What rogue methods have you tried? What worked best?
 

I am considering doing one more round of hcg and thought it might be nice to have a summary thread where we could list the rogue methods or tweaks we've used and which one was best.

Or maybe it just has to do with me being too lazy to read through the rogue threads? :confused::blush:

i posted this in another thread so just c & p'd. ;)

my rogue-ness consists of:

4T fat free half & half everyday in morning coffee

more protein

3 meals/day

instead of melba/girssini, i eat 100 cal of whatever grain i want. lately it has been the oroweat sandwich thins or pepperidge farms deli flats. toasted and topped with spray butter and sf jam that i make or walden farms strawberry spread. basically any grain product not to exceed 100 cal. i have also used joseph's pita's or a LC tortilla.

eggs everyday....omelets made with up to 6 whites or 1whole egg with 3 egg whites. my morning omelet is flavored with cinnamon, vanilla extract, and sweetener.

mix veggies if i eat them.

use all my regular skincare/hair/etc products

drink diet pop or other sf beverages.

chew sf gum

i allow up to 700 cal/day but have rarely gone that high.

How are you doing so far?

i am down 11.8 from my start weight before loading days. i am only 11.2 from my goal (unless i decide to keep going from there ;) ). i don't know if my losses would have been more if i had been strict protocol, but i know my sanity from the strictness would not be in a good place. feeling good about "dieting" is more important to me than seeing how fast i can get there with uber strictness....kwim? i mean, i *have" lost almost 12 lbs in LESS than a month. i am on VLCD24. i could not say that about LC. i can MAINTAIN on LC, but losing is a different story. i love the way i am doing hcg. it gives some freedoms while forcing me to stay within boundaries as well.

Here's my personalized for me rogue food list from last year: [Can't fix all the different fonts and sizes ... sorry!]

Beverages
Coffee
Fuze, diet
Nutrisoda
Tea, herbal, hot or cold
Water
Zevia

Fruit
Apples, Fuji, Granny Smith, Honeycrisp or Jazz
Grapefruit, red ruby
Orange
Strawberries [other berries* too!]

Proteins
Chicken breast, grilled
Chicken, ground
Chicken, thigh*
Cottage cheese, low fat
Crab
Eggs, 1 whole + 3 whites
Hamburger, cooked
Roast, pot
Salmon*
Shrimp
Steak, grilled
Tuna, in water*
Turkey, ground*

Vegetables
Asparagus
Brocolli*
Brussel sprouts*
Cabbage, cooked or raw
Cucumbers
Lettuce
Onions, any kind/type
Pickles, dill or sf sweet
Spinach, raw or frozen
Tomatoes, fresh or canned

Seasonings/Condiments
A1 type Sauce, sugar free, homemade
All sugar free seasonings
Bacon bits, real*
Broth, chicken or beef
Horseradish
Ketchup, homemade, sugar free
Lemon juice/lime juice
Liquid Aminos
Liquid Smoke
Mustard, sugar free
My spicy mayo dip/dressing/sauce
Soy Sauce
Splenda
Stevia
Turmeric
Vinegar
Worchestershire sauce, sugar free

Extras [If desired]
Breadstick
Ezekiel bread*
Genesis bread*
Melba toast/wasa bread
Parm cheese

FREEBEES!**
Coconut oil/MCT oil
Flopsies [Eggwhite bread]
Miracle Noodles, white or black only

*Off protocol, stop if problematic
**No calories/fat/carbs/proteins OR no effect on fat loss, BUT stop if you stall or gain from these!

How is coconut oil a freebie?

Because the calories from it aren't counted as it is burned as energy not stored as fat.

This is a very helpful thread! My next round will be rogue. I really appreciate these helpful questions!

Marking my place and bumping for more rogue ideas...

My last round was rogue-ish. I stuck to mostly protocol foods, but upped my protein portions to 4 to 5 oz per serving. I ate tons of veggies. I still measured them by scale weight though. I did keep calories most days around 500.

I drank protein shakes occasionally.

I exercised! Mostly just walking, but a little strength training here and there.

I had 2 cheat meals in my 40 day round. I didn't even worry about the gain the next day. I just got right back on protocol and didn't stress about it. I feel they actually helped me a bit "mentally." I did a longer workout the day after- usually a 4-5 mile walk. One cheat meal involved Mexican food, desert and WINE. The other involved some carbs and, again, the wine.

With this plan, I lost 20 lbs on a 40 day round. Went from a size 12 to an 8. (I'm 5'6).

Hmmm.... I'm thinking I need to re-start this plan. A new (happy!) relationship has resulted in eating out A LOT more and hence, weight gain.

Super! There is so much information in the rogue threads but it's a lot to dig through. This is helpful. Keep it coming ladies! :)

I tried finding the rogue threads and gave up. This is helpful as is the thread that is the Alternative.

Extra protein at each meal (up to 5 oz)

An extra protein snack in the afternoon (mozzarella stick or hb egg)

One fruit instead of two (strawberries or an apple as a dessert after dinner)

Mixing veggies liberally

Expanding my veggie list to include green beans, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower

Eating beef every day (I don't eat fish)

Drink an occasional diet Coke

Eat a 2 egg omelet for a meal on occasion

Use parm cheese as a spice of sorts (a sprinkle on veggies for example)

small addition :) i also added FF plain greek yogurt. i can't remember the two brands i had - but they had 6 net carbs i believe instead of the 9 or so in the other brands. i usually had this for lunch with strawberries. yum!

