hCG Weight Loss Program – Days 27-33 with the Apple Day and Stevia

Well, I figured since I’m already taking hCG and following the strict diet, that I might as well give the “Apple Day” a try. Now the fact is, according to the manuscript you are not supposed to do an apple day unless you have hit a plateau for at least 4 days. But, I’m in the home stretch here and I just lost nothing! So I decide to see what eating nothing but apples for a day will be like! And the results… I lost 2.2lbs in one day! Wow, is sure appears to work! Of course this is mainly water loss (& psychological), but it’s supposed to put me on the right track so I can continue to lose my average 3/4 lb/day. So how was the next day? Up 1lb! Needless to say, I’m…

Not impressed! However the following day resulted in a 1.5lb loss, so I’m back on track. Would I do it again? Probably not, its not that I was hungry, but I do think it’s more psychological and by the end of the protocol, I think I would still have had the same average daily weight loss. I think this shows me is that you cannot micromanage your hCG weight loss, sure you may not lose anything one day, but a day or two later, you could lose over a pound. As of day 33, my average weight loss is .78 lbs/day, which is certainly within the acceptable range. Just to recap, I started at 204, and now I’m 178.4, that’s a total loss of 25.8lbs. I also checked my BMI, and for the first time in my life I’m now at a “Normal” BMI! Yes, I’m “normal!” (and my wife and friends said that would never, ever happen to me!).

Here are my numbers:
Day 27 – down 0.6
Day 28 – down 0.8
Day 29 – down 1.0
Day 30 – down nothing! (Apple Day!)
Day 31 – down 2.2
Day 32 – up 1.0
Day 33 – down 1.5

One thing I wanted to talk about is replacing the “sweetness,” while on the diet. As you all know, you cannot have any sugar or sweeteners, except for Stevia and Saccharin. So I decided to find out what the deal is with those sweeteners. I knew Stevia was a natural product, it’s actually a herb in the Chrysanthemum family which grows wild as a small shrub in parts of Paraguay and Brazil (and now Southern California and Japan). The great thing about Stevia is that a very small amount is 200-300 times sweeter than table sugar, so a little goes a long way. Another nice side benefit to Stevia is that it’s considered calorie-free, since you only use such a small amount. After doing some research (& visiting Whole Foods), I found you can get Stevia in powder form as well as liquid form. What truly amazed me is the number of flavors liquid Stevia comes in: root beer, chocolate, cinnamon, grape, apricot, chocolate raspberry, hazelnut, lemon, Valencia orange, vanilla crème, and English toffee. So you can just imagine the possibilities of what you can create with Stevia. I’ve seen recipes for root beer, hot and cold mocha’s, orange smoothies, and frozen deserts.

Now Saccharin on the other hand is not a natural sweetener, it’s completely artificial. If you visit the Wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccharin ) for Saccharin, you’re going to see its chemical composition and its links to cancer. So, needless to say, I’ve never used Saccharin, and I never will!

So I hope you have a clearer understanding of what an “Apple Day” is and how you may want to include Stevia into your diet!

Since I’m now normal, I think I’m going to starting thinking about winding down this round and start the maintenance phase. Read my next blog entry to find out what I chose to do!

You can read more details about our hCG weight loss research on the IAPAM’s website, as well, physicians wanting to learn details of the how to incorporate hCG into their practice can also attend one of the IAPAM’s Medical Weight Management training programs. Please also Fan our hCG for Weight Loss Facebook Page!

I hope you’ll enjoy reading about my experience with the IAPAM hCG weight loss Protocol! And please feel free to leave a comment or question.

Cheers,  Jeff Russell

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