Is your metabolism is working properly? There’s an accurate way to find out.
- Download any recent Life Insurance Weight Chart. Find your gender and height. There will be a normal range: low, medium and high. Choose the highest weight.
. - Weigh yourself. Are you heavier than the number above? If so: Fail. [It doesn’t matter whether this is a goal you believe you’ll ever reach.] If you’re not heavier than the highest level for your height: Pass. Go on to:
. - Measure your waist around the belly button (even if it’s not your natural waist).
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If you are a man and that number is more than 40 inches, even if you weigh the appropriate number of pounds: Fail. Less than 40 inches: Pass.
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Women: if your waist is larger than 35 inches: Fail. Less than 35 inches: Pass.
. - Measure the circumference of your neck. Yes, your neck. It is a more accurate metabolic assessor than even your waistline. And far more accurate than your BMI. See: “Neck Circumference as a Simple Screening Measure for Identifying Overweight and Obese Patients” in OBESITY RESEARCH Vol. 9 No. 8 August 2001. Of course if you do such strenuous weight-lifting that you have bulging neck muscles, and you’ve passed the tests above don’t worry, you’re fine.
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If you’re a woman and your neck circumference is greater than 13.4 inches: Fail.
Equal to or less than 13.4 inches: Pass.
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For men, greater than 14.6 inches: Fail. Equal to or less than 14.6 inches: Pass.
. - Eat a healthy diet for the next 364 days. Lots of animal fat, modest protein, and between 70 to 100 non-sugar carbs a day. Cheat a few times during the year, with pizza, pasta, cookies and the occasional third helping of something you really like even if you know it’s bad for you. Put away the scale and tape!
. - On the 365th day weigh and measure yourself again. If your weight is within a few ounces of what it was the previous year, and if your neck and waist is within a quarter of an inch of what it was the previous year: Pass with flying colors! Your metabolism is in good shape. It knows how to handle occasional excess carbs and calories perfectly, and your body has very tight control over your blood sugar. Know what that makes you? Normal. Normal as we’ve defined it for generations until very recently. And you’ll stay that way if you keep eating as you’ve been eating, and weigh and measure yourself once a year.
Normal is what the body wants, which translates into “stability” from month to month, year to year. This is how the majority of our population lived until only three generations ago, when obesity and diabetes was rare, before the Age Of Fat Phobia. My father’s weight and waistline didn’t vary by more than a pound or an inch from his twenties to his sixties. We’ve forgotten that it’s how people used to look throughout society. Our body only fails when we fail to provide it with the food it evolved to eat: lots of fat, very little sugar, just enough animal protein to function, and just enough vegetable and starch carbohydrates to stay out of ketosis, and instead liberate excess adipose fat via lipolysis. This way our livers don’t have to work overtime providing sufficient glucose for those few cells and organs (like the brain) that need glucose in addition to ketones. We’ve forgotten what it’s like to be normal.
And we’ve forgotten what it’s like to be truly healthy, to not need to diet or starve ourselves to weigh the same from year to year. We’ve forgotten what it’s like to just eat good food (lots of it, not the 1500-1700 calories a day that’s the new ‘normal’) and not beat our bodies into submission with boneless, skinless cardboard chicken breasts, and supplements and hormone injections just so our scales will show a particular number, and the clothes in our closets will bear labels with a particular number. We’ve forgotten what it’s like to eat the healthy, non-processed, non-added-sugar carbs our bodies need, like homemade fermented bread (sourdough) and pasta, brown rice, corn, beans, lentils, potatoes (white and sweet), modest and in season fruit, and of course lots and lots of veggies. And since our brains view long-term carbohydrate restriction exactly as it does long-term caloric restriction – as starvation – depriving yourself of these foods even while eating a lot of good fat will only keep you Hypothyroid with Thyroid Hormone and Insulin Resistance. And fat.
This is madness. And the fact that we do it over and over again: lose the pounds via starvation, thus grinding our metabolisms into the ground, then regain the pounds in something called Phase 3 is worse than madness. It’s insanity. Because the very definition of insanity is to keep doing the same things over again while expecting a different outcome. Remember: To gain excess fat, you must first become Insulin Resistant, a precursor to Diabetes. By dieting, you only continue to treat the symptom (excess fat accumulation) rather than treat the disease – insulin disregulation. If you cannot eat modest fruit and starch carbs without ‘gaining weight’ – then you, my friend, are insulin resistant. Fix the insulin problem and the starch problem will disappear.
The SugarFree Protocol (yep, it has a name) is designed to break the Crazy Cycles and help turn a broken metabolism into an unbroken one by healing it.
SFP has two components, and each is individually designed for each Participant:
Part 1: For one to three weeks, eat reduced calories with sufficient fat and protein to avoid “starvation mode.” The foods eaten, though reduced in quantity, must contain enough fat to let the body know that the reduction is temporary. “Things might be bad out there right now,” you tell your brain, “but we’re not reduced to rummaging in the cabinet for cardboard.” The foods must also be fairly low in carbs in this brief phase, so that insulin levels can drop low enough for lipolysis to take place. When that happens, excess adipose fat cells open, their fat is released, and the body then burns as much energy as if you ate many more calories — and you are therefore not hungry.
This is the process Dr. Simeons correctly described, but incorrectly ascribed to HCG. As the Food Experiment (still-ongoing) has already conclusively proved, HCG has nothing to do with lipolysis, fat burning or weight loss. Only the types of food eaten or not eaten controls that, because those foods either raise or lower insulin, which in turn either prevent or support lipolysis.
Why one to three weeks, and not a set time frame for everyone? Because, as this blog has repeatedly stated, everyone’s metabolism is different. Yours is not the same as mine. Those Participants who were the least insulin resistant did best on Part 1 of the SFP: they had the least hunger, and they lost the most weight and inches (fat) most quickly.
Those who were the most insulin resistant had the most hunger (as they did on HCG), and/or lost the least weight and inches (fat), more slowly or not at all. To quote from Part IV of this series:
First Law of Losing: To the extent you are insulin resistant is the extent to which any given diet plan will work or not work for you, regardless of its rules.
If you’ve followed our Participants through all the experiment’s stages you’ve seen that in Stage Four — with added fat, more calories and no HCG at all — most lost as many pounds and inches, and as rapidly, as those on HCG and Simeons protocol. Without hunger. And most importantly, they did so while becoming healthier, as evidenced by their lowered and more stable blood glucose numbers. Most of the participants came from HCG with horrendous fasting insulin levels, caused, I believe, by a combination of HCG and the Simeons protocol itself. Some came with close-to-diabetic levels of blood sugars, and some with thyroid hormone resistance, likely caused by eating severely depressed calorie levels for an extended time. Regardless of those numbers, all improved once they stopped taking HCG and began to eat fat and more calories again as per the SF Protocol.
During the experiment one Participant dropped out, and one, the most severely insulin resistant, will likely need medication to help overcome that resistance as her metabolism is too broken for food alone to heal it.
Each Participant’s caloric intake and nutrient break-down was individually designed, based on their demonstrated insulin resistance (via blood tests, meter readings, or performance in the other stages of the experiment — or all three) as well as on their nutrient needs according to their mass and the SFP formula. Had everyone simply been provided with ‘numbers’ like 50 grams of fat, 50 grams of protein and 25 grams of carbs, some participants would not have done as well as they did. Some would have done worse.
Everyone, including the ‘Control’ participant (who never took HCG and who entered at Stage Four), has now moved on to Maintenance, and a new participant with diabetes (Sandi) has started Stage Four and has had excellent results in only four days.
Part 2: For every week they were on Part 1 of the SFP, each participant will now spend two weeks on Maintenance, the goal of which is to allow the body to stabilize at their lower weight and to accept that weight as its new ‘set-point’. This is the most difficult phase of any diet plan because as everyone whose ever dieted knows, losing the fat is nowhere near as hard as not putting it back again. When your brain is used to ‘seeing’ you in one way (starving), making it see you as fat as you really are is difficult — so it will send ‘store’ and not ‘burn’ signals. Changing that isn’t easy, because the brain hates change even more than husbands. 🙂
One way to circumvent this is to let the body know that the Mastodon are plentiful again, and the good times are back. This means eating at least 1000 more calories a day than Participants ate in Phase 1, most of which must be in the form of animal fat. Why fat? Because animal fat is what we evolved to eat — and when we eat a lot of it, we tell our brain that all is well. Food is plentiful today, and it will be plentiful tomorrow. Which means our body is willing to burn, instead of store, any excess calories we might eat that day. After all, more will arrive tomorrow.
