Here is a breakdown of the approximate calories of each food allowed during the HCG diet. As a refresher, HCG, short for Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin is a hormone found in pregnant women that when taken allows a person to survive on a low calorie diet (500 calories a day) and in which case they are able to lose on average about a pound or two a day, all while maintaining a healthy physique and not experiencing the usual hunger pains that accompany many diets. Read “How I Lost 40 Pounds in 40 Days” for more information on this astounding diet.
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The actual food consumption consists of lunch and dinner (no breakfast) and the following items per meal:
- 3.5 ounces of selected lean meats (see below)
- 3.5 ounces of selected vegetables (see below)
- 1 Grissini Breadstick or Melba Toast
- Selected fruit (see below)
You are encouraged to drink lots of water (I averaged over 100 ounces a day) and you can drink all the coffee and tea you want as well as moderate levels of 0 calorie diet sodas.
And now for the calorie count of allowable foods.
Fish (avg 98 calories)
- Cod (3.5 oz) – 83 calories
- Crab Meat (3.5 oz) – 100 calories
- Flounder (3.5 oz) – 90 calories
- Haddock (3.5 oz) – 88 calories
- Halibut (3.5 oz) – 110 calories
- Lobster (3.5 oz) – 98 calories
- Red Snapper (3.5 oz) – 110 calories
- Shrimp (3.5 oz) – 110 calories
- Tilapia (3.5 oz) – 94 calories
Additional white fish are listed at the bottom of the page.
Very Lean Beef (avg 152 calories)
- 93/7 Lean Ground Beef (3.5 oz) – 150 calories
- Cube Steak (3.5 oz) – 160 calories
- Sirloin Tip Side Steaks (3.5 oz) – 130 calories
- Top Round Steak (3.5 oz) – 166 calories
- Tri-Tip Steak (3.5 oz) – 154 calories
Chicken
- Chicken Breast (3.5 oz) – 87 calories
Veal (avg 114 calories)
- Veal, sirloin (3.5 oz) – 110 calories
- Veal, loin chop (3.5 oz) – 117 calories
Vegetables (avg 18.8 cal)
- Asparagus (3.5 oz) – 20 calories
- Asparagus (2″ tip) – 1 calories
- Asparagus (small spear) – 2 calories
- Asparagus (medium spear) – 3 calories
- Asparagus (large spear) – 4 calories
- Broccoli (3.5 oz) – 34 calories
- Broccoli (1 cup – 88g) – 30 calories
- Broccoli (5″ spear – 31 g) – 11 calories
- Celery (3.5 oz) – 15 cal
- Celery (medium stalk) – 6 calories
- Cabbage (3.5 oz) – 24 calories
- Cabbage (1 cup shredded) – 17 calories
- Cauliflower (3.5 oz) – 22 calories
- Cauliflower (1 cup) – 28 calories
- Cauliflower (3 flowerets) – 12 calories
- Cucumber (3.5 oz) – 12 calories
- Cucumber (small) – 19 calories
- Cucumber (medium) – 24 calories
- Cucumber (large) – 34 calories
- Cucumber (English long) – 60 calories
- Lettuce, all varieties (3.5 oz) – 20 calories
- Lettuce, all varieties (1 cup) – 8 calories
- Lettuce, all varieties (small head) – 32 calories
- Red Radishes (3.5 oz) – 12 calories
- Red Radishes (one medium) – 1 calories
- Spinach, raw (3.5 oz) – 20 calories
- Spinach, raw (1 cup) – 7 calories
- Spinach, frozen (3.5 oz) – 23 calories
- Spinach, frozen (1 cup) – 41 calories
- Spinach, cooked (3.5 oz) – 31 calories
- Spinach, cooked (1 cup) – 48 calories
- Tomato (3.5 oz) – 20 calories
- Tomato (cherry) – 3 calories
- Tomato (plumb) – 11 calories
- Tomato (small) – 16 calories
- Tomato (medium) – 22 calories
- Tomato (large) – 33 calories
Fruit
- Apple (small) – 55 calories
- Apple (medium) – 72 calories
- Apple (large) – 110 calories
- Orange (navel) – 69 calories
- Orange (Florida) – 65 calories
- Orange (California) – 59 calories
- Strawberries, 12 large – 72 calories
- Strawberries, 20 medium – 80 calories
- Pink Grapefruit (California) – 92 calories
- Pink Grapefruit (Florida) – 74 calories
Bread
- Grissini Breadstick (3 g) – 12 calories
- Melba Toast (3 gram) – 12 calories
- Melba Toast (5 gram) – 20 calories
White Fish List
- Ayr
- Cat Fish
- Cod
- Coley
- Dover Sole
- Flounder
- Flying Fish
- Haddock
- Hake
- Halibut
- Hoki
- John Dory
- Kalabasu
- Lemon Sole
- Ling
- Monk Fish
- Parrot Fish
- Plaice
- Pollack
- Pomfret
- Red & Grey Mullet
- Red Fish
- Red Snapper
- Rock Salmon/Dogfish
- Rohu
- Sea Bass
- Sea Bream
- Shark
- Skate
- Tilapia Turbot
- Whiting
Keep in mind that all the above calorie counts on meats and vegetables do not include any sauces, salad dressing or butter. You are in fact encouraged not to us sauces such as barbecue sauce, A-1 Steak Sauce, etc., on meats nor any salad dressings on salads or butter on vegetables.
