Is the HCG diet hype or hope?

The latest “diet” that is all rage is the HCG Diet. With all the hundreds of thousands of diets out there, is
this one any worse or better than all the others?

Taking a quick look at the HCG Diet overview, it shows a meal plan based on a 500 calorie a day diet.

What they’re suggesting you have for breakfast is tea or coffee in any quantity without sugar, which, in
my opinion is ridiculous! That’s breakfast! Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Essentially,
according to this diet, you’re starting your day on stimulants (caffeine) and without any nutrients.

By the time you get to lunch and your body is more than likely in a catabolic state and breaking down
muscle and tissue to survive, do you actually get to have some food these or the foods your get to have:

1. 100 grams of veal, beef, chicken breast, fresh white fish, lobster, crab, or shrimp. All visible fat must be carefully removed before cooking, and the meat must be weighed raw. It must be boiled or grilled without additional fat. Salmon, eel, tuna, herring, dried or pickled fish are not allowed. The chicken breast must be removed from the bird.
2. One type of vegetable only to be chosen from the following: spinach, chard, chicory, beet-greens, green salad, tomatoes, celery, fennel, onions, red radishes, cucumbers, asparagus, cabbage.
3. One breadstick (grissino) or one Melba toast.
4. An apple, orange, or a handful of strawberries or one-half grapefruit.

Dinner is the same as lunch.

Overall, if you’re eating only 500 calories as day, this has nothing to do with health and well-being.
Plain and simple, it’s nothing more than a quick fix. Yes, you will lose weight and any time you’re taking
in less calories than you’re expending, you’re going to lose weight, but you need to ask yourself this
question, what kind of weight do you want to lose? Do you want to lose muscle? Do you want to lose
fat?

This diet is a dead-end road. Actually, if you went on a 14 day herbal juice fast, you’re better off than
doing the HCG diet because with the HCG diet you’re still putting toxins and your body and you’re not
allowing your body to reset your pallet and cleanse your system out.

Will you lose weight with the HCG diet? Yes, you will but at the end of the day, you’re going to slow
down your metabolism because it’s not feeding your metabolism, it’s reversing it. You’re only going to
get fatter and fatter with the more diets you do like this one.

You need to focus on speeding up your metabolism, not slowing it down. You should be eating every
two hours to keep your metabolism revving. Think about it this way. An infant wants a bottle in it’s
mouth every two hours. What does that tell you? Not only will you be speeding up your metabolism,
you are reversing the aging process, i.e, your body is acting like an infant. The body wants to evolve, the body wants to nourish. That’s how the body is supposed to be.

Atlanta Nutritionist

Atlanta Personal Trainer