Muscle loss is a common side effect of any weight loss plans. Majority of the weight that you will lose is water and muscles. And losing your hard-earned muscle is the worst thing that can happen. This is because you fail to take into account the metabolic and dietary requirements needed to maintain your lean body mass while breaking down fat.
Unlike other diets, HCG diet can help you maintain your lean body mass. The hormone will use your stored fats instead of your muscles so your body can use it as a main source of fuel. To avoid losing your hard-earned muscles make sure you’ll do the following.
- Eat enough protein to help maintain your muscle. Protein is an essential part of the HCG diet protocol to keep you from losing your muscle. During your VLCD, you’re allowed to have 2 servings of 100 grams of protein each day.
- HCG diet doesn’t last enough to reduce your muscle. This makes it a perfect diet for you to lose fats. You can choose between the 3 weeks round or the 6 weeks round. If you choose to stay longer in the HCG diet protocol like doing many rounds there are breaks between each round. This will give your body ample time to recover from whatever lean muscle mass you’ve lost along the way. Another thing is, since each phase of the HCG diet is short, you can start building your muscle back during Phase 3.
- Keep your muscle active even when on the HCG diet. You should never be completely sedentary. Move around a bit. Do some light exercises such as walking and light swimming. This will prevent your muscle from breaking down.
Other diets will require you to exercise causing your caloric intake to become low. This happens because there’s no HCG to burn your excess fat. As a result, your body starts to burn muscle and converts them into glucose.
- Do not overexert your muscle by doing strenuous exercises. Doing strenuous exercises while on the very low calorie diet can cause muscle break down. You can also lose strength because of the inadequate protein. You’ll feel groggy and sick and you won’t have enough energy to get through the workout like you normally do.