Second Law of Losing: The extent to which you are still insulin resistant is the extent to which you will have difficulty consuming all the calories you need to eat on Maintenance. As your cells become more insulin sensitive, and your metabolism returns to normal from a dormant state, consuming, digesting and burning large numbers of calories will become easier.
But Participants also eat lots of animal fat because, in the absence of excess protein or carbohydrate, fat does not raise insulin. And without raised insulin, fat storage cannot take place. Just as fat liberation cannot take place without lipolysis, fat storage is impossible without excess insulin. Without it steering excess glucose to the liver for conversion into triglycerides, fat cells cannot acquire more fat. That’s basic Biology 101, undisputed by medical science for centuries.
Each Participants’ insulin improvement (via meter readings) in Stage Four was analyzed, as was the number of pounds and inches they lost and how quickly. This information, combined with each participants’ mass, helped to create a new calorie count for each participant in the Maintenance stage. The SFP formula then provided the correct count of fat, protein and carbohydrate grams for each participant, and even a new list of foods that could be eaten.
Participants were warned that, given the very high fat content of the Maintenance plan, exceeding their allotted amount of protein or carbs would be problematic, and that in order to accomplish the goal — going through an entire round of Maintenance without gaining pounds or inches — sticking to their numbers would be crucial. This won’t be forever. As their metabolisms heal, and their cells become more insulin sensitive again, Participants will no longer have to weigh or measure their food because their bodies will once again know how to treat any excess calories (not required by that day’s energy output) properly: they will burn, not store them. When Participants — or you — reach that stage, they will be able to get on a scale once a year, and weigh exactly what they weighed the year before. They will be normal. They will be healthy.
Participants in this stage will report once a week, which will be on Monday. Participant reports will include:
- Weight
- Measurements
- Meter readings
- Comments about their week went and how Maintenance is working (or not) for them.
In addition, Participants will conduct experiments to discover how different foods affect their insulin resistance. For example, beginning in M, Week 2, a small amount of fruit (berries only) may be added. However, participants must eat their berries with a measured amount of fat (heavy cream) but no other food, then take meter readings at one and two-hour intervals afterward. If the readings spike, they must skip a day, and eat the same berries again. But this time they must either double the fat, or halve the amount of the berries. Then they will take one and two-hour meter readings. If those readings remain normal, the Participants will know how much fat they must always eat with a certain amount of fruit, and as long as blood sugars remain stable it can become a permanent part of Maintenance.
This knowledge (which will apply to other foods) will allow Participants to take control of their future food consumption in ways that work for and not against them. And they will learn how to test any new food they’d like to add, in a way that ensures weight and fat stability. Forever.
Have been reading whatever I could find about your theory of IR, HCG diet, etc and am very curious about your protocol. Is it published anywhere? How can I become a participant? Thanks for any info you can give me!
Robbie, please look for an email from me shortly.
I sit here today, 13 days into another round of HHCG. I AM the definition of insanity. I have continued to do the same thing and continued to get the same result while expecting a different outcome. I am a 42 year old, 5’4″, 130 lb INSANE woman. My neck is 13″, bust 35, waist 27, hip 36. I have done the Simeon’s protocol many times and, unlike many, have never gone rouge. I adhere strictly to the number of calories, food choices, etc. I don’t eat or drink anything off the original protocol. I have been a staunch advocate of this program. And I have never stabilized or maintained my weight losses for more than a year. Insane.
This round has been brutal. I have not lost weight the way I did in the past. I am retaining water. I am starving and weak and miserable. I’m no quitter but the only thing keeping going is my fear of what will happen if I quit this thing in the middle of a round.
I have read and re-read the threads here. I am sure that I fall into your IR category, your hypo thyroid category, your Wilson Temp Syndrome category, Non-alcohol liver category, etc., but am not sure to what extent. I would like to get the labs done, but don’t know when to do them (because of the HCG), or who would read them and be able to disseminate the results.
I’m not sure of the science, but many things you say ring true for me, intuitively. I am not interested so much in the number on the scale, only that it is healthy and stable. I am looking for balance in my health and weight. If I never lost another lb but could maintain within a normal range I would be ecstatic, though normal for my size is as low as 118! It has never felt right to completely discard all carbs from my diet but I have eliminated, disdaining them for more protein and fat in an attempt to maintain my weight.
I have so many questions: How do you determine how much protein a person should consume for their mass? What foods to eat, what foods to avoid? What are healthy lab results, what aren’t? How do I get off the HCG protocol without completely screwing up what is left of my metabolism? How can I get into your study!? I am on my knees, here, lady, begging for help…
Grandeuce, you’ve really been through the mill, and you have my sympathy. 🙁 As for participating in the study, look for a private email from me shortly.
Your other questions are a bit trickier to answer, but I’ll try after first saying that I am the Anti-Magic-Bullet, Anti-One-Size-Fits-All-Person. I’ve written a lot of words on this blog, and almost every one of them points to the same thing: You can only become fat if you first become insulin resistant. There’s no other way fat storage can occur. And although there may be other complicating hormonal factors in losing that fat (such as leptin and/or thyroid hormone resistance), you can only acquire fat via IR. Bottom line: if you are over-fat, you are insulin resistant. Period.
So healing a healthy metabolism and losing that fat isn’t just a question of “how many grams of protein should I eat? how many grams of fat?” — because the answer doesn’t just depend on your mass. It also depends on your level of insulin resistance and on your flavor of insulin resistance. It depends on whether you are also hyperinsulinemic, have PCOS and/or thyroid hormone resistance and if so, what kind. And then there’s dieting in general and HCG dieting. Have you done those? If so, how badly have you already trashed your metabolism and lost lean muscle mass?
If a thousand people answered the questions I just asked, and if each answer was different (and it would be) — then only a fool or a typical diet book or forum would provide a single number that would work for every one of those people. Yet I’ve already read hilarious complaints on one of those forums demanding that I do just that! “Give. Us. A. Number! NOW!”
Yet I understand them. They see how many pounds and inches our experiment participants have lost so quickly and easily and without hunger. And without damaging themselves by taking a dangerous hormone created to sustain a pregnancy. Naturally they want to try it for themselves, but most of them are unwilling to either have the diagnostic tests they need in order for me to provide them with their numbers, and they refuse to change their eating habits based on the glucose meter they are also unwilling to obtain or use. In other words, what they really want is that magic bullet, which sadly, does not exist.
But unwittingly, they have given me a way to help everyone else who truly wants to get off that crazy yo-yo carousel forever. When I replied to one of them who once again asked for “The. Number.” — by saying “That information hasn’t been published yet” — what I meant by “Publish” was what WordPress calls it when you go from Draft to Publish on your blog. You literally hit a “Publish” button, and I meant that the info would be given when I “Published it” the next Part in this series.
But she took it to mean “Publish a book” and when I read her remark about that, a cartoon light bulb went off over my head. Yes! She was right. I should gather all the information on the blog — and more that hasn’t yet been ‘published’ — and get it out where lots of folks can read it. I thought about how to ensure that everyone got the personalized information they needed, and realized that if I put it all into a Kindle book (for which you no longer need a Kindle; Amazon gives you free software to read it on your computer) and priced it at a nominal sum, under five bucks, I could provide a FREE consultation via email for everyone who bought a copy.
I mentioned this idea on a few HCG blogs who have been kind enough to add links to my blog, and asked if folks would find this beneficial. The answer was a definite YES. What about you and my other readers? Would this work to provide the answers to your questions and protocol needs? Readers, please chime in!
As to your getting off the HCG protocol — it’s easy. Just stop taking it. All but one of our participants were on HCG when they began the experiment, and when we reached Stage Four they were asked to stop taking it and they did. Overnight. No problems whatsoever, so please don’t worry about that. You should have received my email by now, and I look forward to hearing from you.
I’ve been following your experiment with intense interest! Just wondering if/when you’ll give us those ratios/formula?
Keep up the great work and thanks for doing this!
