7.22.2011

Update(s) and the Diet

Okay, sorry I've been MIA this week, but I've been in class and working nonstop. I'm taking a course so that I can be endorsed to teach gifted students, which has brought up a whole new group of educational rants about how students are under-served, which I'm sure I will bring light to in future. It's been a little busy. I'm really looking forward to Vacation Bible School at church and working on school stuff :).

I am also on day 7 of my HCG diet, and I am doing really well. So, for those of you who have never heard of the HCG diet, you're about to! Now, I am not recommending the diet, and I know that it is very controversial. If you want to know more, read the book Fat 2 Fab from Amazon (it's available in electronic or paperback).  I would never have started the diet if I did not personally know someone who had tried it because it is such an extreme (sounding, at least) diet. But, before I begin, let  me just say this: the controversies are not accurate. I would completely agree with the "experts" who are against the diet had I not read the book, Fat 2 Fab. It explains that the recent studies did not follow the exact specifications of the original protocol of the diet in 1950. If the experts are saying the diet is dangerous and doesn't work but thousands of people are saying it does and that the weight stays off, who would you believe? 

So the premise is that when women first get pregnant and don't realize it, they drop weight. The reason for this weight loss is the hormone HCG, which opens up the fat stores in the body, takes nutrients from the fat, and feeds the baby with these nutrients. Women drop a few pounds (sometimes noticed, sometimes unnoticed), and the baby is fed. Long story short, in 1950, a doctor found and used this hormone on hundreds of patients along with a diet plan. The patients lost at least 20 pounds and up to 34 pounds within a 6 week period and were able to keep the weight they lost off. It involves no exercise (unless the patient wanted to exercise, and the diet permitted mild to moderate exercise for no more than 30 minutes daily).

The diet has made a comeback in recent years, and it has thousands of success stories. The diet begins with you taking HCG, which is an FDA approved hormone for fertility treatments (not weight loss), for 40 days. I will just make the comment that many drugs are used for non-FDA approved treatments, like Metformin for Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). The "hormone" HCG is safe for men and women as far as side effects, as far as I have read and researched. You can find the hormone prescribed by doctors in the US in injection form or you can buy it online (use a reputable site; you can buy non-controlled prescription drugs for a 90 day supply without a prescription in the US, so it is legal to do so). However, the book that I read cautioned against homeopathic HCG, which is a mixture with only trace amounts of the HCG. The doctors who prescribe this at HCG Clinics may charge more than you can buy online. I paid 150 dollars for enough for me to do 4-5 "rounds" or 6-week diet periods for the next year. Some doctors (at clinics) will charge this for each shot or round, and it takes 40 shots (but some feel more comfortable under the direct care of a doctor).
 I want to explain the diet weight loss. I'm not sure if it's just with this diet or if it is with any habits, but you have to wait 2 days before you see the results of the weight loss, and you're going to gain weight from the first two days (I'll explain that in a second). So, for example, here's what I've lost:
Day 1: no change
Day 2: + .1
Day 3: + 1.9 (this is from day one of the actual diet- see the extreme gain?)
Day 4: + 1.7 (Day 2)
Day 5: -3.2 (This is the results from my first day of dieting!I'm not going to count this as weight loss because I have gained 3.7 total, so I will still need to lose 1/2 a pound before I get to where I was before)
Day 6: -1.5 (Now I have lost 1 pound from my Day 1 diet, and I am back in the positive!
Day 7: -3.4 (That's 8.1 Total in 3 days, or 4.4 if you factor in the gains I had the first 4 days!)

I should continue to lose between a pound to three pounds a day. The more water/liquid I drink the more weight I lose. I drink at least a half gallon of water plus any amount coffee or tea sweetened with Stevia I want. I take measurements and pictures once a week; I will begin those today, and I will edit the posts to add those in. The diet also says you aren't supposed to lose more than 34 pounds in a cycle so your body has time to adjust to the loss and your skin will retract properly. Obese people may lose 40 pounds.

The first two days you take the hormone you eat as much fat (not carbs) as possible. The third day is when you begin the 500 calorie diet. Woah. I know. It's a little (or a lot) crazy. But, let me explain. You are not living on 500 calories. You are living on 500 calories plus the calories your body with help with the hormone takes from the abnormal fat in your body. You are not on 500 calories for the rest of your life. You are on 500 calories for the rest of the diet, which is 40 days. Amazingly enough, on the 500 calories, I have not been hungry. I do have the habit of eating at certain times, and so occasionally I am mentally hungry (like when I get home from school/work, so I take a small portion of my fruit for dinner and eat it). I also get hungry right before the usual time that I eat. The meals fill me up, and I am pretty happy with the diet thus far.

Here is the usual meal plan:
For breakfast, I drink a cup or two of coffee or tea.
For lunch, 4 things: 100 grams of an approved meat, one type of an approved vegetable, one of either: an apple, handful of strawberries, grapefruit, or orange, and a grissini (a crispy Italian bread stick) or melba toast
For dinner: the same thing as for lunch except that you must change the type of meat

You can spread out the fruits and bread stick so that you eat your lunch apple for breakfast or have an afternoon snack or midnight snack.

You can do a shorter round, which lasts 26 days or more, if you want to lose less weight.
You will be a lot hungrier once you've lost all of your "abnormal" fat, or the fat you're not supposed to have.
The diet also cautions against losing too much weight or extending the HCG for fear of immunity.

Again, let me say that I would have never done this diet had I not personally known someone who did it and was very successful. I also encourage you to read the book for yourself if you're interested in trying the diet, not relying on the internet stuff, but read the book, Fat 2 Fab. I'm sure there are other HCG diet books out there, this was just the one I happened to read, and I really liked it because it explained everything.

1 comment:

  1. Read your comment on my page about being a guy's girl and I TOTALLY understand. Almost all my friends in HS were dudes. Why do you live in GEORGIA? I need a chick to hang with!

    ReplyDelete