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 Dr Buff
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| The hCG Diet Craze - Does It Really Work? |
| 05.23.2010 14:12:31 | |
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America, I was talkin’ with Guy Overby a few days ago. He said something I don’t think I’ll ever forget. It wasn’t bad…just made me think. We were talking about clients, training, this blog, and stuff like that and Guy summed me up perfectly…”Dave, you’re a 50/50 kinda guy. Half the people will love you and take to what you have to say and half the people will hate you and either disagree with or not like anything you have to say.” I smiled through the phone. “I’m cool with that, Guy. I learned a long time ago that if I waste my whole life trying to make everyone happy or like me or not step on toes then all I’ll do is make myself miserable. I’ve got better things to do. I’ve never asked everyone to like me, and I’m not concerned if they don’t.”
I heard a great line years ago that I now use …”What you think of me is of no concern to me.” I realize that what I say can sometimes be controversial and some people may think that I’m singling them out. Actually it’s quite the opposite. I don’t write about anything that I haven’t seen, heard, experienced or done many times over the years. If it doesn’t make sense to me, or is flat out wrong, I’m gonna bring it up. There’s too much wrong information and mis-information out there. Now just like I have the right to disagree with what others write and speak on, you do to, America. You don’t have to agree with me - in fact, it doesn’t concern me if you agree or disagree. I’m here to write about stuff that I believe will help you in not only your contest prep but life as well. But I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, if you’re gonna step to me, step correct! Bring your science, your research, anything that will back up what you want to prove. I will always give a person his or her right to speak their mind, but I tune out nonsense quickly. “Nuff said??
The next couple of blogs is on a new “diet” I heard about a couple of days ago. I met with one of my people, fellow blogger, Bren Dixon, Friday. I hadn’t seen or talked to her in a while. The conversation went something like this…
“What’s up, Bren? How you been? It’s been a while…”
“Oh my gosh, Dave…so much has been going on…(not y’business, America…). But I need to talk to you but you have to promise that you won’t get mad or angry at me.”
America, I’ve learned over the years that when someone says that they’re settin’ you up for somethin’ big. “I promise,” I said. I don’t get mad anymore – disappointed maybe, but not mad. Ain’t worth it. What’s going on?”
Well, there’s this diet out that I’d been hearing good things about…”
Fast forward past me sighing, rolling my eyes, holding back words (I’d just promised, remember?), and I just listened. Bren is gonna blog on her experience so I won’t go into too much detail. My job is to spit the truth about this “diet”, especially as to how it relates to bodybuilding, fitness, figure, and bikini.
“Why would you do something like this, Bren? I’ve already got you mapped out. You’re steadily coming down. You’re on track. Why would you want to go and do something like that?”
“Dave, to be honest with you, I’m scared (ok America…that softened me just a bit…). I don’t know if I’m going to make the Ironman and I don’t want to go in it looking bad and I know you won’t let me step onstage looking bad and I just thought that if I could ‘speed things up a bit’, I could get ahead of the game and then build back the muscle I may lose…so how bad did I mess myself up?”
“Well, let’s get a comp and see where you’re at. Hopefully you haven’t lost lean. To be honest Bren, you may have cost yourself three weeks by doing this. There’s a reason why my tag line in my business name says “There Are No Shortcuts!” Bren, I’ve been doing this a long time. I still haven’t found a quick or easy way to accomplish a hard task. We’ll see…”
There’s a whole lot I left out, America. We didn’t even get to the workout we talked so much. I went online and looked up the hCG diet. After looking at dozens of sites and learning about this crap, I found a great article that I’m going to share with you. The first part is coming up shortly. I can tell you right now I’m not a fan of it. First off, it sucks big time in that it fat loads for the first two days. Then it cuts your total calories to 500 per day for the next 26-28 days. You’re supposed to stay on this madness for 30 days and then come off for upwards of 6 weeks and then repeat it up to four times. The article will go into greater detail. THIS IS NOT A DIET FOR BODYBUILDERS, FITNESS, FIGURE, AND BIKINI competitors. It just doesn’t make sense! The goal of every competitor is to build muscle. This plan will just about always eat it if followed exactly as outlined. It totally cuts your carbs down to much less than what the brain needs, much less having glycogen stores to lift hard and heavy. You can’t do intense cardio, you won’t be able to get through your workouts…it’s just stupid, America! Since the brain isn’t getting enough carbs (it uses carbs in the form of sugars as brain fuel) it will convert protein into usable carbohydrate energy (fat isn’t converted into sugar – only protein is). This plan, if it works at all, and it won’t because it doesn’t teach behavior modification, is designed for the couch potato. In fact they STRONGLY recommend that you do as little physical activity as possible – absolutely no lifting of weights and definitely not to the degree that competitors train. Light cardio a few minutes a day is what they ‘allow’. Yea…wonder why?? They know that if someone starts training on this crap they’ll pass out and possibly end up in the hospital if not worse. Ok…lemme settle down. I think you guys get my point. Since I just started ‘learning’ this, I decided to let a good article speak for me. But I promise you that I’ll continue to read on this, and the next time I blog on it I’ll thoroughly know it. On to the article by Tom Scheve…
