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 Dr Buff
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| The HCG Diet Craze - Does It Really Work? Part II |
| 05.24.2010 16:13:29 | |
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I was thinking about how I wanted to start this blog, America, but I’m drawing a blank, so I’ll just get right to the point. Here’s the rest of the article on the hCG diet by Tom Scheve that’s the latest, greatest, but certainly not the last piece-o-crap diet to surface. Remember, anything in the [brackets] and black are my thoughts, not the author’s. Enjoy!
The HCG Diet Craze – Part II HCG and Weight Loss -- the Calorie CrashFive hundred calories doesn't give you much to work with as far as dinner options go. [In fact, 500 calories is considered lower than the typical VLCD (Very Low Calorie Diet) which consists of anywhere between 700-1000 calories.] Though subsequent hCG diets have tinkered with the elements, most programs hold pretty true to the original formed by Dr. Simeons. Each round of treatment lasts a minimum of 26 days, and 23 of those days require a daily injection of hCG. [There are now oral tabs that you can swallow or sublingual tabs that are placed under the tongue and dissolve, and liquid drops that are reputed (by the manufacturers, of course…) to work as well]. Treatment may last as long as 43 days (with 40 injections), unless a patient loses 34 to 40 pounds (15 to 18 kilograms) before the allotted time has passed. Patients don't receive hCG injections for the last three days of any treatment period so that it can cycle completely out of their bodies before they resume a normal diet. (It also takes about three days for hCG's effects to "kick in.") Why stop after 40 days? Simeons noted that subjects seemed to develop immunity to hCG after 40 days and required a six-week break from the diet to fully resensitize to it. Simeons recommended no more than four total treatments, separated by breaks. In addition to receiving shots, dieters are instructed to cut their daily intake of calories to 500 a day, but not until after the third shot. Once the hCG is active in a dieter's body, its release of long-stored fat provides the body with the calories it needs to burn to get through a day (a day, it should be noted, without much exercise). As long as fat deposits are being released for use, the 500 daily calories being ingested is supposed to be enough to sustain the dieter without the crazy hunger pangs one would normally experience on a 500-calorie diet. Once a dieter drops the excess weight, the treatment must stop, because hCG only affects stored fat. Once that's used up, the body will quickly reject a self-imposed limit of 500 total daily calories. What little food can be consumed is supposed to be high in protein and low in starches, carbohydrates and high-fat foods. Alcohol is forbidden, and updated versions of the diet sometimes include additional appetite suppressants, such as daily injections of phentermine or other stimulants. But what does the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) make of all this? Find out in the next section. [A few questions here Doc Simeons…if I’ve only got 15-20 lbs to lose to say, dial in for a show, will this plan work for me or is it just designed for the grossly or morbidly obese couch potatoes who have so much excess weight to lose that cutting down to 500 calories a day is not a threat to survival until they reach their “set point”. My second question is, what would happen if I just ate my normal foods and took hCG? Would I still lose? What would happen if I just took hCG and didn’t eat anything? Would I lose more weight? Finally, you say that I’d suffer crazy hunger pangs if I went on a 500-calorie diet without hCG …isn’t it true that if I were grossly or morbidly obese that I could not eat anything for several days or weeks and lose weight and not get hungry because my body is tapping into its own fat stores? Just a few questions, Doc…] [Sidebar here, America…I can answer the last question from experience. When I was in the Master’s program at PLU I was assigned a morbidly obese woman to work with on nutrition and exercise. I didn’t have a clue as to how much she should eat, so I asked my professor, Dr. Evans, the former Director of Exercise Science at Stanford University. He said, “David, she has so much bodyfat that you literally do not have to feed her anything for the first 200 or so lbs she loses. Her body will naturally burn stored fat as a fuel source until she reaches her set point – that point in which losing anymore weight without doing it right will be considered a threat to survival and her body will begin hoarding fat.” Over a six-month period the woman lost over 150 lbs. I had her on a VLCD with walking around a track as her only exercise – and she had to build up to that. Her caloric intake was between 750-800 cal/day. After six months she bottomed out on weight loss so I slowly started increasing her calories. When I graduated she was at slightly more than 1000 calories with a total weight loss of 225 lbs and still losing]. HCG as a Dietary Aid: What Say the FDA?The FDA has provided its stamp of approval to the use of hCG -- as a fertility drug. In your attempts to lose weight by tricking your body with the presence of a pregnancy-related hormone, your body may turn the tables and help you get pregnant [if you’re female and having sex]. Within five years of its discovery, hCG was already being packaged and marketed to the public as a fertility drug. (If you're a woman who doesn't want to get pregnant, you should be extra-careful if you're taking hCG.) Aside from fertility, the FDA doesn't approve hCG use for any other reason, including weight loss. However, lack of approval doesn't prevent hCG's use as a dietary aid. As long as you have a doctor willing to write a prescription, you can obtain hCG. With a surge in public interest in the hCG diet (owing almost entirely to a large marketing push of this dusted-off 60-year-old diet craze), there's no shortage of weight-loss clinics staffed by doctors who write such prescriptions all day long. There have been reports of people obtaining hCG (or something