But, don't you want to burn stored energy (body fat) instead? Does it affect your loss, do you think?

i'd like to hear more about this too. :confused:

I kinda disagree with the 'coconut oil calories don't count thing'.

I used small amounts of coconut oil on my previous 4 rounds to facilitate cooking, and occasionally as a 'not going to wreck everything' cheat, and I did fine. But even though it's processed differently than other fats it still has calories and they can still add up!

From what I understand, coconut oil is absorbed directly through the portal vein and shunted to the liver where it's used for energy preferentially over other fats, which still need to go through the normal digestion process.

It still has calories, and it still counts :(

A rogue thing that I am doing is eating dark meat. I buy free range whole chickens and I cook the whole bird and pull off the meat and chop it up so all is mixed.

I am interested in that whole coconut oil debate thing too.

Ray Peat said that when he added 3T of coconut oil a day to his diet and changed nothing else;
he lost 6 pds over 3 months (hope my memory is serving me correctly here).
So in other words- he increased his calories by about 350 a day and lost about half a pound a week;
which is presumably due to the metabolic effect of coconut oil - stimulating the thyroid to better function - or something like that..

But I think the calories must begin to count at some point- because I have done dietary experiments using lots of calories from coconut fat ( oil and cream), and have noticed that the calories do seem to count.
ie - I didnt lose the weight one would expect if the calories didnt count!

Nonetheless, I do think coconut oil has valuable properties, and probably does raise metabolic rate for some.

Nola

Coconut oil calories do help. I'm always fighting candida...so it's helpful for that, and for those of us prone to it...helpful for weight loss.

My best rogue tip is to up the protein...lost better with more protein rather than more fat or other item. BUT...going up to 700 calories definitely lost slower than at 500.

Thanks for this thread.

:)

Good conversation.

i up protein servings (usually 4-oz per serving), use protein shakes (brown rice protein), veggie protein sources (lots of eggs, cottage cheese, veggie burgers), drink diet coke, chew sf gum, have 2 coffee's in am with 10% cream and stevia (sometimes spenda, sometimes equal if i am at work and forget to bring my sweetner). have had as many as 3 coffee's but do try to limit to 2.

in addition to regular protein up's during the day, once per week i eat enough until satisfied. likely a 2x serving size, feels like lots. if i have eggs, i just to two whole ones, i don't mess around with separating the whites. if im growly at night, i will have a 1/2 cup 2% cottage cheese.

i have lemon in my water, regularly. do not limit it. don't do melba (tried, to tempting for me). i do not do a lot of chicken, seems to slow down losses so more rotation with cottage/eggs/veggie burgers/and beef (steak and extra lean ground beef).

my calories are usually 600-650, sometimes lower.

im terrible with veggies, will up fruit (whole grapefruit plus apple etc) but not more that two whole fruits a day. i do stick to grapefruit, apples, and strawberries. veggies, its tomatoes, cabbage, or cukes. no rouge behaviour with the choices or mixing, although i do make my chilli with onions and tomatoes so i do mix i guess.

i'm exercising (doing a walk/run alternate days with pilates on a reformer)...not first round. this is new for this one as i started during p3 and just have kept going.

i forgot something else that i think is worth mentioning. my ramp up/back down experiment. worked well. i stalled for 10 days, got super frustrated but was travelling, staying in hotels, and eating in restaurants (and doing the best i could with groceries).

was an old set point and i was bouncing around it up/down. i upped my calories, probably to about 1500 or so with veggies/protein. did have some mixed salads etc. when i went back down (my down), that week i lost 8.5 lbs. i guess it was a *re-feed* of sorts? don't know what to call it but it broke the stall or else my body just was ready?? its hard to know cause/effect but whatever, thats what i did.

Makes sense laylabean.

Thanks for sharing. I am going to try a new round with more food - and heavier workouts and appreciate the feedback.

I am going to buy me my fat free half and half for my coffee even if I only use 1 TBS. I really miss it. Just wish I had thought of it this morning while I was actually at the store.

My rogueness consists mostly of mixing veggies (for salads mainly)
Using home made salsa instead of fruit (I figure technically a tomato is a fruit with less calories than an apple or orange). If I use salsa, then no fruit that meal.
Using Pam cooking spray.
Using the 1 calorie per spray dressing (rarely) and no problems with stalling.
I eat about 4 oz of protein instead of 3 oz. but I figure it is better than bread.

I am thinking of adding in the Coconvt 0il...

My first round I did a lot of salsa as well. Thanks for the reminder:)

I am loading Friday/Sat while traveling.

I used to do coconut oil but my LDL shot up super high. Want to see what my next lipid panel would be off of it.

:)

Check out "HCG with EFGT meals" over 70 days of posted results upped, fat downed carbs, just enough protein.

I'm part of an hcg yahoo group, and I think every poster here would have been absolutely blasted! I love how open and honest you can be here!

I never really thought of us as being off protocol much, aside from the fact that our proteins are a little bit bigger portions. But we do eat beef just about every day, and I guess that's supposedly taboo too. :o

As far as the beef goes, I think it's important for some people. I know of a mother/daughter on hcg, and the daughter was doing horribly as far as lethargy and depression. They were eating mostly chicken at each meal, sometimes fish/shrimp instead. The doctor told her to eat one 150g portion of beef one night with her veggies. She did... and she felt SO much better! And she kept losing... now beef is more regularly in her regiment in P2.

I think I will add back the coconut oil. TY for posting that.

I think I will do that next round. This P3 is going to be Paleo heaven with big breakfasts, heavy on the fat!