Foods for Phase 3 of the HCG Diet

If you are starting Phase 3 of the HCG diet, you have completed what is considered the hardest part, Phase 2 and the VLCD (very low calorie diet).

The goal of Phase 3 of the HCG diet is to stabilize your weight (not to lose any additional weight), reset your body weight set point, your hypothalamus and your metabolism.

Phase 3 is broken into two three-week segments. In the first three weeks, often called P3A, you can eat anything except any starches or sugars. In the second three weeks, called P3B, you gradually add back sugars and starches, monitoring what effects you may have by way of weight gain.

What You Cannot Eat

In Phase 3 you can eat anything except any starches or sugars.

Starches are rice, bread of any kind, potatoes, pasta of any kind, crackers, chips, popcorn, anything with flour (cookies, cake, donuts).

Sugars are sugar, honey, molasses, any type of added sugar, fructose, dextrose, cane juice. Read all labels, absolutely no added sugars.

Naturally occurring sugars found in fruits and vegetables are fine. So if your tomato juice shows sugar on the nutritional label but not in the ingredients, it is fine to drink.

What You Should Eat

Anything that doesn't fall into the starches or sugar category is fine to eat, however, you should try your best to make healthy choices.

Remember to add healthy fats to your daily diet. Things like avocado, nuts, extra virgin olive oil and salmon are all very good for you and your heart.

Try your best to avoid high fat packaged or fast foods with added ingredients that most people cannot pronounce.

Calories

Since your body had been burning so many calories in phase 2, it will want to continue to use that many calories while in phase 3. If it doesn't get enough calories, it will think it is in starvation mode and will once again start storing fat for later.

If you are not eating enough calories each day, you may begin to gain weight. Do not eat less! You need to eat more, so your body doesn't think it is starving.

Depending on what version of the HCG diet you are on, your daily caloric intake may vary. Most HCG diets however, consider 1500 calories per day to be the lowest you should be eating in phase 3. That sounds like a reasonable amount to most people, but when you have been eating only 500 calories a day for all of phase 2 with no hunger, it is often difficult to start eating so much more.

Instead of trying to stuff yourself to get 1500 calories in each day, consider the food you are eating.

Get out of the habit of buying the low fat version of many foods like sour cream, cottage cheese, and salad dressings. Buy the full fat version and you can eat less for a larger caloric hit. Nuts are both healthy and high in calories, snack on a dozen of these a couple times a day. Have whole eggs instead of just whites with your breakfast. Use cream in your coffee and real butter on your veggies.