Chloe Adisson answers:

Its been 3 days now so you have prob gotten through your plateau. One thing that kills people is salt, it makes you retain a lot of water which can throw you off. Don’t worry about the small spikes, if you stay on the plan it is 100% water weight you are gaining, stick it out and you will be in for some BIG loss days after you shed the water. Keep Going!

Chloe Adisson answers:

Morgan, if you are taking homeopathic HCG drops, there is no reason for you to stop taking them while you are on your period. You should continue your drops right away.

Having a stall in losses during your period is normal. Frustrating, yes…but, nothing to be concerned with, the losses WILL continue.

It is also quite normal for you period to be a bit irregular while taking HCG. Again, this is nothing to be concerned with.

Continue taking your drops and following VLCD. Your losses will continue.

Chloe Adisson answers:

A 500 calorie diet is dangerous because your body needs more than 500 calories to maintain itself for normal functions.

If you are a sedentary woman who weighs 200 lbs, then to maintain that weight you would need about 2400 calories a day. To lose weight safely you should eat less calories than that, but according to “Lose It For Life,” by Stephen Arterburn, M.Ed., and Dr. Linda Mintle, “you should NEVER go below 1,500 calories per day unless under the supervision of a doctor.”

Losing so much weight so quickly can actually hurt your body. I don’t know the difference between the two diets you mentioned, but you shouldn’t have to hurt your body to lose weight, and the safest way to lose weight is to do so slowly. Because you aren’t very tall and do weigh over 200 lbs, you will probably lose weight faster than someone like me, who is 6 inches taller and closer to 30 lbs overweight, because proportionally you have more to lose. That’s not my way of bragging, I’m just letting you know that you will probably lose weight pretty quickly at first on a healthy diet that your doctor approves. This will probably slow down after a while, and you’ll certainly need to add physical activity to the mix.

Chloe Adisson answers:

I looked up the ingredients in that mascara for you (link in sources) and there doesn’t appear to be anything in them that would potentially interfere with your HCG diet.

When looking at personal care products, starting with “oil free” products is a good start – but you need to go a bit deeper than that and actually look at the ingredients in the product. You want to avoid products with any type of oil/fat/lard in them as well as the following ingredients:

sorbitol, lanolin, petroleum jelly, propelyne glycol, petrolatum, and sodium lauryl sulfate.

To help you find personal care products, I’ve also put a link to a handy PDF that has several VLCD safe options for you.

Best of luck in your weight loss journey!

Chloe Adisson answers:

Maybe the food that person ate was salty or sugary – both retain water in the tissues.

Forget HCG…
“500-calories per day is severely restrictive! In fact, it is not enough calories to support normal brain function. Your body will compensate by using stores of glycogen, protein (muscle) and some fat, which lowers your resting metabolism. Before you can lose true weight, you will be so irritable, lightheaded, and cranky that you’ll reach for whatever food you can get your hands on and have a field day.

There is no scientific evidence supporting HCG as a weight loss strategy. The FDA has required all marketing and advertising of HCG to state the following: “HCG has not been demonstrated to be effective adjunctive therapy in the treatment of obesity. There is no substantial evidence that it increases weight loss beyond that resulting from caloric restriction, that it causes a more attractive or ‘normal’ distribution of fat, or that it decreases the hunger and discomfort associated with calorie-restricted diets.”