Hitting an HCG Plateau

If your weight has stayed the same, not changed by even an ounce on the VLCD (Very Low-Calorie Diet, Phase 2) for four to six days in a row, you can try to break that stall by doing an Apple Day or Mini Steak Day. Of course, we are assuming that the diet is being followed properly. Review your log of what you’ve been eating, drinking, applying to your skin, etc. to affirm that all is being done correctly and determine if you’ve truly hit a plateau or not. Please know that Dr. Simeons stated that a plateau (stall) frequently occurs during the 2nd half of a round, particularly for dieters who’ve been doing well on the diet. A person who loses 10 pounds in the first 10 days of the diet should not extrapolate the calculation and assume that they will lose 30 pounds in 30 days and 40 pounds in 40 days. Our bodies were made to survive and stalls/plateaus/weight set points are methods the body employs to self-preserve. The goal should be to lose 20 to 30 pounds in 30 to 40 days. Don’t be greedy!

That being said, for dieters that have been doing really well and then hit a plateau, it is disheartening and causes them to worry that the diet is no longer “working”. All this worrying is unnecessary. Dr. Simeons held that if dieters would keep doing what they had been doing (assuming they had been following the diet properly), the stall would break, and weight loss would resume. For those dieters who feel that they must be proactive, for purely psychological reasons, there are a couple of plateau breakers, explained below.

Apple Day explained: When you wake up in the morning and find that you’re at your 4th to 6th day at the same exact weight, don’t eat anything until lunch. Starting at lunch, you can eat up to 6 medium apples until midnight of that same day, only drinking water to quench your thirst. When you weigh in the next day, you should see a difference on the scale. Even if it’s only a couple of ounces, your stall is broken, and you should start losing again.

Mini Steak Day explained: After the 4th to 6th weigh-in with no movement on the scale, go ahead and drink as much coffee, tea, and water as you like all day, but don’t eat anything at lunch, then eat a 3.5 oz serving of beef sirloin or beef filet steak with a raw apple or a raw tomato. The next morning you should see a change on the scale and your weight loss should resume.

Do you have any advice for making it through a diet stall breaker day?