Quote:
Originally Posted by Cowboi
When I stepped on the scales this morning, and I have reached my 1st personal goal !!!!! So now I am sitting here having my oatmeal pancake. YaY its friday!!!
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Woooo Hoooooo! Fantastic!
Congratulations on reaching that milestone!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anya/Georgia
I appreciate this site, not only for the encouragement, support and tips but to receive information on both sides of diet and eating possibilities.
This is not at all to be critical of anyone type of eating plan to achieve their goal but to ensure I always critically evaluate what would be best for me personally. It is just how I was taught in nursing school.
In that vein, the Mayo Clinic website had a Registered Dietitian address the issue of Hcg:
HCG diet: Is it safe and effective?
Does the HCG diet work — and is it safe?
Answer
from Jennifer K. Nelson, R.D., L.D.
Because the HCG diet combines injections or supplements of the HCG hormone along with severe calorie restriction, you may lose weight — at least for the short term. But it's the calorie restriction that causes the weight loss, not the HCG. In addition, the safety of HCG for weight loss is uncertain, and the hormone hasn't been approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a treatment for obesity or weight control.
HCG is human chorionic gonadotropin, a hormone produced during pregnancy. As a prescription medication, HCG is used mainly to treat fertility issues.
Proponents of the HCG diet say that HCG can help you lose weight, burn fat and redistribute fat away from your buttocks and stomach. On the HCG diet, you either receive injections of HCG or take HCG supplements. The HCG diet also requires you to drastically cut your calorie intake, typically consuming just 500 to 800 calories a day — about one-fourth to one-half of the standard calorie recommendations. The HCG diet is typically offered through weight-loss clinics that say they will provide medical supervision.
Although researchers have studied the HCG diet for years, no high-quality studies have shown that the hormone itself helps weight loss. Following any very low calorie diet is likely to result in weight loss, regardless of taking HCG. And the HCG diet can have drawbacks. Severe calorie restriction can make it hard to meet all of your nutritional needs. And rapid weight loss can lead to gallstones. Also, HCG can cause side effects, including headache, fatigue, irritability and male breast enlargement. And be careful about buying HCG products on the Internet — they might not be what they say they are.
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Anya....I'm so glad you posted this.
I read Starbuck's post and, as happy as I am that you achieved the results you want, it frankly scares the crap out of me to hear about people injecting themselves with stuff and living on severe calorie restriction just to lose weight.
My dearest friend has been on a lifetime of yo-yo dieting...often with very severe calorie restrictions. She's lost dramatic amounts of weight many times, only to regain it and then some.
After her last wildly calorie restricted diet (of about 500 calories a day) she ended up having to have her gall bladder removed, and suddenly started having thyroid problems....something she had never experienced before. In addition, her metabolism is destroyed, she's flirting with diabetes...and she is now bigger than she's ever been.
She's working with a nutritionist now (thank goodness) who is helping her learn to eat sensibly, and working with a counselor to try to sort through some of her issues with food....but her body is (probably) permanently damaged, according to her doctor, because of these kinds of diets. The doctor equated it to living through several famines...and the damage that does. She's left wishing that she had never done the diets, but it's not something she can take back.
There's no way you can get all of the nutrition you need each day in 500 calories. And starving and injecting yourself doesn't change your relationship to what you eat...it just forces your body to comply (temporarily). For me, this is like the lap band and stomach stapling....yes, it works....temporarily.
I don't want to sound like I'm coming down on anyone or criticizing their choices....I'm not. But I actually started this thread in response to a post about HCG and the 500 calorie diet....and, with respect, I'd prefer that that kind of advice stayed in that thread rather than this one.
This one is about
healthy weight loss.
Thanks everyone for understanding.