Susan, thanks so much for the kind words. 🙂
As for your question, please see my long reply to Grandeuce and give me your feedback about my Kindle idea!
I am excited about the Kindle idea!
I am in the last 5 days of my fourth and last round of HCG. I don’t know how IR I am, as I’ve lost a lot of abdominal mass going through each round. That said, this round has been tough and I am looking forward to all that fatty goodness coming up in Phase 3. In fact, I’ve been reading your blog (a lot), and a few others’ and studying the Primal Blueprint and the Optimal Diet, and I’m pretty sure that a high fat, MODERATE protein (high protein definitely doesn’t work for me) and low carb approach is the right one for me to not only stabilize on, but to live healthily on through the rest of my life. I’m so excited to try this approach!
That said, your protocol is deeply interesting to me, because if things do go awry (as I don’t know what my metabolic issues are, other than an inability to tolerate starch and sugar), knowing that there is a healthy, non HCG way to lose fat if necessary. In fact, I’d be volunteering myself for your experiment now if I weren’t mere days away from moving on from HCG.
The Simeons protocol was a godsend for me, in its time. But as one of your other commenters said, there comes a time to rethink things, and for me that time is now.
All that to say – yes! Please publish a Kindle version!
I do want to say one thing though, and that is that the bloodwork is pricey, and I wonder if it’s not so much inability rather than unwillingness for some to not have it done?
Anyway, can’t wait for your book!
Susan, a high protein diet might work for some, but it does not seem to work well (or at least, not for long) for folks struggling with IR. Nor is a lot of protein necessary, as long as it’s animal protein. The RDA for protein is only 40 grams — what most of the rest of the world eats — and not the massive 70-150 grams that some Americans eat now. And that’s not weight/volume, that’s just the number of grams of protein itself.
None of our participants are on HCG, nor are they allowed to be. Most were on HCG when they started the experiment, but that’s because the first three stages were designed to show once and for all that it’s the nutrients, not the HCG, that ‘liberates fat cells’. In Stage Two, when they stayed on HCG and kept eating 500 calories a la Simeons — BUT — 250 of those calories were required to be sugar calories, the result was amazing. Within two days HCG had failed to abate hunger in any way, and participants’ weight loss came to a screeching halt, and some even gained weight. On only 500 calories! Where was the magic properties of HCG then? Nowhere to be found. As soon as the participants dropped the sugar, HCG became ‘magic’ again. And that was the end of that. 🙂
As for the book, I hope to get to it in the next month or so — so thanks for your vote!
Anytime!
What you were saying about the effects of sugar while on HCG resonated with me. The idea that it isn’t the HCG that kills the hunger is one I feel resistance to (although I’m certainly not arguing the point), but how else then would I explain that I never feel hunger during the 72 hour weaning off period before P3? You’ve given me a lot to think about.
I agree re the moderate protein – I gain weight with high protein diets, and I’m thinking my body is converting that protein to glucose. The Optimal Diet gave me a range of 48-53g of protein a day, so I’m thinking I’ll start with that and see what gives from there.
Like I said – I’m excited and impatient to begin this new leg of my journey to healthiness!
Susan, that actually proves my point. You wean off HCG, yet don’t feel hungry. That’s because your carb intake is still so low your insulin is low — thus, you are still in ketosis (from the starvation level calories) and are also able to get into lipolysis. Remember, lipolysis is the only biological process able to open fat cells and release fat. And of course, as Dr. S said (though he had the wrong reason), when fat cells open and the fat burned for fuel, it’s the same as if you’ve eaten a lot of food. If you go back and re-read Part II in the series, you’ll find all the details.
If it was the HCG — then our participants wouldn’t have been miserable and hungry while on HCG and 500 calories — of which 250 were sugar. All those carbs raised glucose, which raised insulin, which prevented lipolysis — and the HCG could do nothing about it, because HCG does nothing to begin with. How did we know glucose and insulin were raised? We saw it on their meters! Once the participants stopped eating the carbs, their glucose dropped, their insulin dropped — and lipolysis began again. Hunger disappeared. How do we know the insulin dropped? We saw it on their meters!
This is something every reader still on HCG can try for themselves, and I urge them to do it, so they can dismiss HCG from their minds forever. Just take your HCG as usual, eat 500 calories as usual, eat your protein as usual — but substitute 250 calories of anything else with fat-free sugar carbs, like hard candy, cookies, etc. Within 72 hours you will be starving, no matter how well you thought HCG worked for you up until that moment. Any weight loss will cease, and you will likely gain a pound or two of water weight. After four days (IF you can last that long), go back to eating the regular protocol and presto — the HCG will ‘work’ again.
If HCG is the ‘active factor’ that ‘liberates fat, which abates hunger despite low calories’ — then scientifically speaking, it must do so regardless of the composition of those calories! The minute you change the composition of the calories, and fat cells refuse to open — then it proves HCG was never the factor at all, something else must be. And that something is lipolysis.
The lack of appetite during the weaning off period is exactly what gave me pause for thought and decided me on your protocol.
So… deep breath. As of last night I quit taking HCG, and as of this morning, I am following your protocol. I am modeling what I’m doing after your experimenters, and I’ll let you know how it goes.
Wish me luck! I’m excited!
I’m excited for you, Susan!
But remember — no sugar in any form. No fruit, of course — but no bread with sugar, honey, malt barley, agave, cane, maltodextrin, etc. (hard to find; you may need to buy baguettes or sour dough from a good bakery) — and read the labels on everything, even as innocuous as salad dressing or soup. You’d be surprised. And whatever you do, eat every drop of fat that’s allowed as good fat: heavy cream (no milk, half and half or plain yogurt unless it’s ‘greek-style’), butter, etc. Absolutely, positively NO chicken breasts or cucumbers. 🙂
Steak, pork chops, bacon, ducks, etc. and the dark meat of chicken — with skin — if you must. And lots and lots of great green veggies, the kind that have real nutrients (not lettuce) Please check in from time to time here to let us know how it goes!
I am so very excited about this SugarFree Protocol! I learned about it through Jen Payne- as I have been a diehard HCG’er and HCG blogger since 2009. This all makes complete sense and I am so excited to try it out! Right now I am in the process of transitioning. Letting go of one way of thinking to embrace another can be difficult and at the same time exhilarating. 🙂 Thank you so much!
You’re so welcome, Caitlin. I’m excited that so many “diehard HCG’ers” like you have read and embraced what I’ve written and I’m grateful that so many of you (Hi, Jen!) are spreading the word. AND trying out the protocol for yourselves, with as much good success as our participants! Please come back from time to time and tell us how you’re doing. 🙂
good4yougoodies- Found your blog interesting. I have read through a great deal of it. There is a lot of information so I couldn’t find specifics on the perils of HCG. Can you briefly share them again or link me to where they are?
Also, I was curious, with all the research you did on lipolysis, did you look into the effect cortisol has on a human’s ability to metabolize fat and maintain a healthy weight?
Keep up the good work!!
Gia
Gia, you’ll find the link to the HCG study that shows how it makes full-fledged fat cells from Proto-fat cells in Part III of this series. Great if you’re pregnant — but otherwise, scary stuff. As for cortisol, indeed I’ve done a lot of research on it, because I’m the poster child for what happens when it goes awry, as it often does in PCOS. I haven’t been able to do my Body By Science intense weight-lifting for nearly a year because it raises cortisol (normal, for that type of exercise) but unlike normal people, where the levels drop in 24 hours, my levels stay sky-high for days. And it seems to trigger massive gluconeogenesis no matter how little protein I eat.
The metformin has helped me so much in becoming insulin sensitive again, as has my protocol, so I will probably try another session in a few months to see what happens. The good news is that by eating the way I do, with so much good fat, I haven’t lost any of my lean muscle mass. Although my biceps are no longer pumped, the girls are still there when I flex. 🙂 Hopefully I’ll be able to really get back to it in the fall.
And thanks for the kind words!
Sfg I was wondering if I can participate in your experiment? Between having pco and hypothyroid I’d love having the guidance. Please do the kindle — its a very good idea!
Hi, Nicole — thanks for the vote! As for the experiment, I’ve been besieged by offers, so the next round is full up, but maybe the round after that. 🙂
SugarFree,
Hi, just wanted to chime in with my vote of confidence. I hope you write a book. You explain things clearly with some humor. Your protocol makes so much sense. It takes some work, but it is WELL worth it! You rock!
