Have you been wondering about the different hCG Protocols?

If you are on Facebook and in several different hCG groups, you are no doubt bombarded by many differing opinions about which hCG protocol is the best one out there. I know how you feel, I felt the exact same way back in 2014 when I was doing my first round on my own and I tried a few “rogue” protocols. I had successfully lost 70 pounds doing 2 rounds in 2011 and 2 rounds in 2012 going through a very expensive clinic. It took me 2 years because I had to save up the $600.00 for each 40-day round. I was taught very strict Original Protocol and went from 212 pounds, size 18 (almost 20), down to 140 and a size 8. I lost 38 pounds in my first 40-day round. After I had a tummy tuck in 2014 to remove the excess skin I had hanging skin around my middle. I started to put on a few pounds and talked to my Naturopath about prescribing me hCG, he did and I got the hCG and kit in the mail from the pharmacy without any directions so I went online and joined Facebook hCG groups to learn how to mix my kit. I was in some great groups and I was learning you can eat coconut oil and avocados in phase 2, OH WOW, I had been so deprived. My Dr's protocol was a few photocopied pages even said I could eat broccoli and cauliflower and work out, WOOHOO this was going to be AWESOME!!!!!

About a week or so in I was amazed that I wasn't losing like I had in my earlier rounds, I was stalling, and I was hungry even with my new approved foods. Then came day 20 of my 40-day round and I was STARVING, I read to test my hCG on a pregnancy tester, so I did and it was negative, WHAT I paid for a 40 day round and it lost potency before day 20. My 40-day round turned into a 23-day round and I was so disappointed.

This is when I started researching protocols, I learned about POP, (Perfectly on Protocol), OP (Original Protocol), MOP (My Own Protocol), 2.0, 2.5, 3,0, Dr. Trudeau, Dr. Lipman and Dr. Emma protocols; then you have all the variations that are taught by clinics around the country. In my research and personal testing over the past few years I have learned so much. I want to pass this information on to all of you. These are just my opinions and I have nothing to gain from my personal findings. Honestly my mission and deepest desire is that people are able to safely lose their weight and live the rest of their lives vibrantly at their healthy weight.

So, what I know about the different protocols:

We have the “2.0” protocol that was created by a Chiropractor to be used in conjunction with his hCG drops. The 2.0 protocol is based on the keto diet and the calorie amounts one eats is based on your individual BMR. He has some calculators in his book to help you figure out your daily calorie count and allows non-protocol foods like coconut oil, avocado, beans and many other items that are not allowed on the Original protocol. I have done the 2.0 protocol and found that I had very slow losses. I believe this is because the 2.0 protocol allows fats and that works fine if you are on homeopathic drops but not so much if you are using RX injections. More about homeopathic hCG later.

Then there is the “2.5” protocol which is an offshoot of the 2.0 developed by layperson like myself who promotes the keto dietary theory to be used in conjunction with hCG and her appetite suppressants. She is an affiliate to sell injections through NuImage and also just started selling homeopathic patches., I honestly do not know much about this protocol except that it is another version that promotes the keto lifestyle. Now remember Keto requires a high amount of fat be consumed to trip your body over into burning ketones instead from burning glucose.

Then we have the “3.0” protocol, also an offshoot of the 2.0 protocol, and created by a layperson like myself who promotes the keto dietary theory to be used in conjunction with hCG. She is an prefers drops but is an affiliate to sell injections through NuImage. In her own words the 3.0 protocol pushes the boundaries of the traditional Simeons original hCG protocol. The protocol uses calorie cycling and intermittent fasting. Any food is fine as long as you keep away from gluten, grains, starch and sugar.

She sells recipes packages and baked keto foods and has also started selling the homeopathic patchs. My experience with 3.0: a couple of years ago I had 6 volunteers try the 3.0 protocol while on RX injections and all 6 gained weight and went back to the original protocol within 2 weeks. They found the protocol required a lot of calculations and blood monitoring that was just too complicated to be sustainable long term.

