The original HCG diet consisted of a very strict eating plan and a series of three phases that had to be followed exactly. Since the creation of the original diet plan, a number of alternative variations on the HCG diet (one popular choice is to use hcg diet drops instead of injections) have also been created.
One variation enables the dieter to eat a larger number of calories per day than the original diet, which restricted the dieter to only 500 calories a day. Some of the newer variations of the HCG diet suggest that eating up to 80 calories a day may still enable plenty of weight loss, although it could slow the process down. It might enable more gradual weight loss and it could be suitable for people who do not need to lose very much weight.
Another variation is a vegetarian or vegan version of the original HCG diet plan, which offers alternative sources of protein for the dieter to choose from rather than restricting them to the meat and fish based protein options of the original HCG diet. This has enabled people who could not use the original diet protocol to use HCG to aid weight loss, although some people feel that weight loss on the vegetarian or vegan diet tends to be slower than on the original diet plan.
One of the most popular variations on the HCG diet involves the use of an additional phase at the beginning of the HCG diet plan. Normally there are three phases to the HCG diet plan. The first is the loading phase, the second is the dieting stage when HCG is taken and the low calorie eating plan is followed and the final stage is the maintenance stage. In some new variations on the HCG diet, an extra detoxification stage is added to the beginning of the diet plan, before the loading phase. The detoxification stage is used to purify the body and to prepare it for weight loss, usually by spending a month eating healthy, organic, unprocessed foods.
