‘RHONJ’ Star Dolores Catania Reveals How She Lost 25 Lbs. In Only 45 Days

View gallery

Dolores Catania found a diet that works for her! The Real Housewives of New Jersey star, 48, follows the low-fat, low-calorie HCG Diet with the help of the Elite Health Center in New Jersey. “The HCG diet has been around for quite a while, but not everybody masters it,” she explained to HollywoodLife in an EXCLUSIVE interview. “These people are the real deal. I’ve been around the block more than once with diets.”

The Elite Health Center turned the diet into a 45-day program that consists of different phases. The first two days is the “loading phase” in which you can eat “all the fats and all the stuff you want,” Dolores said. After that period ends, you begin taking your calorie count down to 750. “I would wake up to eating spinach with egg whites. And then, midday an apple and six ounces of protein. No oil,” she revealed. The protein could be any kind, although it shouldn’t be steak or anything fatty. There are also certain fishes, like salmon, that have too high of a fat content to count. Dinner would also consist of another six ounce protein.

Dolores revealed there’s a big catch to the diet. “If you fall of the wagon slightly – like by having a cookie – you’re about to gain two pounds. It’s no joke,” she said. “It is injections every day. Like small injections in your stomach. That’s the real HCG.”

The reality star lost a total of 25 pounds on the diet and is currently in the “maintenance” phase. “This diet keeps working when you’re done,” she said. “My stomach has shrunk. I don’t want to go back to feeling tired and sluggish. And my skin is better. It just helps all around.” After completing the 45-day program, you can start to introduce healthy fats like avocado and nuts.

Dolores was motivated to start her weight loss journey due to wanting to wear “cute little outfits” in the summer. “I’m not going to be covering it up with my baggy sweatpants and everything else,” she said, adding that it “feels great” to be between a size four and six at the moment. “I feel it in my clothes. My clothes feel looser in my arms, they’re looser in my legs, and my waist. I just feel so much better,” she said.

But if you’re wondering if Dolores stepped up her exercise routine to help with her weight loss journey, you’d be mistaken. “I have had no time to workout. However, the energy that this gives me – because it’s so healthy – made me feel so great that I could workout if I wanted to,” she revealed. “I haven’t had the time, but I am going to start. I will start with a lot of cardio. I’ll do a spin class during the day, in the morning. And then at night [my son] Frankie and I will go to the gym together.” Dolores aims to hit the gym about four days a week.