Keto is a great dietary theory and helps many lose weight and live a healthy life. These 3 protocols, 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 are wonderful options for those wanting to use homeopathic drops. I suggest using one of these protocols with higher calorie allowances to responsibility lose weight without hCG in your bloodstream.

You will lose weight on these protocols, but not one of the creators of these protocols address the resetting of the hypothalamus.

The Lipman protocol allows many off protocol foods and 800 calories. They encourage the protocol to be used with homeopathic drops. They also allow a lot of free foods and junk food like sugar free jello and pudding.

Dr Trudeau’s protocol is very different from the original Simeon’s protocol. Dr. Kevin Trudeau expanded the loading phase to 30 days and developed a strict supplement protocol, exercise plan and alternative therapy schedule to follow during that period. Trudeau's loading phase protocol also includes six meals per day, mandatory twice-daily salads and a restriction on trans fats. He recommends having a colonic every two days during the loading phase, and cleansing your colon four times per year after treatment. He also recommends a heavy metal cleanse, liver cleanse, infrared saunas, suntanning, and use of an electromagnetic chaos filter. Trudeau recommends getting rid of your microwave, limiting exposure to air conditioning and fluorescent lights and listening to relaxation music.

The Dr Emma Protocol, is another one that allows mixing veggies and more calories.

Typically, when we investigate deeper, we find they have increased the daily calories and/or added supplements that they sell. Why increase calories when if on the correct dose of 125iu of hCG you are not hungry? If you increase the calories per day and use homeopathic hCG you can then offer the supplements, protein bars, soups, protein powders, supplements, raspberry ketone powder, fruit drinks, sugar free jello and pudding that these protocols allow.

It is my belief that these newer, or as they call themselves, “Modern Protocols” allow mixing veggies and more calories and more food options to make the protocol more palatable to more people to get more clients. When you tell someone that they can only eat 500 calories of food a day and cannot even eat a real salad with several veggies in it, you chase away half of your potential clients. They call it the NEW MODERN hCG DIET BUT none of them talk about resetting the hypothalamus. Which draws into question if all they are concerned with is weight loss and not lasting life change.

Drops vs, patches, vs injections - homeopathic vs RX

Drops used to contain real RX (prescription) hCG, but about 5 years ago the FDA required the drop companies change their formulations and made hCG only available with a Dr's prescription. To stay in business the drop companies went the way of homeopathic. Homeopathic hCG contains no real hormone, they describe homeopathic hCG as an "energetic imprint" of the substance. The solution comes in a diluted form with this description (6X 12X 30X 60X). For instance, a 6X dilution is the equivalent of one drop of real hCG in a bucket of water. A 60X would be a drop in a 60-gallon water tank - so, whether this bottle has a 6X, 12X, 30X or 60X dilution is not specified. This is why you could consume the entire 1 oz bottle of Homeopathic hCG and you will still not test positive for hCG. Buy a cheap pregnancy test and pour a bit of the solution on the strip - it will not show a positive and it is hCG that these cheap testers are looking for. So if homeopathic contains one drop of hCG per bucket worth, are you really getting the same effect? or are you just getting the placebo effect? And if all it takes is one drop of real hCG per bucket to make an "energetic imprint," couldn't someone make a lot of this Homeopathic hCG for very cheap? The rest of the ingredients in homeopathic hCG vary but are mostly amino acids which work as appetite suppressants.

The patches are now the latest, greatest thing, but they too are homeopathic and only contain diluted hCG with vitamins, minerals and amino acids.

In Dr Simeon’s research he found that the body need 125iu (international units) of hCG in the bloodstream daily to target the abnormal body fat while also protecting the normal body fat and more importantly the lean muscle mass which include your internal organs. Also, in his findings it is the 125iu that also resets the hypothalamus. There are companies that make drops with RX hCG and they are sold with a prescription. There are also sublingual RX Tabs which we carry. There have been studies done that have shown that hCG is similar to insulin and the only way to get it into your bloodstream is via injections but these findings are still inconclusive.

