Forget the 500-calorie part!
I was the biggest skeptic on the planet. But being as over-educated as I am, I knew that I could solidly answer my skepticism, one way or the other, with a little research. I did, and you can too.
I didn't expect to think differently than I did before I read the research, but I do. Don't trust me, don't entertain my information - read the research yourself and see what you come away with. If nothing else, you'll have learned a little more about hormones, biology, and how they interact with fat. We keep talking about a healthy diet, how about a little healthy curiosity, eh?
There is a difference between changing your diet, experimenting with calorie needs and cleaning up what you eat, and injecting hormones into your body that will screw up your hormone system and have a good chance to damage your body permanently.
Birth control pills are a hormone, but millions and millions of women take them for both birth control and to relieve symptoms of menopause without damaging their bodies. hCG is the hormone generated by pregnant women, whose bodies are arguably damaged after having a baby, but not damaged in the way you suggest. People take hormones all the time, without damage, steroids not being the best example, but insulin, thyroid, cortisone, lynolic acid is in our moisturizers, hystamines, adrenaline (for asthma)! Hormones are everywhere, all the time, without damage. There is no evidence that there is any damage from ingesting hCG, and you haven't provided any - because there isn't any! And I know this because I've looked for it.
I will, however, admit that this is a method of tricking a body to burn fat that is stored for things like pregnancy, but your insistence that it does not contribute to weight-loss makes it clear that you are not aware of the role this hormone plays in controlling fat stores in the body.
Any 'diet' suggesting 800 - 1000 calories intake already disqualified itself from being a healthy suggestion. It's a crash diet. Plus, on 800 - 1000 cals, you will lose weight, without pumping yourself full of a substance that shouldn't be there - you're starving, so yeah, weight loss will come easy.
It appears you aren't aware of the function of the hormone. You are only arguing what everyone can agree on, calories. When you don't know/understand the function of the hormone, it's like talking to a child about how you know the earth goes 'round the sun every 365 days; they can't fathom the idea.
You talked about how you know hormones are powerful...imagine if that powerful hormone could release store fat, full of valuable nutrients, and then your amazing body could absorb the nutrients from that release, minimizing your need to put nutrients into your body manually? It's biology, and just like math, not believing in or not knowing about it, doesn't make it untrue.
Even on 1200 to 1500 calories, the weight loss stems from the calorie deficit, not the HCG. It doesn't take science, simple logic should do the maths for you there.
I agree that any calorie deficit will result in a loss. And again, ignoring the biology of the hormone does not make your statement true.
Two years ago I lost 120 lbs without ever going under 2500 calories a day. At the moment, I am on about 2200 calories, and steadily losing 2 - 3 lbs per week.
At my size of 120kg, my body requires 3000 calories a day to maintain it's size, so I could also loose weight on 2500 calories a day. Bravo, you have demonstrated your math skills. Now if you want to include biology in this discussion, we could have a two-way conversation.
You say all diets have their downfalls - I disagree. A healthly lifestyle change, sensible calorie reduction and exercise have no possible way of harming your body.
I see that you are one of the millions of people who lightly undertake a diet and exercise program without knowing the potential risks involved.
Few people see their doctor before starting a diet and believe that cutting back calories is all there is to it. When someone isn't educated in nutrition, there are many areas where a person can go wrong with nutrient deficiency or protein deficiency, and harm themselves permanently without ever intending to. Receeding gums is a common, irreversible effect of poor nutrition, for example. There are also psychological risks of certain personality types which a doctor might be in a better position to recognize than the average forum moderator. Anorexia begins with a diet, and it kills.
An overweight person might be suffering undiagnosed high blood pressure or heart conditions which could result in stroke, heart attack or death, from the exertion of moderate exercise. Diagnosis and treatment should be taken before staring a diet and exercise program full stop. Few people take this very necessary stay, thereby making any reduction and exercise plan a risk.
HCG does, and will. There is no way you can pump your body full of a hormone (and overload it with said hormone), without doing damage. I wonder how many long term studies about HCG as a weight loss method are out there? I mean, over ten years and more? And conducted by people not trying to sell this method?
If there's "no way", then where are all the dead, wrecked people? I would expect that they (or their families) would complain loudly. I looked for the dead and wrecked, and I didn't find any. Did you look for them?
How much is the overload you speak of? Do you have the comparative values of a pregnant woman vs. a daily dose of hCG for the program? I do. The information is out there. but you are arguing without any substance to back it up.
Dr. Simeon's research lasted several decades and he never tried to sell anything. His manuscript is freely available all over the internet and the drug companies are the only benefactor from the sale of hCG.
You do better to argue that there is no such person as Dr. Simeon and that this diet is a device of the pharmaceutical companies to make more money.
Personally, I think of all the 'diets' out there, this is most likely the most dangerous and damaging, and the one that should immidiately ring alarm bells with anybody who has any concern for their own health.
I don't know how old you are but this is not the most dangerous diet in my lifetime and the danger, if it exists, has yet to be revealed. The program has been around for decades and hasn't "wrecked" anyone. Do you have proof that it has? I wrote how skeptical I was and yet I couldn't find any proof of damage - only warnings, and I already spoke to those.
Neither the tabloid nor the mainstream media have latched on to it as a danger to society which they surely would have, had it ever caused any damage. No medical lobbies have tried to get it wiped from existence to protect the public. And if Dr. Simeon were selling the program, he would have been sued, repeatedly, by the people who were harmed - and yet he hasn't been sued. Nor have the companies selling hCG. This simply wouldn't be the case if it were as big a danger as people like you claim it to be. And that's all they are, claims.
Millions of people tried PhenPhen and within months, people die died and many have life-long heart problems as a result. The company was sued, repeatedly, and the victims and the wreckage were all over the media. People take amphetamine or amphetamine-like substances as appetite suppressants and diet aids to this day, which are both addictive, cause heart problems with long-term use, and have caused heart attacks in people not using them under a doctor's supervision. Also in the news, also sued, even the Government drug administration regulations have been changed,which is no small feat, to protect the public from these products. This has not happened with hCG. Do yourself a favor and ask yourself why! I know I did!
But hey...to each their own. It's your body, you wreck it any which way you like.
To each their own, you can have as many ignorant opinions as you like!
Regardless of how it's currently being employed, this "program" wasn't meant to be a weight-loss solution. If you read the manuscript, which you clearly haven't, the doctor was looking for a
cure for the disease called obesity. He might have found it, but because there's no money in curing a disease that earns millions for the drug companies, no drug company will endorse the method.
A little investigation might turn your skepticism toward the drug companies. You might wonder why they haven't invested in further development of this hormone as a cure for obesity. They earn far more money off fat, sick, people than they do off thin, healthy people - it's one easy answer for why they don't do anything. Nobody has come along to disprove Dr. Simeon's theory - and why not? Is it disprovable? Someone could get all kinds of scientific and medical accolades for disproving a popular and controversial theory like this, surely there must be several people looking for an easy ride and 15 minutes of fame....but they aren't out there.
It's a really interesting theory, I genuinely encourage you, especially if you are skeptical, to read it. Forget the 500 calorie part - read the hormone study, you might be surprised by what you come away with. And even if you don't agree that hCG contributes to weight-loss after reading it, wouldn't it be cool if you knew enough to argue more sensibly about it? Education on biology and hormones never hurt anyone, don't be afraid to endeavor it.
