The HCG Diet

A week or so ago, we received a request to blog about the new HCG Diet. After researching it, we can see why we were asked to write on it. I asked Mariah if I could take the reins on this.

The HCG Diet was introduced by Dr. A.T.W. Simeons, a British endocrinologist in his book, Pounds And Inches. The manuscript he wrote was published in 1954. He hypothesized that the HCG (human chorionic gonadotrpin) was responsible for reprogramming the hypothalamus, the part of the brain that's responsible for controlling ones hunger. HCG is what registers on a pregnancy test to indicate whether or not a woman is pregnant. Dr. Simeons paired intake of this hormone with a 500 calorie-per-day diet. The primary audience for his work was the morbidly obese who suffered from pituitary gland problems.

HCG is produced in one of two ways: It is either extracted from the urine of a pregnant woman, or it is formed through genetic modification. The dieter then either ingests this in pill form, drop form, or takes it through injections (Dr. Simeons injected his patients). They pair this with a 500 calorie per day diet.

Is any of this making sense?

Any diet that requires starvation as a means of losing weight will inevitably be extremely successful in the short run. When we cut our calories that drastically, the pounds cannot help but fall off as we use so much more than 500 calories per day to live. But what do these people look like after 1 year? Two years? Five years?

What the body does is that it learns to compensate on what we give it. Giving our body too few calories over a long period of time actually changes our metabolism because our body is smart. It learns to work with what we feed it. After the metabolism is slowed, and the caloric intake increases back to what it once was, the body puts on weight. Micronutrients are missed, essential minerals are devoid, and the body is malnurished. The source of almost all disease is the lack of proper nutrition. Eating right cleans out the toxins that the body stores which lead to cancer, impaired immunity, gastrointestinal disorders, even problems with the nervous system.

I know a lot of thin people. I know nobody who has done the HCG diet, or any fad diet for that matter, who is thin. They lose weight, then gain back more than what they lost. And, they learned nothing. Thin people drink water, get sleep, exercise regularly, and eat nutritious foods in proper portion sizes throughout their day. If one can make it on 500 calories per day, then they certainly can learn to live a life where they eat 1200-1500 nutritionally dense calories daily.

Weight loss is something that has been around for years. Many profit unethically off of producing weight loss products, several of which are then taken off of the market by the FDA after-the-fact. There is not a magic pill. Starvation only makes the long-run problem worse. Fancy gimmicks are just that. If one wants to get thin, they must change their psychological relationship with food and change their unhealthy habits. There is no way around this. Got it? There is absolutely no way around this. Anything else is a waste of your money and time, and will ultimately leave you poorer, and probably heavier, in the long run. The yo-yo effect will only continue.

There are 40 posts in this blog dedicated to nutrition. You can follow this link to learn about eating healthy.

I wish you the best in your weight loss journey. Remember that Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither was your body. It took years to gain the weight, thinking that it will come off quickly is unrealistic. In the movie, SuperSize Me, it took Morgan Spurlock only 30 days to gain 24.5 lbs on a McDonalds diet. It took him 14 months to lose that weight. This should be a clear indicator of the amount of time it takes one to lose weight in a healthy manner that stays off.

Best wishes on your road to health -
-Jason