Booklover
Aw … shucks — LOL. Thank you!
Hi SFG and All,
Thought I would give a quick update on my current status. I am awaiting all of the blood work I had done last week. I have been sticking to the plan I was given by SF in Stage 4 with a little more fat. I have not lost any weight — but have not gained any either. I am hanging in there at 162.8 this morning. My measurement have stayed the same as well.
I’m hoping to get back in the game ASAP. I actually miss posting and hearing from all of you. Will update everyone on blood results soon.
Another quick tidbit for SF: WRITE THE BOOK!
Angie — so good to hear from you! We all miss you too, and hope your test results get here soon.
Sounds like you’ve been doing really well, because for someone as insulin resistant as you not to have gained anything while you’re waiting is terrific. Sounds like you’ve stayed on course and on protocol. Well done!
The book … more like a pamphlet, given my lack of time these days … I want to get to as quickly as possible. I hear from so many people these days, all saying the same thing: Write The Book! — that it’s become a sort of mission. 🙂
Question: I ‘pass’ all your tests at the beginning. Everything within normal range. So why do I have a fat gut? Why does fat go straight there? THIS is what I want to lose. Even though my waist is below the 34″ cut off, it still seems fat to me. I am 5’10”
Unfortunately, as I’ve repeatedly stated, being in ‘range’ is useless for any accurate diagnosis at all. It’s Big Pharma and Big Government that sets those ranges, not science. And what science says is: if you have a fat gut it’s because despite your normal range — you are insulin resistant. You couldn’t get a fat gut without being insulin resistant. And without seeing your actual test results, there’s just no way to say exactly which flavor or IR you have, what stage you might be in, or how to fix it. Sorry. 🙁
I’ve never done HCG; I was very impressed by your articles on metabolism. I lost 45 lbs last year on a low-carb plan, but hit a plateau last fall that I’m not past yet. Recently I had a bomb-out on carbs, so I really needed a better plan. I started Step 1 a week ago, though I seem to be nearer to 1000 cals, with 59% fat, 30% protein, 11% carbs. It’s a LOT less food than I was eating, and the meals are small, but satisfying. No sugars at all. I’m using FitDay to keep track of everything, which is very helpful.
My fasting BG started as 99-102, and this morning it’s down to 84! Yay! 1 hour PP peaked at 151 last Thursday, and since then has been around 102-104. So I think I’ve really turned a metabolic corner. I’m thinking a few more days on Step 1, then
off to Step 2 and see how that goes. I have lost 9 lbs, nearly all water (to be expected) but feel loads better with more energy. It really makes me nuts when I eat a high-carb diet.
Thanks so much for your marvelous information and encouragement!
Thanks for the kind words, Lynnet! I’m glad to hear my protocol is working for you. Please check back in a few weeks and let us know how things are going for you. Your blood sugars are definitely headed in the right direction. 🙂
I love reading your blogs/work. Great information!! It all makes perfect scientific sense – unlike the other theories of low-fat high-carb. And thank you for shedding light on the excess protein connection as well. I found your experiment on the HCG forum as I briefly tried that diet. I was unable to accept their information as fact … far from it.
My first inclination that the protocol was bull crap was that the “low fat diet” allows “beef” with no indication as to what type of beef is considered okay for consumption. That just didn’t make sense to me as we know the different parts of the cow vary widely in fat content. Some would argue that the beef in Europe during that time was leaner than what we have now. Okay, maybe…but there still were fattier and leaner parts of the cow back then.
Then I noticed when I ate beef, I had better losses and I felt better. My conclusion: It has to be the fat that made me feel satiated and quite honestly “happier”. I found myself angry when I ate plain nasty old white meat chicken. So I tried full fat blue cheese dressing — still lost and felt so much better than using vinegar and stevia — come on that is disgusting!! So very quickly I was blowing holes left and right into most all of the protocol theories and I use that word loosely as they are more an unproven hypothesis. Dr. S’ protocol is definitely not a “theory” scientifically speaking.
From there, staying on HCG went down hill. I could not believe anything about it and I started to believe it was actually very unhealthy and harmful. I kept reading the insanity on the forums along with some of the success stories — which also seemed crazy as I read them. So I struggled to pull all my thoughts and beliefs together with some biochemical facts, and from there HCG’s validity completely fell all apart. Not to mention, the last time I thought “let me get through the round just to get this weight off quickly” — I felt awful on the stuff — and started having sleep disturbances and anxiety. I stopped the HCG.
I have a friend who yo-yo’s on and off HCG every other month it seems for the past 2.5 years. She initially lost 34 lbs and within in 3 months gained it all back plus some taking her weight to an all time high. She has gone on it countless times now. Mostly, she can’t stick to the strict protocol and winds up binging on high carbohydrate foods. Interestingly, in the process (she was already hypothyroid) her thyroid went bonkers for no “apparent” reason according to her doctor.
Anyway, through my own health battles I know that excess estrogen interferes with thyroid function. I was told by my doc (who does prescribe hcg) that HCG will unnaturally raise your estrogen levels…so I scratch my head and really challenge those HCGers to look more closely at what they are doing to their bodies. The truth is they don’t really know. It’s total desperation. I do believe taking HCG (especially over and over) is total and complete INSANITY. Deep inside of me I knew that it was not right or good for the body. Like so many others my desperation to lose my fat overcame my deepest gut instinct! That is a sad thing to admit out loud.
Lesson learned … I am now using the Optimal Diet. I have had some ups and downs trying to find what my body likes and needs. Every time my protein goes over 50 grams and I am on high fat, I seem to gain or stay the same. I am 5’7″ so theoretically that should not be excess … so it just confirms what you have said over and over again. It is not a set number or a magic bullet. You have to find what parameters work for you as an individual..
Amen to you for publishing this info! I would love to see you put something on Kindle.
Eve, thank you for the kind words and for confirming what we’re trying to do with the experiments on the blog.
As to why you gain weight on even 50 grams of protein a day, there’s no way to tell until/unless you get the metabolic tests I suggest. You could have PCOS. You could be hyperinsulinemic. Or even diabetic. Or, you could have leptin and/or thyroid hormone resistance and might need medication as well as the healthy diet you’re eating now.
In the earliest stages of insulin resistance healthy food choices go a long way to reversing it, but once IR becomes entrenched, food alone may not be sufficient to reduce it.
I am currently working on a book for the Kindle — it’s my summer project — and hope to have something up by fall. Thank you for the suggestion. 🙂
Thanks for your response 🙂
I have plenty of reason to suspect PCOS and I believe 100% that you are correct and I need to have some test done to see the level of insulin resistance. I read about the metabolic tests you recommend, but I can’t recollect what pages they were on. Can you direct me where I can find those listed?
Also, how long do you think I should wait to have tests after being on HCG? Does it impair any results of the test?
Eve, on the right-hand side of any page on the blog you’ll see “Categories” with a drop-down “Select Category” box. Click the down arrow and then click on “Metabolic Blood Tests.”
Since you’re no longer taking HCG, don’t worry about when to take the tests. By the time you get a doctor’s appointment and then the ‘script’ for the tests, or even use the online link on that page to get them yourselves, you’ll be fine.
Woohoo! I’m getting a physical AND having my blood work done tomorrow! So I’m anxious to see ‘where I’m at.’
Congratulations! Please post when you have results — and good luck tomorrow. 🙂
Labs taken. I asked for the leptin, and he told me the latest info about the leptin test is that even if you lose a couple pounds, your leptin levels will drop, and then if you gain back a couple pounds, your leptin values will go back up. So according to my doc, it’s not a very relevant test. He did order me the others though and agreed heartily that they were helpful. He also said there is a VAP test?? I think that’s what he called it. Anyway, he said that the new test will indicate sub-components on the HDL test, which will indicate if you have the more healthy HDLs or the less healthy HDLs (not to be confused with LDLs which are unhealthy). So, that’s what happened today. I’ll find out soon, and will probably need help interpreting.
