A new diet to hit Australia is the hCG diet which is based on Dr. Simeon’s 1954 book Pounds and Inches. HCG is a hormone only found in pregnant women. The theory is that as we age, our brain becomes lazy regarding how it handles fat, basically “hiding” and forgetting about it. With the aid of HCG, the brain is re-trained to “seek-out” and use fat stores again.
Dr Simeon’s describes 3 types of fat:
- Structural fat which is essential
- Normal fuel reserves
- Abnormal fat reserves which is locked away
He claims the hCG diet results in the burning of abnormal fat reserves and that most people can lose up to 0.5 kilo daily!
For the first three days you consume foods high in fat, sugars, and starches. Then you kick into very low calorie diet at 500cal per day for either 23 days or 43 days while taking hCG drops throughout the day. A typical day would look like:
Breakfast – coffee with 1 tbsp. milk, piece of fruit
Lunch – 100gr protein with 1 vegetable such as spinach. I piece of fruit, 1 grissini
Snack – 1 piece of fruit
Dinner – same as lunch
Then you move on to the stabilization phase which is 1500 calories including fats but no sugars or starches. It is during this phase that the hypothalamus “resets” and prevents the abnormal fat reserves from reoccurring. Once you reach your goal weight you enter maintenance where you can add back in a small amount of sugar and starches and have the occasional treat.
A word of advice here is that if you do the hCG diet without strictly adhering to the protocol, you are bound to put back all your weight.
This is basically a high protein, low calorie diet that eliminates sugar, processed food and gluten. In my mind that is not all bad but I don’t have any personal experience taking hCG. Perhaps look at why you’re retaining weight in the first place and address the underlying problem before heading into the hCG diet.
