The hcg diet plan is amazing in its ability to help you shed vast amounts of weight very quickly and easily. But the hcg diet plan, like any diet, is not immune to failure. It’s a meticulous program in the way it is designed to make you burn fat and reset your metabolism to that of a thin person, but it’s easy to stray from the plan if you make any of the following mistakes:

Mistake #1 on the hcg diet plan: not drinking enough water

You’ve been following the hcg diet plan to the letter. You jump out of bed in the morning, eager to see a big drop on the scales, and your weight hasn’t changed. Or worse: it has gone up! It can be very disheartening when this happens, but it’s usually due to fluid retention rather than an increase of fat.

When you don’t drink enough water, your body retains water, which can show up as a jump on the scales.

Our bodies store toxins in our fat cells and when you begin to burn fat on the hcg diet plan, those toxins need to be processed by the liver and flushed out of the body. Without enough water, the liver can’t do its job properly. It may seem counterintuitive to drink more water when you’re already feeling puffy and bloated (link), but your body won’t retain abnormal amounts of water if you’re well hydrated.

Because your body uses a large amount of water to metabolise fat, that water needs to be replaced. If it’s not, you can become dehydrated, which will also slow your weight loss down.

Not drinking enough water can also lead to constipation, another reason for slow or stalled weight loss.

Mistake #2 on the hcg diet plan: excessive exercise

Most diets plans will tell you the more exercise you do, the better. Not so with the hcg diet plan, which stipulates that you only do light exercise while you’re on phase 2 of the diet (the 500-calorie phase). If you exercise to the point of muscle soreness, your body will be producing lactic acid. To neutralise the increased acidity, it will respond with water retention.

Apart from that, the 500-calorie diet you must strictly follow in phase 2 doesn’t provide you with enough energy to fuel a rigorous workout, so you’ll end up tired, weak and hungry.

The upshot? It’s fine to go for a light walk each day, just don’t overdo it and hit the gym and start pumping iron (there’ll be time for that in phase 3).

Mistake #3 on the hcg diet plan: using will power instead of why power

All the diets you’ve ever done in your life took willpower, right? Some are stricter than others, but they all involve some level of self-discipline in order to stay away from the naughty foods or at least, cut back on them. Willpower will only take you so far. It’s far more powerful to focus on ‘why’ power to help you stick to the hcg diet plan.

Ask yourself: why do I want to slim down? Is it to look better in your clothes? To have more freedom of movement? To have more energy? To lower your risks of health challenges like type 2 diabetes and heart disease?

Whatever your reason, if you focus on the WHY, you will create a mental image of how you want to look and that will propel you forwards, like an affirmation you hold in your mind constantly. The Liberate Yourself manual includes a goal setting page which is a useful reference to come back to again and again. It reminds you why you’re doing the hcg diet plan and why you are committed to seeing it through to the end.

Mistake #4 on the hcg diet plan: skipping meals during phase 2

You’ve got to be kidding, I hear you say. Phase 2 is only 500 calories a day — why would I want to skip a meal? Unless you’ve done the hcg diet plan, you’ll find it hard to believe you could follow a diet of only 500 calories and NOT be famished 24/7. In fact, some days you won’t even be hungry when it comes to lunch or dinner time.

That’s the effect of the hcg drops. They act as an appetite suppressant, so even though you’re eating tiny meals, you sometimes reach 5pm and think, I’ll just skip dinner tonight and see an even bigger drop on the scales in the morning. Stop right there! This thinking is likely to backfire and lead to a plateau or even weight gain.

The hcg diet plan is designed to reset the functioning of your hypothalamus to burn fat at a lower weight and then maintain your new metabolic rate once you begin to eat normally again. If you don’t feed your body enough nourishing food during phase 2, it will go into starvation mode and hold onto your fat stores.

Skipping meals throws your biochemistry out of balance and can result in nutritional deficiencies, so don’t get ahead of yourself. Just stick to the prescribed hcg diet plan and you’ll see incredible results.

Mistake #5 on the hcg diet plan: Stopping the hcg drops too soon

The hcg diet plan stipulates that you must continue to take the hcg drops for a minimum of 23 days, whether or not you’ve lost your desired amount of weight. When people only have around two to five kilos to lose, they sometimes reach their goal weight in the first week or two and then it’s tempting to stop taking the daily hcg dosages. They also make the big mistake of not bothering with phase 3 of the diet, the all-important maintenance phase.

If you feel you’ve lost the weight you needed to in the first week or two, don’t’ stop taking the drops and go back to eating normally or you will quickly regain the weight you’ve lost. Your hypothalamus needs at least 23 days to reset itself to burn fat at your new weight while allowing you to eat normally. You will sabotage all your hard work if you stop too soon.

Some people also stop taking the drops when they hit a plateau, which commonly occurs around day eight or nine of the hcg diet plan. They think the drops are no longer working for them, so they quit. Big mistake.

Everyone experiences a plateau and you need to be patient and allow your body to do what it needs to do. It doesn’t mean you’re not still losing weight, your body is simply rebuilding itself and you need to chill and give it a minute. If you’re disheartened by a plateau, don’t stop the drops. Give Rochelle a call or drop her an email and she’ll help you over the hump.

Mistake #6 on the hcg diet plan: not preparing properly

I know the feeling. When you discover the hcg diet plan and see the kids of results it gets, you want to start straight away. By the time you’re ready to begin, you’ve probably tried a hundred different diets that failed and this is the one you know is going to work for you. You don’t want to spend one more second being overweight. You’re pumped, you’re inspired, you’re motivated, you want to dive headfirst into the hcg diet plan start seeing the scales drop and feeling your clothes getting looser.

But wait! You’re setting yourself up for failure if you rush in too quickly, without adequate preparation. The Liberate Yourself manual outlines all the steps you need to take to get ready. You need to begin the hcg diet plan fully prepared because one little mishap can totally throw you off the rails.

The first and second times I did the hcg diet plan I was 100% prepared, right down to a menu of which meals I would make every day. I made sure I had my 100-gram portions of meat in the freezer ready to go. I had all the right herbs and spices to make sure I had a variety of flavours. I factored in some yummy treats so I didn’t feel bored or deprived. I had great success both times.

I recently did my third hcg diet plan to get rid of the last bit of remaining weight left from having my second child in my 40s. This time, I wasn’t quite as prepared. I’d done it twice before and thought it was going to be a breeze. I had my scales, tape measure, food scales and water bottle from the previous times I did the program. I thought I knew the diet so well I didn’t bother to plan out my meals. I thought, I’ll just buy the meat and a few veggies and wing it.

Not a good idea. I found myself getting really busy with work and not having enough time to plan my meals, so I’d get to midday and be hungry and would eat my go-to meal of lean mince, tomato and konjac noodles. I soon got sick of that. My other fallback meal was chicken soup with cabbage (at least I’d planned ahead enough so as to have portions of chicken stock frozen and ready to go).

But I relied far too much on those two meals and got a bit bored and depressed and really over the diet a lot sooner than I had the first two times I did it. I stuck it out and was happy with my results in the end, but it wasn’t as easy to stick to as the times I was way more prepared.

So take your time and do it properly. It will be a life-changing diet for you if you plan to succeed.

If you have any questions about how to prepare properly for the hcg diet plan, ask us in the comments section below.