I’m sorry your doctor does not understand how leptin signaling works. If your leptin can no longer reach your hypothalamus because of a stressed endoplasmic reticulum, then:
a. You will have difficulty losing stored adipose FAT to begin with — though by starving yourself you may certainly lose POUNDS. Pounds of lean muscle mass, that is.
b. Your adipose fat cells will continue to make lots and lots of leptin, but it will just pool in the blood and never reach your brain. Which means your brain will continue to send messages to your liver to store energy (adipose fat) instead of burning it. Way to go, Doc!
How do you know if the signaling is broken to begin with? YOU NEED A LEPTIN LEVEL TEST. You can order just that test from the Metabolic Blood Tests page.
The VAP test is the best, and everyone 40 or older should get one to have as a baseline. I’m glad he knew enough to order that. Good luck with them all!
SF, I tested my BS yesterday. This was my first time using the little machine. The first reading I took was 3 hours after lunch so it may not be of value – it was 73. (Note I was very drousy yesterday after eating lunch for a few hours – lunch: sausage, sour cream, pork rinds – possibly sugar in the sausage??). I tested 1 h after dinner (sausage, veggies sauteed in butter, salad w blue cheese) it was 77. I didn’t test at 2 h mark. I tested first thing this am 121!! I thought that strange considering yesterday’s #’s, I retested immediately 103. I waited about 5 minutes (didn’t drink or eat anything) tested again 97. That leads me to think the monitor is inaccurate.
Just to give you some background – over the past few years I was on a roller coaster ride with hormonal problems. It is a lengthy story, but during all of it I became aware I likely had PCOS. In this time frame I went from 133 lbs to my highest of 181. Currently I fluctuate between 168-172. (I am 5’7″).
March of 2010 my triglycerides were 517! My cholesterol was 249 (HDL 40) . Fasting glucose was 90. The last lipid test I took was in August 2010 my Tris went down to 467 and my Cholesterol went to 206. Doc didn’t test fasting glucose?? Why- I’m not sure! These results were after several months of hormone treatment (Progesterone and Armour Thyroid). Using cell salts (tissue salts) I came off Armour Thyroid in January 2011. I am definitely due for some tests and I will keep you posted.
I have been working with the OD WOE for only about one month. I have stumbled a few times with too many carbs and/or protein, but overall I have made quite a bit of adjustment to what I eat.
I believe given the “right” environemnt the body can heal itself. One just has to know what that environment is…understand the language of the body. We don’t become sick over night. Unfortunately, we have been fed a lot of misinformation through the news and mainstream medical for many, many years.
Thanks for taking your time and effort to create this blog…if we are to continue to rely on the other sources, we will continue to be sick.
> I tested my BS yesterday. This was my first time using the little machine. The first reading I took was 3 hours after lunch so it may not be of value – it was 73. (Note I was very drousy yesterday after eating lunch for a few hours – lunch: sausage, sour cream, pork rinds – possibly sugar in the sausage??). I tested 1 h after dinner (sausage, veggies sauteed in butter, salad w blue cheese) it was 77. I didn’t test at 2 h mark. I tested first thing this am 121!! I thought that strange considering yesterday’s #’s, I retested immediately 103. I waited about 5 minutes (didn’t drink or eat anything) tested again 97. That leads me to think the monitor is inaccurate.
Eve,
I believe you answered your own question with:
“Thanks for the feedback. That’s a pretty large error ratio. It’s time for me to go have my blood tested through a lab anyway. I guess I’ll call my docs office…not a huge fan of my doc, but it a means to see my blood results. That’s pretty sad to say…I have yet to find a doctor (that takes my insurance) who I feel is really “educated” from sources besides Big Pharma. Just typing that makes me want to be sick…”
Please make sure you get your doc to order ALL the tests listed on the Metabolic Test page.
> Just to give you some background – over the past few years I was on a roller coaster ride with hormonal problems. It is a lengthy story, but during all of it I became aware I likely had PCOS. In this time frame I went from 133 lbs to my highest of 181. Currently I fluctuate between 168-172. (I am 5’7″). March of 2010 my triglycerides were 517! My cholesterol was 249 (HDL 40) . Fasting glucose was 90. The last lipid test I took was in August 2010 my Tris went down to 467 and my Cholesterol went to 206. Doc didn’t test fasting glucose?? Why- I’m not sure! These results were after several months of hormone treatment (Progesterone and Armour Thyroid). Using cell salts (tissue salts) I came off Armour Thyroid in January 2011.
Cells salts do nothing whatsoever to heal the metabolism, and had nothing to do with coming off Armour, which in any case was likely the incorrect medication you need.
> I believe given the “right” environment the body can heal itself.
I wish that were true. Unfortunately, it is not. Certainly eating the correct diet is crucial, and if you eat it from Day One you can usually prevent all metabolic signaling breakdown. However, once your metabolism is broken — depending on the severity — only the proper medication combined with the proper diet will help heal it again.
> Thanks for taking your time and effort to create this blog…if we are to continue to rely on the other sources, we will continue to be sick.
Thank you. 🙂 Let us know how you do with the tests.
Sugarfree, I might be a little confused on the Leptin vs. VAP test. Are you saying to get both along with the other tests listed on your site?
Why is it doc’s won’t run certain tests when requested? Even if they think it has “no value” what difference does it make to them personally if you want to see the lab results? They aren’t paying for the test and the blood is already being drawn. My theory is, if you have insurance (meaning out of pocket cost is not an issue) and are having blood drawn why not look at the whole picture? In the past, my doc has run blood to look at progesterone/testosterone/estrogen/DHEA with the knowledge of my high Tri’s and Cholest didn’t run the lipids at the same time. I must be a lunatic of some sort..that just doesn’t seem like a logical approach. I scratch my head…twitch my eyes and just sigh because it is what it is regardless of what I think.
> Leptin vs. VAP test. Are you saying to get both…
Yes. Since your Doc will NOT do the Leptin test, do it yourself by clicking the link on our Metabolic Test Page.
Since your Doc WILL allow the VAP test, go back to him and get a script for the test, which you can take to whatever lab you go to when you do regular blood tests.
The two tests are completely different from each other, and have to do with different hormonal signaling.
“In the past, my doc has run blood to look at progesterone/testosterone/estrogen/DHEA with the knowledge of my high Tri’s and Cholest didn’t run the lipids at the same time. I must be a lunatic of some sort…”
He did run a regular lipid panel, or you would not have Tri’s and TC scores. He just didn’t run a VAP test, which is much more sophisticated and precisely what you need. It’s not you who is practicing, um, lunacy. 🙂
I am on Round 5 of hCG trying to get rid of 30 of the 70 pounds I lost, again. I did well maintaining for 4 months, then I added weight training and boom the scale kept creeping up to where I am today. In one week after starting my exercise regimen I gained 7 pounds and did not change my eating habits. Until I read your blog, I was a firm believer in hCG because it changed my life… so I thought. I am on day 5 of the VLCD and have lost 9.4 pounds. I feel hungry all the time, have had some dizzy spells, and just feel weak. I still continue on.
I found your page after reading someone else’s blog who I’ve followed for a year. I was inspired by her before and after photos after doing hCG. All of this is enlightening. I know many have asked about participating in your program. If you ever find room for one more, I would like to be a participant as well. I also think the Kindle idea is awesome. I love mine.
Thanks for all your research and sharing of it.
Kym
Kym, thank you so much for the kind words.
I’ve replied privately about your joining the program — but I will urge you to immediately stop the HCG and the VLCD, which is clearly worsening your insulin resistance. How do I know? Because although you are bludgeoning your body into losing pounds, those pounds are lean muscle mass, not excess adipose fat. If you were burning the fat, you wouldn’t be hungry. In other words, the HCG and protocol you’re following is making a broken metabolism even worse, which is what happens to most folks on Simeons, unfortunately.
Some questions for you:
1. How high on the glycemic index do non-sugar carbs fall? And, do I count the fiber supplement as part of the daily consumption? (Psyllium Husk; bottle says, 3 g carbs, 3 g fiber, 2 g are soluble; glycemic index = low; no sugar is listed.)
2. Does taking HRT make any difference (being a hormone)?
3. I am clear that only 2 meals are used – because of staying in ketosis-lipolysis, but I have to work early in the morning, doing intensely focused mental stuff, so I really need to eat to perform adequately. Is it possible to eat in the morning (5:30-6:30) and early afternoon (2:00-4:00), rather than at noon and night, and still have adequate time for ketosis-lipolysis?
