Dr. Z on loading -

This is a critical and often overlooked part of the diet. The human body is extraordinarily more intelligent than what you realize. In chiropractic, we call this innate intelligence. It's the body's intrinsic ability to heal itself and sustain itself even when conditions are not ideal.

Your body stores away fat for a reason. It's a primitive survival mechanism to protect itself from long winters or famine, conditions that no long effect us today in the US. Without proper loading, your body will be very defensive with it's calories. When you are accustomed to 2500 or 3000 calories per day, then you suddenly drop your caloric intake down to 850, it's going to set off an alarm. Your body, with it's innate intelligence, is going to say, "uh oh, what happened to our food." And as a result, it's going to slip into starvation mode.

What is starvation mode? This is when you body actually becomes MORE efficient with it's calories because it presumes there is a shortage of available food. As a result, it make losing weight very difficult. By loading up on fatty foods, we are essentially outsmarting the innate intelligence of the human body. How? By causing a spike in your liver enzymes.

Have you ever had blood work done for a life insurance policy? What do they tell you? Don't drink alcohol or eat a lot of fatty foods before your blood is drawn. Why? Because liver enzymes are acutely raised by both. While a spike in liver enzymes is not good for a life insurance policy, it's good for weight loss because it allows you to bypass starvation mode. By the time your liver enzymes fall back into the range of normal limits, you're already on day 4 or 5 of the diet and the HCG has already begun working for you.

To summarize - Don't overlook the loading phase. It's critical to your early success. If you don't belive me, ask Trisha. She lost 16 pounds in the first week.

Blog on loading - https://www.insideoutwellness.net/hcg-diet-loading...

Alcohol - I'm not suggesting this, but alcohol also causes liver enzymes to spike. So... if you want to have a last hoorah with a couple of cocktails, the loading phase is the time.

Eat as much fatty food as you want during these two days. In fact, overload yourself on fats. Still be cautious of sugar and carbs. These are not forbidden in the loading phase of your diet, but the focus should be on fats. Try and get a good mix of Omega 3 fats (healthy fats such as avocado, fish and nuts) and Omega 6 fats which are your animal fats and dairy. Enjoy yourself; this is your last hoorah! This isn’t to say that you’ll never again eat any of your favorites, but you’ll eat them intelligently, balanced with a healthy whole food diet.

Beginning – The first two days that you begin taking your HCG supplement, it’s necessary to overload on fatty foods. This may seem counter-productive, but it serves three purposes. First, the sudden fat overload causes your hypothalamus to spring into action by alerting the body to begin attacking fats, essentially jump starting the diet. Secondly, the excess fat provides an immediate calorie reserve to mediate your hunger during the early stages of the diet, allowing the HCG ample time to tap into your fat stores, which can take up to 5-7 days. Finally, as we discussed earlier regarding Set Point Theory, keep in mind that human physiology exists for our long term survival and any sudden decrease in calories can alarm the body into “starvation mode.” During starvation mode, your body actually becomes more efficient with its calories and more determined to store away fat, assuming that there is a scarcity in food supply. This is why dieting is so difficult. Not only are we battling our own poor eating habits, but a physiological pre-disposition to retain fat. Loading on fats for two days causes your liver enzymes to spike which is theorized to prevent the body from entering this starvation mode. By the time your liver enzymes return to normal levels, the HCG has already tapped into your fat reserves and is providing you with supplemental calories thus bypassing starvation mode, which facilitates more rapid weight loss. It’s quite possible to gain 2 to 3 pounds during the loading phase. Don’t let that discourage you. It will be lost quickly.

To Summarize…

1. The sudden fat overload causes your hypothalamus to spring into fat burning mode, essentially jump starting the diet.

2. The excess fat provides an immediate calorie reserve to mediate your hunger during the early stages of the diet, allowing the HCG to tap into your fat stores, which can take up to 5-7 days.

3. Overloading on fats fools the body into bypassing starvation mode thus accelerating weight loss. If you can keep the emphasis on fats, you’ve got the green light to get after it. A sweet desert certainly won’t hurt you, but focus on fats. Get your dairy and cheese fix in because you won’t get any on the low calorie phase.

Kylene's tips for loading - I always try to load clean and keep my carbs as low as possible. Who wants to gain weight loading?!? This also cuts down the possible keto flue