One trick I learned in phase two of my diet is that I could use Louisiana Hot Sauce on chicken as it has zero calories. That has helped immensely and because it is spicy, you feel fuller. I also use Balsamic Vinegar on Spinach salads which is quite tasty.
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Harvel – Thanks for your response. I will probably introduce bread first also and then pasta. I’ve read that Dreamfields has a low-carb healthy pasta that is supposed to be good. I love to cook and have a library of cookbooks which I am scouring for healthy recipes. One of my cookbooks has a great (healthy) recipe for eggplant gratin so I made several and have been having those for lunch. They re-heat great. When I’m on Phase 4 I plan to continue having some sort of vegetable dish instead of a sandwich for lunch. The healthiest recipes I’ve found for Phase 3 and Phase 4 are in the Mediterranean, French and Italian cookbooks (some great vegie recipes). The Ina Garten cookbooks also have some nice vegie recipes. I can’t believe all the good vegie recipes I was missing before because I was loading up on the bread and potatoes. Good luck on the rest of your diet!
Jackie,
Thanks for the info on the cookbooks. My wife and I have been talking about how to handle food when we are where we want to be weightwise. We’ve pretty much concluded that we will go organic, sticking to low-fat meats and plenty of produce. Limited fruits will be included, as will very little sugar and starch. The assortment of cookbooks really helps. Let’s face it–fish and cabbage can get old after a while. With good recipes, there’s no excuse for us to get bored. This diet is really life (and life-style) changing.
When I went to Ph4, I added bread first. Actually, biscuits and gravy! I had a minor weight gain, well within the 2 pound +/- range.
Harvel
Karen,
Could you please let me know where you obtained your drops?
Thanks,
Maggie
Karen,
Can you please share where you ordered your drops from?
Thanks,
Maggie
The website http://www.diyhcg.com that sells those Mediral drops have their estimation of the number of drops on their FAQ’s in the website. The average person needs 15 drops 3 times a day. That is what I am doing now and it works just fine. Just started my 2nd round last Saturday and lost 6 pounds so far. I did the injections the first time (and lost 18 pounds) in august for 23 days so I am happy the drops are working so well. I decided to get them after reading Les’s posts here during the summer.
The maintenance phase for me was easy since so much of the restrictions were lifted. I cheated with extra wine and still did fine. I had 2 steak days if I really splurged. After the maintenance phase, I continued weighing in daily in the morning and only gained after really going all out for special occasion (drinking vodka drinks and sushi did it for me) but I was careful the following days and it came off. I stayed within 1 pound of my last injection when I started again for round 2.
I really feel my metabolism was reset after the maint period. I have referred many people to the Hcg diet now and to this blog!
Harvel,
I ordered the book, 500 Low-Carb Recipes, at Amazon. I’m hoping the healthy bread recipes taste as good as they sound. I’ll let everyone know once I try them. By the way, I’m curious, what food did you introduce first on Phase 4? Pasta, bread, potatoes or dessert? Did you gain the next day?
Karen,
I got the Tammy Skye book and I think it’s very good. The Tomato & Basil Soup recipe is outstanding as well as many of the other recipes. I also got the 101 HCG Recipe book. I forget who wrote it. I searched HCG Diet on Amazon and found it there. Good luck!
Hello All,
I’ve so enjoyed reading everyone’s posts. Im on day 18 and am down 15 pounds. Im pretty excited! I sure am hungry some days, but I just tough through it for the most part. I found that little cheats just don’t pay off. Speaking of….. I have a confession and a cry for feedback. Has anyone had any experience with COFFEEMATE powder? I just can’t do black coffee, and coffee really helps me feel like I am “eating”. I am doing 1 tsp, 3 x a day– which is freaking 10 calories. Do you know if this is a big deal? I sure would love to keep it up.