4. After you got your metabolism under better repair, how have your lipid numbers fared? If they are above industry standard, what does your doctor say, and what do you say to your doctor?
I had just made up my mind to try the hcg when I found your site; obviously, you have changed my mind. Come Tuesday, I will see about getting the tests you recommend, but my lipids were high in April. I had done what the doctor said, except for taking the statins, and I got nowhere. I know she will have a fit if I bring this in, based on our prior conversations, as she thinks weight loss is solely a matter of will power. But this is the first time I’ve seen anything that makes sense of my own experience.
I certainly would purchase a Kindle book, should my opinion make a difference to you. Thanks so very much for taking the time to write all of your experiences here, and to work so hard at it.
LOL — those are a lot of questions, so let me try to answer them.
I don’t know. I don’t know, because it doesn’t matter. The glycemic index itself is fairly useless, though glycemic load can matter. But those load numbers are only numbers. Unfortunately, the food behind the numbers affects each individual differently depending on their type and level of insulin resistance. That’s why our experiment participants (and hopefully, all my readers) use a glucose meter. It wouldn’t be much help to you, for instance, if a high glycemic load food doesn’t affect me — but causes your glucose to spike. What I try to do, and urge my readers to do, is “eat to your meter.” It never lies, and it will tell you everything you need to know about eating any particular food, in any particular amount.
No, no need to count it. That said, I will urge you to stop taking it and throw the bottle/s out. I used to take Psyllium until my research indicated that “fiber supplements” are absolutely unnecessary and in many cases harmful. If you’re taking it for constipation, it would be better to find and fix the root cause: in women, usually hypothyroid, or insufficient fat in the diet. If you’re taking it for insulin resistance, better to eat a diet that will go to the root cause of your IR and lower it.
I don’t know. Why are you on HRT?
Sure. If you eat at 6 a.m. and again at 2 p.m. — that means there will be at least 16 hours between your last meal and your first meal the next day. But let me assure you that once you become truly ketone-adapted, your ketone-loving brain will function beautifully if you eat only once a day, in the middle of the day — assuming you eat sufficient calories and sufficient fat at that meal. First, our ancestors had to do grueling mental and physical work just to figure out how to hunt the food, kill it, bring it back to camp and then cook it. And farmers still get up and work early for hours before eating breakfast. Second, there are many studies that indicate the body works better (at least in the morning) on empty, which is why many athletes train that way, eating after the work-out. Third, if you are insulin resistant, going without food for many hours after rising, while working, really drains the glycogen tank as your muscle cells are willing to accept more glucose/insulin. It takes about 2 -3 full weeks to become fully ketone-adapted.
How I discovered another plank in my metabolic issues was by having an outlier total cholesterol number. My triglycerides were under 50, my HDL was near 100 — but my TC was about 400. Which, given my lovely TG and HDL numbers, made no sense. Did not compute. Naturally, my doctor freaked and wanted me on statins. Naturally, I refused until I had researched statins (which turned out to be the devil’s spawn) and the likely cause of my outlier TC. I love outliers, because they often point to something significant. Which was the case. Turns out every medical textbook on the thyroid written before the 1980’s (before Abbott Labs invented the TSH test AND the medication for it: Synthroid — and then funded almost all the medical research on thyroid as well as most medical schools in this country) described my case: thyroid hormone resistance, specifically a Reverse T3 problem. The treatment prescribed in these books was clear: pure T3, or cynomel. The books stated that this treatment would lower TC “like a rock.”
When I presented this evidence to my doc, he said he was too busy to read it. Whereupon I fired his lazy ass, ordered T3 from Mexico (after researching in-depth how to take it), took it, and watched my TC plummet 100 points in less than 30 days. It has continued to fall steadily since then, though I was only on the medication for six months.
My lipids now are as follows: TG: 42. HDL: 97. TC: 210 (perfect for a woman my age according to global mortality statistics for women: the women who live longest world-wide have TC between 200 and 260. And, as I hope all my readers know, until the statinators got their lobbists to buy legislators, normal TC has always been 240.) My LDL calculated (which is how all labs do it — mathematically, with the “Friedewald Formula” — unless you get the more sophisticated VAP/Vertical Auto Panel test) is 137.
But of course the Friedewald formula doesn’t work for TG’s of less than 100 or more than 400. For that, you need to use the new “Iranian Formula” which takes very low TG’s into account. Using the Iranian formula, my LDL is 97.
However, I did get a VAP as well, and am happy to say that I am 100% Pattern A, which is really all that matters (because your LDL are the light, fluffy, heart-protective kind, not the little, dense, give-you-a-heart-attack kind), which is indicated by the only ratio that matters: HDL/TG. If your HDL/TG ratio is less than .9, you are at the lowest possible risk for heart disease. My ratio is .4! And frankly, if your doctor doesn’t know all this — fire his or her lazy ass and get one who actually knows something about lipids, nutrition, insulin resistance and heart disease. 🙂
What does ‘high lipids’ mean? What were they? TC? TG? HDL? LDL? If your TG’s are under 100, and if your HDL/TG ratio is good, but your TC is outlier high, you are very likely hypothyroid. If your TG’s are high (over 100) and your HDL is low (under 50), then you are insulin resistant and need to change the way you eat. And if your TG’s are normal (under 100) and your LDL is “high” — tell your dope of a doctor that she’s using the wrong formula to calculate your LDL. Honestly, doctors are paid to know more than we do — and until the day comes that they pay me to teach them, I’ll continue to resent their lack of knowledge and intellectual curiosity. It’s one thing to be honestly ignorant, and quite another willfully stay that way.
If she genuinely feels that obesity is caused by ‘sloth and gluttony’ and is a character defect instead of a hormonal signaling problem, then your biggest medical obstacle isn’t your weight. It’s your doctor. I give you my word that one of the most empowering feelings in the world is to fire a bad doctor — and move on.
It’s your body that matters, not hers. Your personal experience that matters most, not hers. You have to live in your body for a long time, so make it the healthiest you can, regardless of conventional medical wisdom. If you get diabetes by following her bad advice it’s you who will have to inject insulin into it, not her.
Thank you for acknowledging it. It’s truly appreciated. 🙂
Thanks for your raw, candid thoughts. I laughed my ass off! I feel the exact same way.
BTW I had my blood drawn last Friday and will post as soon as I get my results. Looking at my last lipid labs (aug 2010) and based on your above statement about TG over 100 and HDL under 50 (TG 467/HDL 37), I am definitely insulin resistant and also have PCOS.
I pretty much knew that through my own research because my lazy ass doctor could not figure that out herself), but let’s see what the degree is with these labs. Which I had to point out to her that it was indeed time to look at my lipid panel. Super frustrating song and dance to have to dictate to the doc what kind of labs need to be run and even more irritating to have to interpret them myself. This has been my whole process of getting healthier over the last couple of years. I research and learn things, apply it and my doc sees the results thinking she had something to do with it. If I were to follow her advice, I’d likely have a heart attach before my 40th birthday.
It’s not that hard to see the connection between “low fat diet” and hormonal imbalance, hypothyroidism, type II diabetes, vitamin D deficiency…these are all epidemic health issues. Brought on, I believe wholeheartedly, by a low fat diet. Our bodies need fat for hormone production amongst many other vital bodily functions. That’s Bio 101.
I too have a lazy doctor. I have asked for the labs to be done and she didn’t do the reverse T3 even though I continue to be low in T3. She also didn’t do the fasting insulin either. I got everything else done and have to go back to get another TSH, Free T4, Free T3, Reverse T3, fasting insulin and fasting glucose. Do they both need to be done at the same time or can it be a week apart for glucose and insulin?
My doctor doesn’t even know the dose of Armour to give me and I had to look it up myself. But even so this doctor is better than the last four doctors I went to.
I would like to be in the next trials for SFP and yes I would love a Kindle or even an ebook.
I will post my labs when I finally get them all done.
Love all the info on your site too 🙂
Trish
Trish, sorry to hear about the problems with your doc! As far as the tests, you don’t need another TSH. You do need these:
1. Free T3
2. Free T4
3. Reverse T3
4. Fasting insulin
5. Fasting glucose
6. A1c
7. Leptin
8. Ferritin
9. Vitamin D
If you can do all on one blood draw — great. If not, you must do the first three on one draw, and you can do the rest on another draw. The most important thing is to get ALL NINE TESTS so you can get a true picture of what’s going on with you, and these tests will not only show that, but also whether or not your body will support medication to help you if you need it. If your ferritin or Vitamin D is too low, you won’t be able to use those meds, including Armour.
