At about the age of 45-50 people of all nations begin to gain weight, even in the face of no significant change in what and how much we eat. For most of us this weight gain happens gradually, a few pounds a year. Occasionally it is rapid.
There is an industry in our country concerning weight loss. In my experience almost any weight loss program will work, however keeping the weight off is another issue. Weight loss and gain and loss patterns are not healthy and outcomes show a gradual weight gain over time.
The best weight loss programs are the ones that teach us a new way of eating so weight loss can be maintained. These include Weight Watchers, Caloric intake/output tracking (google for eating mainly vegetables and very few carbohydrates, sweets and starch.
I offer a diet developed by Over Eaters Anonymous that involves eating measured amounts of protein, fat , vegetables and fruit at each meal.
For those of us who cannot lose weight even doing a diet successfully there is a solution.
THE HCG DIET
Dr. Simeons found that during early pregnancy the hypothalamus directs the burning of stored fat. He also found that a small amount of the pregnancy hormone HCG stimulates the hypothalamus to burn stored fat, both in men and women.Dr. Simeons combined HCG injections with a very low caloric intake which gives our bodies the nutrients in needs. We get our caloric needs by using our fat stores and lose weight rapidly.
This is a controversial diet. Studies have been done comparing the HCG/500 calorie diet with a 500 calorie diet and the weight loss was the same. I was unable to find a study that compared fat loss vs. muscle mass loss and maintenance of weight loss over time. We know that the problem with a 500 calorie diet is that our body believes we are starving and can make adjustments to slow our metabolism. Coming off such diets we often rebound to gain more weight than when we started.
My experience with the HCG diet over the last 5 years is that when the diet is carefully done with medical supervision and a careful followup diet for 6 weeks, maintenance of the lost weight is possible and not difficult.
PLEASE NOTE:
- Rapid weight loss is a medical issue and to be safe should be done with medical supervision.
- Long term weight loss will not happen if eating habits are not changed.
- If you are a compulsive eater this kind of radical diet is not a solution for you.
- Use of homeopathic HCG has the risk that the homeopathic will not work for you and you are doing a 500 calorie diet with all the risks. If you have experience with homeopathy and it works well for you, then this approach may be good for you.
- Dr Simeons used this diet for 49 years successfully and claims no severe side effects. This diet with the use of a human hormone HCG has not been evaluated by the FDA and to my knowledge there is no large, long term study to evaluate the safety of using HCG in this way.
If you are interested in any form of weight loss contact us for an appointment