being passed off as hCG) on the Internet, despite the need for a prescription to obtain the drug. Such practice would bring up issues of safety and effectiveness of the doses being provided through the black market. There have been few reports of health problems developing as a result of the hCG diet, although there are some risks, among them an increased risk of blood clots, headaches, restlessness and depression. [I don’t know if this is true or scare tactics…but if they are true, then at what dosage do the risks occur?] Also, you may feel…well…like you're pregnant -- swelling, breast tenderness and water retention, anyone? HCG can also cause a potentially life-threatening condition called ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS). Proponents of the diet point out that hCG is clearly safe for pregnant women and the fetuses they carry, and that dieters receive a much smaller dose of hCG than is found under normal conditions in pregnant women. [Seriously??? Did you really expect the proponents of the diet to say anything other than that, America? I mean, by the time this diet runs its course, it will have brought in billions]. The hCG diet isn't covered by insurance, and it can be somewhat pricey: A consultation visit may run around $150, as well as follow-up visits after a month. The costs of the injections (which can be self-administered) is around $10 a pop, and this cost (as well as that of any additional appetite suppressants) may or may not be included in the cost of the office visits. [I’m sure each geographical area has its own pricing structure.] So if hCG has been around for 60 years or so, why the sudden interest and resurgence? Like most diets, more than likely someone dusted off an old research paper or book, found the orginal paper by Simeons, and said, “Hmmm…there’s money to be made with this. Lemme re-work it, re-formulate it, re-write it, and present it as a ‘new’ diet – the latest, greatest, fastest, easiest, safest, and best way to lose weight. By the time the American people realize this is just another scam, I’ll have soaked them for millions, if not billions of dollars.” For example, Atkins has been around since the 1950’s and has been presented as Atkins, The New Atkins, The New and Improved Atkins, and several other diet names that base their plans off of Atkins. The Showdown Between HCG and PlacebosDiet and exercise is the way to go when it comes to maintaining a healthy weight. While the initial study performed and published by Dr. Simeons backed his claims of the hCG diet's effectiveness, subsequent studies have produced the type of results that don't get mentioned on late-night diet-fad infomercials. [Here’s where the science hits the fan…] Most independent, peer-reviewed studies of the hCG diet have shown no difference in weight loss between subjects on a low-calorie diet who received hCG injections and subjects who received a placebo [source: Conis]. One study even showed that both the placebo group and the hCG group reported major hunger pangs throughout the treatment. Regardless, once a person stops the hCG diet, he or she will have to adopt a normal and healthy lifestyle [known as ‘behavior modification’], or the weight's just coming back. [Once again I make my statement, “All diets work…all diets fail! They work as long as you follow them and stop working the day you stop following them]. Proponents of the hCG diet maintain that the purpose of the diet is to break food addictions and abnormal eating behaviors, and that the month or so of treatment allows a person to do so. In this sense, the diet hopes to achieve short-term weight loss with long-term behavioral modification. [It has been my experience that very few individuals have the discipline, willpower, and ‘motivation’ (ya’ll know I hate that word...) to develop lifetime behavior modification in only one month]. Of course, eating well-proportioned meals is much easier when you're injecting stimulants and hunger-suppressing hormones. If you gain weight again, the doctor or clinic -- upon the follow-up visit -- may recommend you start the treatment over again. [“Surprise, surprise, surprise”, to quote Gomer Pyle]. Therefore, you may just scrap real attempts to change eating habits and sign on to long-term use of chemicals without fixing the real problem: your diet and exercise habits. A month-long course of hCG injections and crash dieting will likely help you lose weight, but a key question is: Is this the best way to permanently modify poor eating habits? In addition to the reliability of a new diet fad popping up to replace the one before it, there's another constant when it comes to dieting -- no matter what you do, maintaining a healthy weight depends on eating right and exercising. Sources
Once again America, “There Are No Shortcuts!” I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again…”There ain’t nuthin new under the sun, what you’re tryin’ to do has already been done!” (Whoudini). While it’s possible and probable that some individuals will achieve decent results following this diet, it is not a long-term solution. Its draw works on people’s mindset – instant gratification. That’s what caused Bren to give it a try. She tried to speed up the progress of an already successful program. Dr. Simeons recommended little or no exercise for the average person. There’s no way this plan will work for competitors. It will mess you up big-time. You’ll lose time, muscle, energy, stamina, endurance…everything you’re working so hard to develop. Look, you all know how you feel on a contest diet of 1200-2000 calories/day, especially when you’re doing 2 or more hours of cardio a day and training on weights like a madman. If you go on this hCG diet, I can pretty much promise that a puff of wind will knock you over in a month (if you can survive that long doing the cardio and weights…but I’m bettin’ against you!) Do yourself a favor – don’t get so fat in the off-season, and start farther out on your diet until you learn how to stay within range. I’m out, America…holla at’cha boi…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
Don't give me excuses...give me results!
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