The food on the Clean Start hormone program varies, depending on the stage. We’ve found there is much confusion as to what you can eat on the first 2 phases of the diet: (1) The 500 calorie day phase, and (2) the first phase of the maintenance phase (no sugar and starch for three weeks). To make matters worse, if you search the internet, you’ll find conflicting and inaccurate information on what you can eat on Phase 1 (P1) and Phase 2 (P2). This is one of the reasons, back in 2010, the IAPAM created the Clean Start Weight Loss program. The goal was to create a comprehensive program with patient guidebooks, recipe books, food journals, and tip sheets to help people lose weight. The key is working with a physician who will review your medical history and order the appropriate lab tests to ensure the program will work for you.
There are 4 Steps of the Clean Start Hormone Weight Loss Program.
- When you start the hormone injections, you do a calorie load for two days (yes, you actually have to eat as much fat as possible within two days).
On day 3, you start the 500 calorie/day diet. - After you have completed the hormone diet phase, you can eat anything you want within reason and within acceptable nutritional guidelines (except for any starch or sugar) for three weeks.
- For the following three weeks, you continue to eat healthily, slowly introducing starch and sugars back into your daily food intake (i.e. whole grains and natural sugars).
Since 2010, the IAPAM’s Clean Start Hormone Weight Loss program has had over 80,000 people that have successfully lost weight on their physician-supervised program. Our program only uses prescription strength hCG, which is only available through physicians. If you received your hCG through the internet or a chiropractor, then you using homeopathic hCG drops. These drops are nothing more than sugar and water, with no traces of the hormone found (according to lab tests). The FDA has even gone so far to post a consumer update and enforce legal action against anyone who produces homeopathic hCG.
The unfortunate thing is that many unsuspecting consumers are duped into thinking what is on these websites is accurate. Even worse is that you’ll find many physicians run hormone diet programs will also be using this misinformation. We’ve seen many programs that are using foods that have been proven not to be as effective during the 500 calorie day/diet phase, including broccoli, blueberries, cauliflower, and pears. While these are all healthy fruits and vegetables that can be enjoyed during the maintenance phase and beyond, they should not be consumed during the 500 calorie day/diet phase. While many people may “sneak” them in and lose weight successfully, it is the type of weight they are losing that is the concern. Often they are actually losing muscle, not fat. For the relatively short term of the 500 calorie/day diet phase (23-43 days), it’s important that you only eat what has been tested and proven to effectively lose fat, not muscle.
Here is what Dr. Simeons, the creator of the hormone weight loss program says in 1954 about the food choices: “Every item in the list is gone over carefully, continually stressing the point that no variations other than those listed may be introduced. All things not listed are forbidden, and the patient is assured that nothing permissible has been left out.” He also goes on to say this “The most tiresome patients are those who start counting calories and then come up with all manner of ingenious variations which they compile from their little books. When one has spent years of weary research trying to make a diet as attractive as possible without jeopardizing the loss of weight, culinary geniuses who are out to improve their unhappy lot are hard to take.” (Pounds and Inches Manuscript).
Here are the foods allowed on the Clean Start hCG Weight Loss Program:
Breakfast:
Tea or coffee in any quantity without sugar. Only one tablespoonful of milk allowed in 24 hours. Saccharin or Stevia may be used.
Lunch:
- 100 grams of veal, beef, chicken breast, fresh white fish, lobster, crab, or shrimp. All visible fat must be carefully removed before cooking, and the meat must be weighed raw. It must be boiled or grilled without additional fat. Salmon, eel, tuna, herring, dried or pickled fish are not allowed. The chicken breast must be removed from the bird.
- One type of vegetable only to be chosen from the following: spinach, chard, chicory, beet-greens, green salad, tomatoes, celery, fennel, onions, red radishes, cucumbers, asparagus, cabbage.
- One breadstick (grissino) or one Melba toast.
- An apple or a handful of strawberries or one-half grapefruit.
Dinner:
The same four choices as lunch.
And that is it! We call it the simplest diet you’ve ever been on. The foods allowed are all one-ingredient natural foods (nothing prepackaged, from a can or box) you can buy in any grocery store. Whether you choose traditional, natural, farmed, organic …. those are all personal choices.