R4P3D2
I'm into elimination now. One more day after today and I'm officially on maintenance (M) again. Yay! So my total release for this round was 16lbs and I did a total of 21 days on the very low calorie diet (vlcd). That's a total of 19.2lbs including my load weight! Pretty happy with that! I'm looking forward to eating my big breakfasts and cooking with extra virgin olive oil (evoo) again. Bring on the eggs! Woohooo!! So a reminder for some and new info for others. I use this link to calculate my BMR+Activity Level which tells me how many calories I have to eat everyday in order to maintain my current weight (169lbs). Make sure you click on the Daily Calorie Needs to multiply in your activity level! So my current calories will have to add up to 1848 calories per day. I don't think I'll have any problems now that it is under 2000 calories per day. I remember how hard it was to eat over 2000 a day on my first M!
This is pretty straight forward once you get the hang of it. On the first day of M, I'll eat at least 1500 calories by cooking with evoo and incorporating a big breakfast and snacks. Try not to eat more than 2 fruits a day in the first week. Focus on big salads, stews (no starches though. see my sample page), high protein, and keep the water intake up!
A common question I get has to do with understanding how much protein to eat during M. It is best to eat 1 gram of protein for every pound you weigh and no less than 100g per day. Now people say: but we are eating 200g a day in vlcd!?! The content of protein in your meat is not equal to the weight. Look at labels or join a good calories counter site. A large egg has 7 grams of protein. My current whey shake has 26 grams per scoop. 100g of chicken breast has 30 grams. Starting to make some sense? :)
Next...which whey shake do you use? I like a number of different brands and price plays a big role in which one I am currently using. Here is a list of my favorites: North Coast Naturals (found in the organic section at Superstore), Kaizen All Natural (not the costco one! that one has sucralose in it. Look for the All Natural one at Save On), GNC Pro Performance Whey Iso Burst All Natural (GNC store), and PVL Iso Gold All Natural (Reflex store). All of these are sweetened with stevia, no artificial sweeteners, and have 2g of carbs or less. The key is to read the labels and ask for help in the store. Look for All Natural on the label and then check the ingredients list. It isn't good enough to just check the nutritional label as it may not reveal any sugar there but does in the ingredients. This is true for most products out there so when choosing things like dressing for your salad, look at the ingredients list first. I like to use a whey protein isolate.I bought a cheap $10 hand mixer from Superstore and it works great for blending my almond milk, virgin coconut oil, and whey shakes. For added texture and flavour, try adding some berries!
I need to be meeting my Daily Calorie Needs by day 3 or 4 of M. I don't want my body to go into starvation mode. Once I'm into week 2 there is lots of flexibility in what I can eat and it will be time to start exercising. I'm adding exercise pretty quick this M as I want to get going on some muscles here! Pretty excited too! I'll try to blog more about my progress as I've been absent more than usual these last couple months. Let's get to work on shaping how my life will look after hCG! Not sure how long of a break I'll be taking but I don't think I'll revisit vlcd for at least 2 months.
Cheers!
CAT
I'm into elimination now. One more day after today and I'm officially on maintenance (M) again. Yay! So my total release for this round was 16lbs and I did a total of 21 days on the very low calorie diet (vlcd). That's a total of 19.2lbs including my load weight! Pretty happy with that! I'm looking forward to eating my big breakfasts and cooking with extra virgin olive oil (evoo) again. Bring on the eggs! Woohooo!! So a reminder for some and new info for others. I use this link to calculate my BMR+Activity Level which tells me how many calories I have to eat everyday in order to maintain my current weight (169lbs). Make sure you click on the Daily Calorie Needs to multiply in your activity level! So my current calories will have to add up to 1848 calories per day. I don't think I'll have any problems now that it is under 2000 calories per day. I remember how hard it was to eat over 2000 a day on my first M!
This is pretty straight forward once you get the hang of it. On the first day of M, I'll eat at least 1500 calories by cooking with evoo and incorporating a big breakfast and snacks. Try not to eat more than 2 fruits a day in the first week. Focus on big salads, stews (no starches though. see my sample page), high protein, and keep the water intake up!
A common question I get has to do with understanding how much protein to eat during M. It is best to eat 1 gram of protein for every pound you weigh and no less than 100g per day. Now people say: but we are eating 200g a day in vlcd!?! The content of protein in your meat is not equal to the weight. Look at labels or join a good calories counter site. A large egg has 7 grams of protein. My current whey shake has 26 grams per scoop. 100g of chicken breast has 30 grams. Starting to make some sense? :)
Next...which whey shake do you use? I like a number of different brands and price plays a big role in which one I am currently using. Here is a list of my favorites: North Coast Naturals (found in the organic section at Superstore), Kaizen All Natural (not the costco one! that one has sucralose in it. Look for the All Natural one at Save On), GNC Pro Performance Whey Iso Burst All Natural (GNC store), and PVL Iso Gold All Natural (Reflex store). All of these are sweetened with stevia, no artificial sweeteners, and have 2g of carbs or less. The key is to read the labels and ask for help in the store. Look for All Natural on the label and then check the ingredients list. It isn't good enough to just check the nutritional label as it may not reveal any sugar there but does in the ingredients. This is true for most products out there so when choosing things like dressing for your salad, look at the ingredients list first. I like to use a whey protein isolate.I bought a cheap $10 hand mixer from Superstore and it works great for blending my almond milk, virgin coconut oil, and whey shakes. For added texture and flavour, try adding some berries!
I need to be meeting my Daily Calorie Needs by day 3 or 4 of M. I don't want my body to go into starvation mode. Once I'm into week 2 there is lots of flexibility in what I can eat and it will be time to start exercising. I'm adding exercise pretty quick this M as I want to get going on some muscles here! Pretty excited too! I'll try to blog more about my progress as I've been absent more than usual these last couple months. Let's get to work on shaping how my life will look after hCG! Not sure how long of a break I'll be taking but I don't think I'll revisit vlcd for at least 2 months.
Cheers!
CAT
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