Dr. S. did not refer to "phases" in his protocol. This was started by Kevin Trudeau, in his book- but it provides an easy way to refer to the different parts of the protocol.

Phase I- This is explained in KT's book and is his theory. It is the 30 days prior to starting the Hcg. Preparing your body for P2 may allow you to lose more weight, but this was not anything that Dr. S. talked about in the original protocol.

Phase 2- This is the time when you are on the Hcg. It starts with your first injection, and ends on your last very low calorie day (known as vlcd). Since the Hcg takes 3 days to become active, and 3 days to leave your system, you continue with the 500 calorie diet for 3 days after your last injection.

Phase 3- This is the phase where you eat "no sugar, no starch", and this continues for at least 3 weeks. If you are going to do additional rounds, kevin recommends that you continue this phase rather than moving into phase 4. You are allowed to eat fruit during this phase, except Dr. S. advises "careful with very sweet fruit". Many people follow an Atkin's or South Beach type of diet during this phase, but the only instruction given from Dr. S. was "no sugar, no starch".

Phase 4- In this phase you gradually re-introduce foods with carbohydrates in them. You continue to monitor your weight carefully. This is the "maintenance" phase that you will continue for life.

*For those doing additional rounds, you have the option to do 3 wks of P3 followed by 3 wks of P4, or you can do the entire 6 wks on P3 before starting your next round. Some people believe that you're more likely to become carb-intolerant if you do not re-introduce sugars and starches until your weight loss is completed. I think it's helpful to do P4 because it's a learning process to figure out how your body reacts to a variety of foods.

so if i am doing a short round... how many days do I take hcg for?

And if you need to lose more than 15 pounds, you should consider doing a long round. A short round is if you have 15 pounds or less to lose. I think the longer time is needed to stabilize right.
Colleen

Yes you'll do great!
Colleen

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