Second question, immunity. Im on 175, even though Im not an overly heavy person. (150) do you think this is too much and can I lower it if i need to? Need feedback on that if anyone is up for it.
THANKS!
and for the record, i tried ONE shot of Vodka in sugar free vitamin water. if anyone’s tempted, it cost me 4 days of loss. just stagnated. i think that’s what it was, but much as i love a glass of wine or a little libation, i will hold off for the rest of the time. just thought id share that incase anyone out there is tempted. Can’t have your cake and be skinny too…
Rina
Hi Everyone,
Just returned from NY, I have to admit it was an easier trip then I had anticpated. I didn’t think I was going to be able to find much to eat. P3 worked out quite well for me. Believe it or not I ate every morning at Mc Donalds. I ordered a Egg McMuffin, threw away the muffin, and just ate the egg and canadian bacon. I was surprised the eggs and bacon didn’t have on bit of grease. Had my apple and brought my cooler with water, my 4 oz of no added sugar yogurt, sugar free dressing and went back to Mc D’s for lunch ordered a side salad, and a grilled chicken breast, it was perfect. I had more problems finding someplace to eat dinner. I tried to stick to fish or chicken, salad, and brought some great NY apples. But around the motels in those areas were Rest not very diet friendly or healthy. We ate in Applebees 3 times, and twice the chix wasn’t cooked thru, I don’t like meat anyway so that really mde me sick. Thank goodness I brought extra yougart with me and I had a descent breakfast and lunch. Actually I was surprised I didn’t gain anything since I started P3. I actually lost 1.6 since I got home. Hope that is ok.
While in NY I made Chix soup with Low salt chix broth added a couple spoonfuls of spaghetti sauce added a little basil and cajun spice and thru in chix and veggies. It was delicious and very filling and I got everything in.
Now I am worrying that I didn’t eat enough and it will come back to hurt me. When I did do it right last time, I put back on a lot of weight. this time I was a lot smarter then when I did Round 2, I did the load days, and it was much easier. Well thats it I just wanted to let you all know how it was easy to get breakfast and lunch and stick to descent food. I just wish there had been more Rest around that served non greasy healthy alternatives.
Caught up on all the emails of how everyone was doing. Hope my travel experience help the people on P3 Finishing P3 Monday. Boy am I scared to put sugar in my diet. I pray that I don’t fall off the wagon, I never cheated once since I started. Lynne
Janell,
Hey, thanks for making the effort to get that information to me. On the first go-round, we were doing the long course. Wouldn’t you know–day 39 and I was hungry as a bear. Figured it was immunity so I made that the last day of HCG. My clinician wasn’t real happy about it, but oh, well. I couldn’t see spending any more time hungry enough to chew the legs off a table than I had to.
I don’t see the extra week off will hurt anything, especially if Thanksgiving is planned for a gorge day.
Speaking of cheating, we drink reverse osmosis bottled water simply because the city water tastes so bad. The place where I go to get the water is part of a buffalo wings restaurant. Talk about temptation! I was able to get out of there without giving in. But, then, I wasn’t hungry either. That helped.
Harvel
Harvel,
I will get both his phase 2 and phase 3 list scanned for you and send them over.
. Now with the immunity setting in I figure an extra week couldn’t hurt.
I was supposed to start the diet again the week before Thanksgiving but that didn’t make sense to me so, I’m actually adding one more week, making it 7 weeks off, just so I could have Thanksgiving as my gorge day
Yesterday was a hard say because I was statrving. Needless to say I cheated, after doing so good I caved, and I was afraid to get on the scale this morning.
One piece of cake, Ritz naturals cheese cracker, and a serving of Enchilada casserole later, I still had a 4 oz loss. I could hardly believe it but I won’t try it again.
I gathered from some of the reading I did yesterday that once immunity sets in it’s pretty much like injecting water into your bloodstream it has zero effect, which leads me to believe that’s why I didn’t have a gain. Though I did eat unapproved items I didn’t over do it on my calorie intake but like I said I don’t think I will test it again and I’ll be greatful that I got off lucky.
Have a great rest of the day!
Janell
Harvel and Janell could you please share the instructions and food lists with me too. jenyjen200@aol.com I could use all the help i can get.
Thanks!
