Dispelling some Myths about my Time on the hCG Diet

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

I must admit, I have been surprised by the number of messages, comments and emails I've gotten as a result of my hCG blog and comments online. Mostly the emails are from others who have had or are having a bad hCG diet experience. Some are from people really concerned about loved ones on this diet. Many are thankful to hear they are not alone. There are some emails and comments that wouldn't really fall into the 'warm fuzzy' cateogory. Seems there are a few myths by those people about my time on the hCG diet.

If you haven't read my blog, in a very quick nutshell, this diet caused some serious health problems and made me fatter!

Myth 1:
I clearly didn't follow protocol. Not true. I did. I was on the diet for just over a month and followed it. I was weighing everything and eating from the allowed food list.

Myth 2: I went back to my old eating habits and gained all the weight back plus some. Actually, I stayed pretty close to the hCG diet list but increased my calories. Once I hit about 1400 calories a day, I was gaining. My doctor did not want me eating under my BMR so we agreed to just have me watch what I eat but allow the weight to stabilize. It ended up stabilizing above where I was when I started on this diet. If I had eaten the way I was eating after this diet before the diet, I would have been slowly losing weight. I was eating low carb and very low sugar.

Myth 3: I'm upset because I was only losing 1/2 lbs a day on this diet. Okay, seriously? This one is a little ridiculous. I was not one of the super obese people losing a lbs a day nor would I have ever thought I could. I was perfectly happy with what I was losing but did start getting frustrated when I plateaued and started gaining on 500 calories a day. That happens about two weeks or so into the diet and is a sign your body is going into starvation mode. I'm on Weight Watchers now and losing less than 1/2 lbs a day and happy :)

Myth 4: I had health issues before starting the diet and that was the cause of my side effects. Yes, I did have health issues before this diet. Really, who doesn't? I was anemic but had just had my ferritin levels checked when starting the diet and they were great! I wasn't considered anemic at that point. One month later, I was ! My doctor and I were both amazed at how quickly I had lost my ferritin as a result of the heavy periods the 500-calorie diet caused. We've never seen that before. Have to say if you have health problems, expect the hard Omnitrition sell. Distributors will claim they've never been healhtier and they are off all their meds now. They market to those of us with health problems and, really, who doesn't have some sort of health issue? Makes it easier on distributors when you do develop problems to just say you already had the problem.

Myth 5: I have no life. I actually have a very busy life and a happy one too. I am bugged that this diet took months away from my life when I was just too sick and having too many appointments to live it. I learned a valuable lesson. Stay away from fad diets and stay away from any so called 'nutritional supplement' sold online. There is just no accountibility there and the results as I found out can be quite serious.

I'm sure I'll get more non-fan mail and will add to this list over time :)

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