Let us know how it goes!
I cannot believe I found this blog. I am literally sitting here absolutely sobbing with frustration (not to mention extreme hunger.) I am on phase 2 of round 4 and am one of the lucky few who, despite clinging to protocol with near-religious ferver, am experiencing extreme hunger. (I finally broke down tonight and ate chips; not because I wanted them but because I was so hungry I simply couldn’t take it anymore. It’s been agony.) I’m down 35 pounds (after a YEAR) and after reading this blog in depth I’m beginning to see why I’m struggling so hard.
How do I get started with this? Do I need to take all those tests right away? Should I wait until the hcg is out of my system (it hardly feels like it’s working, so maybe that’s not an issue.) I’m so ready to stop starving. Thank you so very much…
Michelle,
I’m so sorry to hear about your struggles! But dry your eyes, help IS on the way. 🙂
First, as you learned by reading the blog, your hunger is a sign of severe insulin resistance. Although HCG is useless for weight loss or for hunger abatement, the low carbohydrate make-up of Simeons’ diet as written will cause a follower who isn’t very insulin resistant to go into lipolysis, which is the ‘active factor’ that opens excess adipose fat cells and burns fat for fuel. When that happens it’s as if you were eating a lot of calories — hence, no hunger.
You, on the other hand, are hungry, which means you are not going into lipolysis, which means insulin resistance. I’m guessing the form is PCOS. So yes, the very first thing you need to do is get those blood tests done. The entire leptin panel listed on the Metabolic Blood Tests page, plus a few others IF you haven’t had them done in the last six months. The others are:
1. Lipid Panel
2. Vitamin D
3. A1c
4. Fasting Glucose
As to waiting until the hcg is out of your system, you should wait for 1 week after the last injection, and no wait needed at all if you’re taking any other form, like drops. There’s not really enough (or frankly, any) hcg worth worrying about in them.
Once you have your results please let us know. You may be a perfect candidate for my protocol (SFP), which is working miracles for all of our participants. They’re not only losing a lot of weight/fat easily and without hunger — they’re keeping it ALL off during the maintenance period. And they’re healing their metabolisms (becoming more insulin sensitive) as shown by their lowered blood sugar readings.
So hang in there … I promise it’s going to get better soon. 🙂
SugarFree, thank you so much.
I was using NON-homeopathic sublingual hcg. Should I get the tests done ASAP or wait a week? Where do I send the info once I get it? Do I just reply to this post again?
I’m not sure about what to eat since I’m dumping half way through R4/P2, so today I just guessed at it. I did two meals (unfortunately I did half & half in my coffee this am; didn’t know I couldn’t) with the protein at around 3 oz. per meal, lots of veggies and I used loads of butter, coconut oil (I am a firm believer in Sally Fallon’s “Nourishing Traditions”) and first cold-pressed olive oil, along with a couple of handfuls of raw almonds throughout the day.
I am SO READY to follow something that will heal my metabolism, help my cells release the fat and NOT LEAVE ME STARVING! (insert major nose honk here….eyes are dry now! LOL!) THANK YOU!
Michelle,
Wait to have the tests done … about 7 days after your last hcg dose. I’ve sent you info privately about what to do when you get your results back.
Sally Fallon is great, as is her book. I eat loads of butter (I even smear it on cheese; yum!), and as far as I’m concerned, coconut oil is one of the world’s great gifts. I use it inside and outside as needed. I’m able to get 40% heavy cream (sometimes called ‘manufacturers cream’) and probably go through a quart a week, not counting the amount I use for baking. My first ‘meal’ of the day is a cup of coffee (I roast and grind my own beans) with a mound of whipped cream on top. I keep a Liss Pro Whipper topped up in the fridge just for that. 🙂
So until you get your results, eat as Sally suggests: lots of farm-fresh eggs, butter, yogurt, cream, nuts, good quality meat (NO CHICKEN BREASTS!) and lots and lots and lots of veggies. Coconut oil for sure. That’s for every single day. Absolutely, positively no sugar in any form. Which pretty much means ZERO processed food since they put it in everything. If you go to a restaurant, order whatever salad you want as long as they bring you olive oil and vinegar to make your own dressing. Any steamed veggie with heaps and heaps of butter on top. [the looks I get when they bring me a ‘pat’ of butter and I ask for a dozen more is hilarious] And any single ingredient main dish, like steak or chops or fish or burgers. No stir-fries. No casseroles. No soup. They always have some sugar. Always.
Plus, the occasional small (2 oz) potato always eaten w/a lot of butter and sour cream, a slice of NO-SUGAR bread from time to time, topped with lots of fat of your choice, a handful of berries eaten with lots of cream, whipped or otherwise, a rice cake w/peanut butter or cream cheese and a 1/2 tsp. of jam made only from fruit, and a few macadamia, almonds or walnuts. A single square of 85% chocolate. Choose ONE of these every other day or so. You’ll start to feel pretty good in just days.
Also, while you’re waiting for tests/results — get yourself a glucose meter and strips, which you’ll need on the SFP and maintenance. You’ll go through at least 3 strips a day, every day. I like the Free Style Lite with the butterfly strips, but get whatever suits you. If you have insurance and can get a prescription from your doc for the strips, they’ll be free or very cheap. The meter will actually show you what’s happening in your body in terms of how the food you eat is affecting you and whether or not you’re burning it, or storing it. It’s the most effective tool for fat loss and improved metabolism that I know. And unlike your scale, it never lies. 🙂
Looking forward to hearing from you soon!
SugarFree, I have read on your blog multiple times “No chicken breast!”
Can you elaborate on this? What if it is eaten with ample amounts of fat? I am not a fan of dark meat chicken or any fowl for that matter. If that’s the case, am I better off eating mostly beef or salmon?
Eve
Eve,
That’s a great question because it brings us back to the primal reasons humans eat food.
Sure, we eat to live; without food we would die. But without the right food and nutrients we’ll also die, just a bit slower. For instance, although our primate ancestors have the ability to internally manufacture an essential vitamin — Vitamin C — humans lost this ability eons ago. We must eat it, since we can no longer make it. But where did our hunter/gatherer forebears get their C from? After all, they couldn’t go into the nearest pharmacy. They got it from eating the adrenals and kidneys of the prey they killed. They got their necessary sodium (no salt shakers around) from drinking the prey’s blood and/or cooking the meat in sea water and drinking the broth. And they got all their other vitamins and minerals mostly from the other organs — all of which was eaten first, before any other part of the carcass. Don’t know how they knew this, but they did. Just as they knew what herbs and plants would work almost as well in lean times.
Humans have many more choices — but sometimes they act like they don’t know it. Of all the meats available that contain essential vitamins and minerals and other important ingredients to good health, chicken has the least. And of all the cuts on a chicken, chicken breasts have the least. So eating a chicken breast is like eating the worst of the worst. What’s the point of that?
When someone says they understand they have a broken metabolism, and says they understand that they must now eat differently so they can heal their metabolism — but then says they can only do so by eating the exact same foods they’ve always eaten because they’re unwilling to change, my response is usually the one Cher had with Nick Cage in Moonlight. Which is: “Snap out of it!” 🙂
Adding “ample amounts of fat” to a food that brings almost no nutrients to the party (compared to other foods) won’t add any nutrients to that food. Luckily, chicken isn’t a requirement for anyone on my protocol. There’s pork, which is the best meat of all, especially the cheapest, fattiest cuts, including pork belly. Yum! There’s excellent beef, lamb, geese, duck, etc — all with the skin of course. There’s every kind of fatty fish, like salmon, mackerel, sardines, tuna, etc. And with them, lots and lots of cage-free eggs that you buy at your nearest farm. There are lots of sites that will tell you where your nearest egg farm is. And organ meats of all kinds, especially liver, which can be made delicious with the simple addition of lots of heavy cream, a few good spices, and very gentle cooking.
