Dr. Oz brought a physician and people who have lost weight on the HCG Diet on his TV show today, because he is curious about all the buzz about the relative success of this diet that baffles people in the medical field.

The physician is giving injections of the hormone and charges about $800 for a six week regimen. She takes a patient history and follows the patient as the program proceeds for several months. People explained that it worked for them and that they were satisfied with the results.

Other people appeared who described the homeopathic drops that have a bio-energetic signature of HCG. The gentleman was satisfied with his results. The woman described her own ordeal and said that she actually passed out while on the diet.

Then there is the Calorie Restriction of 500 calories a day. This is far below what is recommended for maintaining a satisfactory amount of caloric energy for basic body functioning. However, the quality of the foods supplying these 500 calories seem to be better than junk food and include fruit, lettuce, and other real foods. Most people would not maintain such a low calorie diet for more than a short period of time, but they appear to do alright when being monitored by their physicians.

I cannot get excited about this type of diet. I am from the school of health that doesn’t attempt to artificially manipulate hormones in the body to lose weight, nor am I inclined to believe that 500 calories a day will be sufficient to maintain genuine health. A person will still be alive, but many organs and systems can suffer from nutritional deficiencies on so few calories. I could not recommend the HCG Diet.

One person started to lose her hair and felt deprived and hungry while on the diet. Mood swings, irregular menstrul cycles, and hair loss have been reported by people on this diet. No one in their right mind would be willing to compromise their bodies to such an extent as to exchange a pound for such dysfunction. It’s not worth it. There are better ways.

The drops do not have active ingredients in them? What does this guy not understand about homeopathics? He’s dense and uneducated about homeopathics in general, so we’ll cut him a little slack. Although I don’t feel that a homeopathic of HCG is necessarily advisable for most people who are overweight, I cannot fault the attempt to signal the body to regulate hormonal balance with a homeopathic remedy. It is less dangerous than an injection.

Dr. Oz wants to look further into the use of this diet. Well, why wouldn’t he find that the better use of his time and expertise would be to look at lasting and substantial change by implementing a healthy Lifestyle that works for the patient for the rest of their lives. Whole organic foods, natural balance restored by reasonable Lifestyle choices in behavior and weight management accomplished by changing at the very foundation of consuming healthy food and living an intelligent life. Then this Lifestyle puts an end to dieting and that is a much smarter way to get the same end result. People won’t have to compromise their health, even for a short period of time, spend too much money for injections, or lose weight only to gain it back again. Come on, be smart about all of this!

Diets don’t work…

Only a substantial and enduring Lifestyle change works for the individual. It would be far better to respect the individual to the degree that you support them in making a decision to approach weight management from the perspective of long term success through Lifestyle change. Doctors enable patients with quick fixes, extreme diets, and orchestrating medicated manipulations of the human body which doesn’t really serve the patient in the long run. It is my ardent hope that doctors come to the conclusion that they are responsible for encouraging long term rational choices for their patients, instead of these temporary fixes that just don’t last long enough to justify the short term gain. That’s my humble opinion for today.

I would rather see these people take six months to adopt a healthy Lifestyle and see what kind of real results they achieve in that amount of time.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011 at 3:37 pm and is filed under Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.