The HCG Diet Craze Every year, it seems like the media finds a new diet to tout -- along with the clinics that cater to the fad and customers who swear by the results. Fads in recent years include the South Beach Diet (choosing low-carbohydrate foods), the Atkins Diet (radically reducing carbohydrates), the baby food diet (replacing some meals with baby food) and the Master Cleanse (adopting a liquid diet comprised mainly of lemon or lime juice). These diets gain quickly in popularity. The media faithfully reports the appearance of the new fad, the rising number of people adopting the diet and testimonials of success from satisfied, slimmed-down believers. But soon enough, there are reports of the dangers involved with unusual weight-loss schemes that often involve cutting out much-needed food groups, or eating only a certain food or food group. Then, follow-up stories trickle from unsatisfied customers, or from former believers who have since gained the weight back. More or less, by the time this cycle runs its course, it begins again with a new diet fad. Diet fads, crazes and schemes are nothing new. In the 1920s, overweight consumers were marketed "reducing soap," the ads for which promised to eliminate fat on any part of the body that was washed with this miracle soap. From the 1920s through the 1950s, some people would partake of the tapeworm diet, which didn't require much change in diet, other than consuming a tapeworm. The belief was that the tapeworm would helpfully join you in eating your meals, albeit from the comfort of its home in your intestines. As many current diets are developed by doctors, so it goes with diet trends and devices of yesteryear. In the mid-1950s, a Swedish doctor developed a fat-busting vibrating belt that required nothing more of a person than to stand there and let the belt helps shake loose all those excess pounds. In the 1920s, Babe Ruth himself often used similar vibrating-belt devices to lose weight, and the results -- or rather, the lack thereof -- remained evident throughout his career. Another diet trend has caught traction in the American imagination, and it promises to help the dieter lose a pound a day, or even more. It's the hCG diet, and it was developed by a doctor who believed that a hormone found in a pregnant woman's body could help overweight men and women lose weight -- and keep that weight off after returning to a normal routine.
In 1927, researchers discovered that pregnant women's urine contained a substance not normally present outside of pregnancy: human chorionic gonadotropin, or hCG. This represented the first modern pregnancy test, and to this day, we still check urine for signs of hCG to determine pregnancy. Doctors also look at hCG levels (among other factors) in pregnant women to assess risk of birth defect. HCG may play many roles, but one function it performs is guaranteeing that a developing fetus receives the calories and nutrients it needs to grow, nearly independent of the daily caloric intake of the pregnant woman in those early developmental months. How does it do this? We aren't ravenous for fatty foods for no reason. Our bodies like to maximize caloric intake in case lean times are ahead. In the case of women, excess calories tend to wind up in "problem" areas such as the hips, buttocks, abdomen and thighs. However, once pregnant, fat from these areas is released in the presence of hCG, and this fat then makes its way to the fetus. This way, if a woman doesn't consume the nutrients needed for fetal growth, her fat reserves will suffice. (Structural fat, such as that found in the face or layered beneath the entire skin, isn't affected.) HCG is produced by a woman early in her pregnancy, and levels of hCG in the bloodstream peak at around 14 weeks. After that, levels gradually decrease. HCG's presence in a pregnant woman seems to occur in the timeframe when a woman would be least likely to know she is pregnant, and therefore least likely (especially in ancient -- and leaner -- times in human history) to be consciously trying to secure nutrients to sustain a pregnancy. Furthermore, hCG was soon found to be gonadotrophic, meaning that it prompts genital development, and was soon used as a treatment for boys experiencing a delay in adolescence or genital development due to disorders of the pituitary gland. It was during research in the 1950s when one doctor, A.T.W. Simeons, noticed that boys being treated with hCG for underdeveloped gonads were also able to lose excess weight by eating much less without any accompanying hunger pangs. His interest in hCG soon shifted to its potential as a diet aid, and he published a paper touting its effects, as well as developing a dietary regimen for use of the drug as a weight-loss tool. So, how few calories is one instructed to consume on the hCG diet? You'll find out in the next section, and you may be shocked. Tomorrow I’ll finish sharing the remainder of the article with you, America. There are a couple of sections in which I might [bracket] my comments so as not to confuse Tom’s writings with mine. But I want to expand upon a few points he makes and explain why this diet is not good in general, and definitely not good for competitors. Till tomorrow…I’m out! Peace… The Dr. Personal Training Systems “There Are No Shortcuts!” www.personaltrainingsystems.net This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Mobile: 253.576.4859
Sometimes you need to keep y'mouth shut, y'head down, and just go handle y'business!
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