What is the HCG Diet

I was pretty quiet when I decided to take on the HCG diet. I've tried everything and failed miserably at losing weight on every proven, recommended, and failsafe plan. I can't stand the look on peoples faces when they hear me say that and they assume I'm lying. I'm not. I did weight watchers and while it's an amazing program it didn't do jack for me. My husband lost 30 lbs but I didn't. I worked out every day for a year and a half in the gym, in the pool and with a trainer. I was the healthiest overweight person you might meet.

Then about three months ago my blood pressure started creeping up and I did something I swore I wouldn't do. I checked out the fad diets promising drastic changes. I love my children and am determined to see them through every major milestone life has to bring them. A friend had recently made some amazing progress on the HCG diet and what I read caught my eye.

If you are interested in it, definitely do your own research...there is no better way to learn, but for my friends and family wondering what the heck I've been up to, here's the nuts and bolts.

The HCG diet has been around since the 50s and is modeled after what our bodies do while pregnant. The science behind it is that when pregnant and producing HCG your body process fat differently than at any other time. Basically, to ensure baby always has what it needs the body uses both normal (healthy) and abnormal (not healthy, belly, hips, etc) fat for energy. A doctor back in the 50s realized that if non pregnant people took small quanties of HCG that made their bodies think they were pregnant, the hormonal response was to activate abnormal body fat into energy. The kicker is you have to eat 500-600 calories a day and no more, no fats whatsoever, no oils even in products like lotion/shampoo, etc. Your body HAS to go to the fat for energy and nothing you're giving it. If you do it right there is no hunger pangs, and after 3 days on a super clean lean meat, veggies and limited fruit diet there are no cravings either. I did a detox first for 2 weeks, the diet for 30 days and am doing 3 additional weeks of no sugars or starches at all. To be completely honest this is the easiest thing I have ever done, which is kind of scary. I eat healthy all the time and nothing works, so for me to eat to fullness (you really can on 500 cals which is weird too, plenty of meat and veggies), and lose was just crazy. During the 30 days there is no exercise because you aren't taking enough in to support it but I am adding in yoga/walking/jogging now that I've tripled my calories. What's weird is that even though it was only 21 lbs and I have a ton more to go, it was all in my belly and made a huge visual difference. The results are definitely keeping me motivated and I feel great. Once my three weeks of no sugars/no starches are up I start adding things back in slowly. Like a few starches/day at a time and see what my weight does. As long as it maintains or decreases I'm fine, if it goes up I know what triggered it and back off. This isn't a long term diet but definitely a gateway into better eating habits/lifestyle changes in general.

So there you have it, my take on a diet that is controversial in some corners but a winner in my book!