Signed Up, Weighed In, & Measured Up

Ok, so we all know about fad diets and I will admit when a friend told me about the HCG diet, I was skeptical. It sounds almost too good to be true and we all know that if it sounds that way, typically it is. So I started to do a little digging. Turns out this diet has been around since the 1950's and was designed by a British OBGYN named A.T.W. Simeons, MD. (If you are interested in a history of the diet and Dr. Simeons, CLICK HERE. )

One thing that I found out from reading about this diet over the last 2-3 weeks is there is a lot of hype and a lot of doubt associated with the HCG diet. Well, that is true of pretty much any diet plan, even ones which are supposed to be the best, i.e: Weight Watchers (WW). I've been on WW off and on my entire adult life, and I know that it works, but lately I have hit that dreaded plateau, mentally and physically, and I need something new to get back into the diet frame of mind. (I still have a good 60 pounds left in my weight loss endeavor.)

I researched my local area for physicians who provide HCG diet plans and made an appointment to meet with one. This is important. If you google HCG diets, you will find that there are a lot of people, places, books, and what not that say you can do this diet plan without being under the care of a physician. THIS IS NOT A SMART IDEA FOR ANYONE; anytime that you inject or ingest a medication it needs to be supervised by a medical professional, don't let anyone convince you otherwise.

At my appointment, I received a full medical physical to ensure that I could use the diet in a healthy way, and my weight was recorded along with my body measurements (arms, hips, thighs, bust, etc). This was the worst part of the appointment for me. I know that I have come a long way from where I was even a year ago, but my body is still a major source of embarrassment for me and to have someone see me in my underclothing and nothing else was well....not fun. The risks and potential benefits of the diet were then explained to me in detail along with the important information that the FDA has not approved the use of the hormone HCG as a weight loss treatment. At this point I was given the option of proceeding with the diet plan or taking more time to think about my options. Since I had done the research and understood the plan I decided to proceed.

The program in a nut shell is this:

• 2 days of "Loading" - Which is essentially eating as much fat as you can in a 48 hour period. A good explanation of what loading is and why it is important can be found HERE. You will be injecting the HCG hormone on these two inital days, eventhough you are consuming all the high fatty foods. I know this sounds counter-productive to what you are trying to acomplish with a diet, but there is science behind why this should be done. 
• 500 Cal/Day - The remainder of the program sounds way harsh. You eat only 500 calories per day for the remaining (maximum) 40 days. You cut out all sugars, starches, and oils and limit what foods you eat to a specific list of proteins, veggies, fruits, and some carbs. Every day you inject the HCG hormone. There is some confusion - at least for me - as to if I am to continue to take the injections during menstruation cycles or not. I will have to call and check with the physician and report this information at a later time. The information that can be found online states that the HCG hormone should not be taken during that time, although there was no literature stating this in my new patient information. 

Like most diet plans, the HCG diet is not covered by my medical insurance and the cost out-of-pocket was expected once I made the decision to move forward.

Am I still a tad skeptical that this will work? Yes, however I am encouraged by the science that I have read behind the plan. So I will give this diet plan a shot and record my experiences here. Tomorrow I take my first injection and begin my loading.