Jen
Hillary
I got my one ounce bottle for $23 and I have seen 2 oz bottle for $40 or so. What does your bottle look like? Maybe I have the wrong one; I have Homeopathic Mediral HCG Detox 6x 12x 30x 60x. Hillary or Harvel, could you please let me know if you have found out how many eyedroppers equal 200 IU. The directions on my bottle say to take 15-20 drops 3 times a day. Good luck to all of you and have fun on vacation Hillary.
I have a quick question. After this 1st round I was considering trying the sublingual HCG for my second round. I received my free 12-day sample and the menu and I was wondering why the menu differs so drastically from Dr. Simeon’s protocol. If anyone is on the drops and can answer I’d be appreciative.
Harvel,
I am curious with a few other cookbooks on the HCG eating plan why not buy a few of the books & eat some of the recipes. Like the one by Tammy Skye that is on the internet for download. It is a bit pricey however it sounds very gourmet or the one from the Green Valley SPA in UTAH. I am sure they are very tasty along with being gourmet. Your welcome on the ideas for the ZONE. Has anyone else found any good recipe books for HCG Eating? I do not know who he is however a Chef from MO.(I think)wrote a cookbook on HCG Recipes as he went on the eating plan.
More later in the week & I wonder how Hilary is doing.
Karen
Thanks for your response, Harvel, on the soy milk question. I actually make my own and can use stevia to sweeten it, but will save it for Phase 4. I actually prefer making almond-cashew milk. That’s great in Phase 3. You mention HCG powder. Mine comes in a bottle and is a freeze-dried tablet. I do mix my own solution. Where do you get your “powder” from? This is my last injection day and I’ve lost an overall total of 54.6 pounds now! I have another 30 to 35 to go. I will do a 27-day round after this 6 week maintenance and will get to carb load Thanksgiving and the day after! Perfect timing, huh? I will more than likely need another 23 to maybe as much as 40 days on the last round, considering the closer you get to your goal, the slower the weight loss is. I’m loving the low carb life while on maintenance and am having lots of fun with it! Yep–lifestyle change is very good! I am not gaining my weight back. I feel too great!!! Good luck to all!!
Janell,
If the naturopath you are working with has developed this process through working with many successful dieters, then who am I to argue. Go with what he tells you and see what develops. My guess is that it’ll turn out fine.
Gorge day on Thanksgiving Day? What planning! And leftovers for the next day, too. Wish I had thought of that.
Could you send me a copy of all his instructions and food lists? hfalish@hotmail.com
I have started a small library of information about this diet from various sources.
Thanks, Harvel
Harvel,
One more thing …my schedule of meals on phase 2 consisted of me spreading allowable portions over the day.
10:30- apple
1:30- lunch
after work an apple or sometimes a piece of toast and then dinner if I did toast instead of fruit after work I would have the apple after dinner or a strawberry smoothie as dessert after dinner.
This little schedule worked fine up until a couple of days ago.
I will just prepare myself for my next couple days of hunger.
Janell
Harvel,
My doctor is a Naturopathic doctor as well and he followed Phase 2 of the protocol to the letter as well, that’s why I was shocked by his “interpretation” of Phase 3.
The list he gave me has the food broken up into portions and one portion of every meat is 60 grams, except crabmeat, which is 120 grams; and this is raw weight, a little over 2 ounces as you pointed out. This would be a whopping grand total of 6 ounces of meat per day.
He has done the diet this way for numerous people with great success. He also said that this process will also stabolize the metabolism..I know, weird right? I guess I will try it his way for the heck of it. I’m just afraid that I will put the weight back on when this pahse 3 is over. I am going to do a second round if phase 2 in November with my gorge days starting on Thanksgiving Day
I have lost 26 pounds on my 40 day, sorry 39 day round of HCG.
Thanks for your input Harvel!
Janell
Janell,
First, you need to know that my wife and I were under the supervision of a naturopathic physician during the first round of the diet. He followed very closely the original protocol as laid out by Dr. Simeons. Because of that, I don’t have any way to judge any other protocol–I have no experience with anything else than what we did.
If you are already hungry, plan on three more days of hunger. The scheduled eating might be a problem. Dr. Simeons would allow the day’s rations to be divided up as meals and snacks. That really helps stave off the feelings of hunger–believe me, I know.