If you’re not used to eating this way it will be a change for sure. But it will also be change that brings you glowing skin, thick, glossy hair, a recharged immune system, and energy out the wazoo. And, as a bonus, smaller sized clothing, too. What a deal!
I am fascinated by your protocol. I am yet another victim of the HCG diet and have lost and gained back over 50 lbs in the past year! I feel like this is the answer I have been searching for.
Please send me more information on how I can participate!
Replied to privately.
I am somewhat like Missy. Lost 40 lbs. on HCG last July – Jan but have gained back 30 lbs of it and just at my wits end. Am very interested in your SF Protocol and would love to be part of your study and get more information.
Answered privately.
Hi SugarFree,
I am interested in your protocol. Your information seems to make sense. I went on HCG three times. The first two times were homeopathic and this last time was RX.
I only lost 10 pounds on each round but have never been able to keep it off. I just lose and regain the same 10 pounds. And I can’t stand how hungry I am all the time, and not able to ever feel satisfied. I think I may have some issues with digesting fat properly, too. Is there a way to join your program or find out more info?
Hi, Natasha … thank you for writing. It sounds to me like you are very insulin resistant, which the HCG protocol will not fix (the HCG itself does nothing) … but there’s a good chance my Protocol will. I’ve sent you an email about that privately.
Such awesome work!! One of my clients (been a weight loss coach for 20 years after losing 150 lbs for the last time) is an hcg refugee and I found your beautiful work in my research on her behalf. I am absolutely interested in your kindle book and any other resources you can offer.
So grateful for your brilliant and courageous work!
Rebecca
Dear Rebecca,
Thank you for your kind and encouraging words; they are deeply appreciated. As for the book, I hope to get back to it soon. At the moment I’m just about to launch the first all-natural sugar-free dessert company in the country, and am at the tail end of preparation. I finally have a website ‘place-holder’ up and hope my readers visit (Good For You Goodies) and leave their names for Grand Opening Specials. It’s taken me years of R&D and I’m thrilled to almost be there. 🙂
Again, thank you so much for writing!
I am on my first round of HCG and found your blog while Googling the “primal blueprint and hcg”.
I am interested in your protocol and finding out how I can become a participant!
Regina, thanks for writing. Look for an email from me soon!
I am interested in participating in the Protocol as well, and learning more about it if it isn’t too late. I currently started hcg again after gaining half the weight I lost back in a year. This is very intriguing.
Thank you for writing! Please check your email for a private reply.
I am on HCG P2, day 12. After reading all this info I am scared that I too am insulin resistant. How do I stop HCG without gaining the weight back (twelve pounds). This is my third round on hcg. HELP!!!!
Help is on the way! Please look for a private email from me.
SugarFree
I’m very interested in your Kindle book. I don’t have Kindle but would get it if that is the way you put your book out. Your information via blogs has been most enlightening. When I talked to you on the phone everything you said resonated with me as to why I have been having a weight problem all my life. My blood work is about two years old. My wife’s blood work is current, but probably not all the information you need. Thanks again for your time and information; it will help me be as healthy as possible in my remaining years.
John Maglovsky
John,
It was a pleasure to talk with you last week. As for the Kindle book, it’s good news, bad news. The good news is that you do not need a Kindle to read a Kindle book! You can download a free program from Amazon that will let you read any Kindle book you want right on your computer. You just buy the Kindle book and open the Kindle program on your computer, and there it is.
The bad news is that what with launching my new business, it is unlikely to get a book done in less than a year or two. If there is anything I can do for you or your wife before then, please let me know. Remember that to join the Protocol — which would make you slim again, in a healthy way — you will need up to date metabolic blood tests.
Best wishes,
SugarFree
SugarFree, I want to thank you so much for what you are doing. I don’t see how you get done all you are doing in a days time. You respond to many bloggers and participants with such attention and detail.
I have made a mini-booklet of all your responses to participants and bloggers that would pertain to me. It has been most enlightening. I am 70 and my wife is 66 and we both went on HCG for 4 rounds. We both lost weight, my wife more than me (cause I cheated). My wife wound up with a thyroid problem and heart palpitations. My wife is a die-hard HCGer and all the information I have been reading does not interest her, even though she has the physical problems. I have no physical problems from the HCG just could not get enough food. I have since reading all the information you have provided, started putting more fats in my diet and I am feeling fuller without eating too much more food.
Will your eBook give me more information as to the preparation of foods and also veggies that I can stand? I cannot stand kale, zucchini, artichoke, spinach, salad greens, etc. (probably all the things I should be eating). I know you cannot help me without the metabolic blood test results but anything you can do will help. Do you have any recommendations for a blood glucose meter that is accurate without breaking the bank?
Thanks again for your help and information. Please keep up the good work. It is very much appreciated that someone would actually help people from a lifetime of sickness and weight problems.
John
John, it is the thoughtful and kind notes from good people like you that keeps me going. That, and the knowledge that I have been given the wonderful gift of being able to truly help people. It may seem like I’m doing the giving, but believe me it is me who is receiving. 🙂
Let me try to answer your excellent questions.
First, I suspect that you and I are of an age where we remember the old saying: “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him/her drink.” Perhaps if Wilma read my HCG analysis for herself, instead of hearing about it, she might give it more credence. Or not. But you know, the best way of teaching anyone anything is still by example. If you were to stop HCG and follow Protocol, heal your metabolism once and for all, lose pounds and inches of fat while eating thousands of good calories a day — that would be proof that’s hard to refute. 🙂
Second, the eBook (which, remember, won’t be out for AT LEAST A YEAR) will discuss food buying and prep, and it will list the veggies that you should eat. However, you already know them. You just don’t want to eat them – LOL. Unfortunately, your body needs them. The secret, as so many Protocol Participants have discovered, is how you cook them! So recipes for delicious veggies will be in the book.
Third, while the Principles behind the Protocol will be in there too, folks who want to follow it to heal and reverse the root cause of their getting fat in the first place — insulin resistance — will still need to have the metabolic blood tests done. This is the main difference between the Protocol and every other diet or protocol out there. Those are all “do this, don’t do that, one-size-fits-all” edicts that everyone is supposed to follow. But everyone’s metabolism is broken in a unique way, so one-size-fits-all rarely works, at least for the long haul. My Protocol takes this into account, and so each person’s Protocol, based on their mass and on the individual results of their tests, is unique. That’s why trying to follow along at home without those tests might work . . . or it might backfire.
Think of it this way. If you went to a doctor with a medical problem, and instead of her doing any tests on you, said: “Oh, you’re just like everyone else, so instead of diagnosing what you’ve got, just take this medicine and let’s see how it does.” — how would you feel? I hope you’d feel scared enough to run away fast. 🙂 It’s no different when you’re dealing with another medical issue: insulin resistance. You need the tests that will diagnose what kind you have, what stage you’re in, and then test again months later to see the scientific proof that the ‘medicine’ has worked.
Finally, if you are on Medicare and get these tests, it is very likely that the results will show you need a meter and strips, and Medicare will pay for it entirely. Meters themselves are dirt cheap (and pretty accurate these days) but the strips cost a fortune. Think of it like cheap razors . . . and very expensive refills. They give you the razor so you have to buy the refills, no matter how much they cost. On the other hand, if you get a prescription from a doctor for them (though they’re not required if you’re paying retail at any pharmacy or online), they’re free and sent to you in the mail. My suggestion is that you get the tests done and see where you are. Maybe you can get Wilma to take them too. 🙂
Best wishes to you both,
SugarFree
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Wow… this is a lot to take in. I am going to need a lot of help. How can I do this? Is there a basis for the Protocol? I am suffering from a severely screwed up metabolism that is purely my fault. Man…
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Emily, the Protocol is based in Science and Biology, which is why it works. 😀 Look for a more detailed reply in your email inbox.
SugarFree
Wow. I just discovered your website and I am now reading through your articles. Not all of it is easy to read (especially for a someone whose native language isn’t English) or to find. 🙂 The content is worth it though! I can see your honesty and all the work you have put in. Amazing. I am a science person as well (a psychologist).
I did some reading on other sites about Trauma, Cortisol and how it can destroy the hypothalamus. Together with your research I can understand for the first time why “problematic” people are fat. I will go on reading now and see what other cool discoveries I make on your website. Also: I Love your humor. “Mice are notoriously bad at swallowing pills.”
Verena