I wonder if a book titled “Weight Loss Secrets Kevin Trudeau Doesn’t Want You To Know About” would sell?
I am still confused.
Anyone is going to lose weight on 500 calories a day. With or without magic drops, hormones, shots, pills, etc.
Which, as Czarcasm’s link points out, hasn’t been proven to work in trials.
So - is the value of taking HCG and adhering to a fairly rigid “cycle” simply placebo effect? I mean - it’s great if it works for people as it apparently can. But why wouldn’t simply doing the extremely-restricted-calorie diet alone have the same effect?
Also - in between “cycles” do you eat normally, or has your overall diet changed?
Many many many years ago when I was young and stupid, I signed up for an HCG diet program, because I was young and stupid. It didn’t involve homeopathy, but I did have to go in weekly for a shot in the ass. I religiously followed the starvation diet, and not only did I lose weight, my hair started falling out. I felt dizzy if I stood up too fast. And I learned nothing from the experience about controlling my weight, because when I stopped going and started eating like a normal person should, it wasn’t long before I was overeating like a normal person shouldn’t.
It was a scam then and it’s a scam now - a dangerous scam. And, at the time, an expensive scam.
This is an article published on Dr Oz’s own website.
I googled hgc diet risks and this was on page one of the search. Along with a shitload of similar articles.
Plus it’s made from the urine of pregnant women. Ick.
If a person losing weight doesn’t learn how to change their eating habits, it doesn’t matter how they lose it, they are going to gain it back.
I think we can all agree on that.
So the important thing to learn is how to change your eating habits after the weight is lost…not necessarily how you lose the weight.
People who fail at diets will fail regardless of how they lose the weight. They think that the diet is some sort of temporary adjustment and when they reach their target weight they revert to their old way of eating.
Apparently there are people that have successfully figured out how to change their eating habits after they have lost the weight using a starvation diet like the HCG protocal. I agree that the HCG drops probably do nothing and it is purely the placebo affect. But I know at least 7 people personally that have been successful using the diet. That’s not theory or speculation…that’s personal knowledge. All seven of the people I know say that they feel more accountable about their weight after doing the diet because they weigh themselves daily, and as a result more closely watch what they eat and have learned to consume fats, carbs and sweets in much more moderation along with better portion control.
I know its more fun to knock something that sounds kooky and people are paying $100+ for using…but for my friends that are all now at normal BMI’s…I say hat’s off to them and congratulations.
And I say that if you are so entranced with this quackery that you would believe personal anecdotes over the legitimate cites presented here, then any further responding to your posts on our part would be a waste of our time.
It’s not insane to propose a drug that can be effective at concentrations of 1 part per million; that’s a standard measurement of things at low concentrations. Off the top of my head, I know that concentrations of 10 ppm of nitrite in my fish tank are likely to kill my fish. Two minutes on Wikipedia tells me that seriously toxic gases like arsine, bromine, and diazomethane can be deadly at concentrations under 5 ppm. Botulinium (the stuff they use in botox) has a lethal dose under one microgram for adults. It’s not impossible for something to have an effect on humans at part per million levels.
Now, I have no reason to believe that the “passive” compound in homeopathic remedies is effective in concentrations that low. I think that homeopathy is crap. But it’s pharmacologically possible to have a drug that works at those concentrations.
Your legitimate cites only say that the drops don’t do anything. I’ve said that I agree with you.
Are there risks to a 23 day 500 calorie a day diet…sure. But probably a lot less risk than someone that goes under for gastric bypass surgery.
If the drops make people believe that they aren’t hungry and can help them endure the diet…then I say great.
Where’s the quackery in that?
ETA: I also love the fact that you think you represent all of “you”, whoever the hell that is. :rolleyes:
It’s quackery because it’s being fraudulently marketed to people under the guise of an effective (and ridiculously expensive) substance.
Because the diet itself is dangerous, and if this snake-oil solution encourages them to continue on it, then the snake-oil solution is dangerous.
I haven’t, no. I’m usually on here on my phone and don’t do a lot of link following. Let me get to a computer in a bit and I’ll get back to you.
To each his own. Everybody’s got to make their own decisions, and the better informed they are the better their decisions should be. Fortunately for me, I’m not in a position of having to consider something like this. For me, there are worse ways to try and lose weight.
You would lose weight eating only 500 calories a day, yes. But you would be hungry, and you would lose muscle mass, and your body would enter starvation mode. The HCG is supposed to keep that from happening. I don’t know all the science behind it, but it has something to do with feigning pregnancy, I believe. I talked to my ob/gyn about it for a very brief moment while I was doing the first cycle.
I’ll get on a real computer later and really type some info on this. Or, if enough people are interested, I guess I could start an “Ask the chick who did the HCG Diet” thread?
Such as amputation and sewing your mouth shut.
Look, it’s bad medicine, it’s bad weight control, and it’s bad science. Anything fad you use to lose weight is just as effective as this, and they’re all equally effective at setting a person up to gain back more weight after the trial period is done. This particular approach has the added benefit of serious complications and possibly death, all while costing a pretty serious chunk of change.
There are lots of completely quack ideas that work for some people out of sheer luck, but that doesn’t mean you should recommend them to others.
Please read the link I provided first.
Except research shows that it doesn’t do that.
“Homeopathy” and “science” do not belong in the same sentence unless “is emphatically not” is placed in between.
I hope you will!
A few weeks ago, my doctor mentioned to me that she had several patients who had done the HCG thing with another doctor (they got shots) and all of them were thrilled with the results.
Are they suing the doctor for malpractice? Surely one of the patients died or something.