by no means all, of the Annie's brand of lower sodium products pass muster. A few prepared foods have separate sauces that you can add after cooking in the MW. If they've got the sodium levels broken out by with and without sauce, then you will likely find that adding half or less of the sauce brings you in at a "low-enough" level for use. There's one brand of exceptionally tasty canned tuna with only 25 mg of sodium/serving. (Without exception so far all of the no-salt-added tuna we've tried was ghastly.) The problem with our fave brand of tuna is that it's pricier, but then since we cook mostly from scratch I figure it evens out as scratch cooking is sooo much cheaper. Eden makes no-salt added canned beans in many varieties, which are quite good in a pinch (not as good as home-cooked, though.) Muir Glen has an ever-growing line of canned tomato products with no added salt that are great (love, love love the fire-roasted no-salt-added stuff!) Both Pacific and Imagine aseptic-packed soups have low(er) sodium versions that are quite good (still 300 mg/400mg per 1 cup, though). I keep some on hand, always. Try all your available broth and stock options to find one that you like. The quality of the low-salt versions varies, as does how low is low. Try ethnic chinese and oriental markets for the lowest-sodium soy and nouc mam (Vietnamese fish sauce) versions. They are always labeled in comprehensible ways, even if just in chinese or japanese. Don't get too discouraged by the "you can't make bread without salt" common knowledge. Yes, you can, but it usually takes some fiddling around with each recipe to hit the sweet spot. Sometimes a lot of fiddling, and wasted ingredients. I also find that low-salt cheese is not great, so we reserve some of our salt "allowance" for regular, even high salt cheese when it's called for. As an example I often grate Piave Vechio (a very high salt 560 mg/oz, extremely high flavor) cheese over a plain jane salad or soup or pasta. I use a microplane grater and find that a very small quantity makes a huge cheesy taste, often adding only 50-100 mg to the overall dish, but to great effect. Cottage cheese is problematic: the no salt added stuff is too bland, but the regular stuff too high. I solve that by buying both and mixing by volume. Half no-salt and half regular comes in right on the money. (BTW, Nancy's brand makes a fantastic cultured - very tangy - type of cottage cheese. That also can be added to the commoner no-salt stuff to jazz it up.) You also need to watch simple stuff like ordinary frozen without sauce vegetables. Some have silly amounts of sodium added. For instance one big brand (Birdseye???) has has peas with both 90 mg/serving and 0 mg/serving. The 0 mg version is just fine - not sure why you need the extra salt anyway. Finally, I found that it was always useful to keep a supply of tasty, reliable easy to fix things on hand so that a recipe adjustment that flops, or a long day with no thought to dinner isn't a catastrophe. That's my version of convenience foods. L

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?

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

Most of these reviews/responses are from people that only read and hear what they want to hear about the "HCG" diet, and probably anything else they don't understand! I think they missed the part about the maintenance program "resetting" your metabolism, and of course encouraging healthy eating and exercise. I think the reason why Dr. Oz stayed neutral is because it works! I will not tell you it is right for everyone, but I will tell you it works 100% of the time, for 100% of the people that do the program correct, how do I know...I have personally lost 110 pounds in 135 days, have contributed to a book on HCG, and have helped well over 100 people. I am not selling you anything, or even giving out my name, simply want people to understand that this works, but only if you are willing to give it a chance to owrk; otherwise find a program that works for you, either way quit posting ignorant posts and possibly disuading people from this or any other program that may help them, especially when you do not understand it! I wish everyone success, whether you choose the HCG program or not on a happy healthy life, and lifestyle!!...TJM