Weight loss Clinics have now all adopted the hCG protocol and added it to their bag of weight loss tricks, the sad part about this is most clinic do not do their research and have been found to dose too high and like the rest of these rogue protocols allow extra foods and more calories and when you are hungry because your dose is too high they rely on their old standard weight loss trick, an appetite suppressant Phentermine which is a legal amphetamine that has been linked to heart problems, is highly addictive causes chaos to your metabolism. Phentermine undoes all of the metabolism reset that the hCG is doing. Most people, like myself will tell you that they gained all of their weight back and then some when they stopped taking phentermine.

Dr Simeon’s was very clear when he wrote that the dose should never exceed 125iu but these clinics are dosing from 150 – 300iu while also selling their supplements, shakes, appetite suppressants and anything else that will bring in money.

You will lose weight on all of these protocols because you are eating at a calorie deficit BUT at what cost? Anorexics restrict their calories and have horrible health issues because their bodies start to eat itself for fuel. It is the hCG in your bloodstream that causes the body to target your abnormal body fat for fuel and not other parts of your body.

OP (Original Protocol) and POP (Perfect on Protocol):

The Original Protocol was developed by Dr. Albert Theodore William Simeons. He was the leading exponent of a weight-loss protocol based on Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG). In 1954, he published a book called "Pounds and Inches”. He found that the hCG hormone evolved to direct the bodies of pregnant women to use their own fat as a source of calories for the developing fetus. Dr. Simeons simply discovered that this hormone will do the same thing in women who are not pregnant, as well as in men. It directs the body to use up calories from fat. That is the fundamental explanation. The way that HCG works is, of course, much more complicated. Dr. Simeons explained that it influences the hypothalamus of the brain to guide the metabolism of fat. Although medical people have mostly ignored this explanation, a key discovery in 1994 about the master fat-burning hormone provides support for Dr. Simeons. This was the discovery of a hormone called leptin, which is also a protein hormone that directs the body to burn fat by communicating with the hypothalamus. This is the most significant scientific discovery on fat metabolism in the past century, and doctors either don't know about it or don't know what to do with it. The key point here is from a scientific article in the Journal of Endocrinology (Aug. 2007): “hCG significantly stimulates the secretion of the pro-adipogenic factor, leptin, from human adipose tissue.” Nobody yet knows how these hormones work together, although the interdependence of hCG and leptin, plus insulin, is undoubtedly at the core of how we store and burn fat. It is also a delicate balance, since we can develop resistance to all of these hormones, which undermines our ability to use storage fat for energy.

Per Dr. Simeons, “The diet used in conjunction with HCG must not exceed 500 calories per day, and the way these calories are made up is of utmost importance… This includes only 200 grams of protein divided between lunch and dinner. For instance, having a bread stick and an apple for breakfast in addition to a single bread stick, tea or coffee with only one tablespoon of milk.”

The IAPAM Medical Advisory Board found that patients who follow the original diet (including taking prescription hCG, not hCG drops) are not hungry and lose primarily fat, not muscle.

Per the IAPAM Medical Advisory Board, in summary, Dr. Emma, and as we’ve seen many others do in the past, is trying to create a “new and improved” hCG diet protocol that works better and saves muscle mass. However, our experience with over 33,000 patients is that the original protocol saves the same amount of muscle mass and patients are not hungry. There is no point in increasing the dosage and daily calories since people should not be hungry. On the Original protocol, they lose the weight, they lose fat, and their metabolism is reset.

In conclusion you are free to follow whatever protocol is most comfortable for you but we here at Becoming New Again Weight Loss choose to follow and coach the Original Simeons Protocol because of the science that backs it. Our goal is to help you not just lose weight but to reset your hypothalamus, change your relationship with food and live a long healthy satisfying life comfortable in your own skin.

If you have questions about the different protocols, the protocol your provider put you on or how to get started please schedule a complimentary clarity call with one of our certified hCG coaches to help you reach your weight loss goals.

In Gratitude and Health