IS the HCG Diet Safe?

Here is the newest fad diet, the HCG diet.  Anyone who is looking to loose weight or searched for some kind of diet on the internet has read about the HCG diet.  Listen to me now, it is highly effective and it works, but is it as safe and healthy and natural as everyone claims it to be?

First, the science behind HCG.  HCG or Human Chorionic Gonadotropin is a hormone that the female body produces during pregnancy. Its main purpose is to ensure the health of the fetus by making stored fat cells available for the developing baby to use. This is the reason why pregnant women can vomit constantly without negatively affecting their baby’s nutrition. In the 1950s, Dr. ATW Simeons found out that when given
to both men and women, HCG reduced appetite and promoted weight loss. It specifically reduced weight in the buttocks, hips, and
thigh areas. (hcgdiet.com)

Along with the hcg drops, you are put onto a strict diet of only 500 calories per day.  Most diet plans will restrict calories but will allow up to 1200 calories per day.  The information I’ve found states that the hcg drops slow cravings and diminishes your appetite so you don’t feel as hungry.  This can be argued at times depending on who you listen to.  More on this later in the article.

HCG and Ketosis, Is it Safe?

When you restrict a person’s diet to only 5oo calories you force you body to enter into a state of ketosis.  You can learn as much as you want about ketosis on the internet but in a nut shell here is the definition.  As you begin this diet you starve the body of sugar and very limited protein.  Over a few days of no sugar or carbohydrate intake your body is forced into a process called lipolysis.  This is your body starting to break down fats for energy.  Through this process and conversions, energy is formed and that is your body’s way of survival.

This is the process of buring fat in your body throught his limited calorie diet.  And guess what, it stinkin’ works. But there might be a cost which yields the question is it healthy?   In ketosis, the body burns stored fat, but if it’s extreme, it can lead to problems. The blood pH can change, making blood too acidic and essentially corrosive to internal organs.

Internal organ struggles can include liver stress which ultimately puts even more stress on the kidneys.   These are two vital organs you need strong during a weight loss or detox program.

The problem I have with the HCG diet is 1) the very restrictive diet 2) the RE-BOUND factor.

The HCG diet plan is obvious why I think it’s to restrictive in that it forces ketosis, but most people who stop following this diet (which usually lasts 26 to 40 days) begin to gain their weight back very quickly.  The biggest problem is letting this little fact known to the people who are currently on the diet or just came off the diet.  They don’t like to hear this because they are seeing results at the time.

Diet’s Don’t Work

Once again, diet’s don’t work, you need true lifestyle changes to obtain TRUE long-termed weight loss.  If you don’t change your everday activities, change the way you think about food, and think about exercise, and think about your future, everything you do is just a diet.  And diet’s don’t work.  The only time I like diet plans are when you are using a diet within your changed lifestyle.  Meaning this.  Eating well all the time and watching what you put in your mouth is a true lifestyle.  But doing a 3 or 4 day fruit an veggie only bender isn’t really bad, it’s a cleanse within a lifestyle and it is fun to do.

The cellular healing diet I use is truly a lifestyle that should be used by everyone because it works, and lasts forever.  I do have systems that help jump start weight loss such as the Xyngular Ignite System, but diet is the way to go to burn the fat we want.

Keep kickin’ it,

Dr. Chris Patten