Losing weight during Phase 3. Again, refering to Dr. Simeons, he specifically stated that the weight must be kept within the bounds of no more than 2 pounds above or below the weight of the day of the last HCG dose (last day weight). The reason is that during the three weeks of “maintenance,” Ph3, the body has a chance to readjust its metabolism to the new weight. In my opinion, if you continue to lose weight, all you are doing is presenting a moving target to your body and it won’t be able to stabilize its metabolism.
The basic rules for phase 3 are simple: 1) boost your caloric intake to somewhere around 1500 calories as a starting point. You will be eating more protein in order to do that and low sugar fruits. 2) Add fats and oils to your diet–they are calorie laden. 3) You may mix your vegetables. 4) You must, repeat must, avoid all sugar and starches during Ph3. Read lables. For example “natural” can mean many things. Look to see what’s actually in the stuff. 5) Continue to weigh yourself every day. Adjust your caloric intake up or down according to where you are with respect to the last day weight.
I have a question about the 60 grams of protein: Is your doctor talking about the actual protein in your diet or is he talking about the weight of the raw meat? If he is talking about just the protein in the meats, then that would be about 10.5 ounces of raw meat to get 60 grams of pure protein rather than the 7 ounces while on the HCG-VLCD which amounted to about 40 Grams. (Most meats are about 20% protein as a rough average.) If he is saying 60 Grams of “meat,” then I would think that is not nearly enough–it would be only a little over 2 ounces.
This thing is getting to long. Write back if you have more questions.
Harvel
Harvel,
Thanks for your response. I haven’t stopped taking the HCG as of yet. My partner convinced me that I was feeling hungry now becuase it’s the week prior to my TOM, which typically peaks my appetite. This happened last month but not to this severity. I have a little schedule that I have been following with my meals but for the past few days I have been forcing myself to wait until my “scheduled” lunch or dinner time . Tomorrow is day 40 for me anyway so I’m thinking I will probably make today my last day. I thought the hunger would get worse without the HCG so I tried to stick it out.
but I just wondered what your opinion is on this matter.
I have another question…I have been doing the program through my doctor and he has given me the ultra lite diet, minus the supplement packets, and told me to follow this and it’s ok if I continue to lose weight. He said that I didn’t need to worry about the strict maintenance because I have not reached my goal weight, does that sound right to you?
I was really excited to move on to phase 3 until he gave me his version of phase three,which consist of about 60 grams of protein per meal, breakfast, lunch, or dinner and protion controlled fruits and veggies. This is not much more than we are allowed in Phase 2, the only difference are the food choices.Milk and cream are not on his “ultra lite” list either. I’m a little disapointed, not really your problem
Thanks,
Janell
Jackie,
Let us know how the bread recipes work out. Where did you find the cookbook?
Janell,
Even though you have hit immunity, the HCG is still in your body. I’d follow through the 72 before going into phase 3. You did stop taking HCG, didn’t you?
Harvel
Harvel,
Thank you, i was eating organic crunchy peanut butter everyday with an apple for breakfast the first time around. this time i think i may be too sensitive to it, just weird how the first time i wasnt and this time i am. i will see if cutting out the PB will help. now i have to do a steak day, which the first time around i always stayed with in my 2 lbs even in Ph 4 and was eating pizza, Ice cream, drinking etc… when i went to NY for VAC. Just so weird.
Hi all,
I have a quick question for anyone who can answer. When immunity sets in when taking the HCG, do you still need to give yourself 72 before starting phase 3 or is it ok to just jump right in?
Thanks,
Janell
Harvel,
Thanks for helping me out with Jessica’s questions. I was out with my horse all morning and just got in. By the way, I bought the book recently, 500 Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender, and she has a few interesting bread machine recipes made with healthy grains that are much lower in carbs. I’m going to try a few once I’m in Phase 4 so I’ll report back as to their taste. The book also has quite a few good low carb recipes for vegetables and other side dishes.
Jessica – The only thing I would add is that 2 or 3 times on the diet I stalled for 4 days at the same weight. I was on it for about 50 days. I didn’t do an apple day because it seemed Dr. Simeons was saying the stall was retained water and it would come off eventually anyway. The point is, an apple day certainly won’t hurt but it’s not necessary. Good luck!
amanda a,
You could well be sensitive to peanuts. Many people are. Another factor in your weight gain is that smooth peanut butter is 6.4% starch. Starch is a no-no during Ph3. Also, you really do need to pay attention to how many calories you are eating. There are two reasons: 1) You will then know whether to adjust the calories up or down in response to your morning weight. 2) By counting calories during Ph3, you will learn how much you are able to eat in order to maintain your weight when you are all finished with the diet.
Harvel
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