There are two popular routes to ‘fast’ weight loss. The first one is fasting and the second is diet pills. A third route gaining in popularity is a dangerous combination of the two – the HCG diet which combines injections of human growth hormone with a metabolism-wasting 500 calories a day.
First some factual background that you want to understand:
1) The human liver can only burn 1 to 1.5 lbs of fat per week in a female, and 1.5-2 lbs of fat per week for males. Any ‘weight’ loss over that is valuable muscle tissue and water. Further, if you are losing muscle tissue and water, your body will not process fat readily – because they are two very different processes.
2) ‘Weight’ loss at any cost wastes muscle tissue (see above) and that lowers your metabolism drastically. That’s why the weight comes back with a vengeance! Further, you’ll gain back more fat – not the muscle that you lost. That means you’re fatter than when you started, with a tanked metabolism due to muscle wasting. Ouch. Add to that little equation the internal stress on your organs, higher cholesterol (due to muscle wasting) and a host of issues now termed ‘metabolic syndrome’ or ‘syndrome x’ – which means a wide range of physical problems related directly to a trashed metabolism.
QUIZ: now, if you’re overweight and you’re exhibiting metabolic syndrome symptoms and you obviously need to drop weight and to accomplish that you go on a low calorie diet (I don’t care who is telling you to do it) what do you think will happen? I’ll bet you can guess.
Okay. That understood, many folks just panic with wanting to ‘get the weight off’ at any cost – usually due to some sort of impending social event – and go one of these routes anyway. Here’s some more lowdown on what’s going to happen:
FASTING: It makes people irritable and less able to deal with stress because the blood sugar is so unstable, will make it difficult to think clearly, the hormones go crazy, and your energy will tank. This won’t make you popular with anyone, can ruin relationships, and make life generally difficult. With the attendant (and impossible to avoid) muscle wasting and internal organ stress you are setting yourself up for long term imbalances that can take years to correct. Life is already stressful. Don’t make it worse.
DIET PILLS: Diet pills work by teasing your metabolism through unnatural means – which basically means they are full of caffeine and potential problems include racing heart, anxiety disorders, irritable bowels and acid reflux. These are not attractive options. The long term effects of kidney and adrenal disturbances, liver stress, and metabolic wasting aren’t pretty either.
By the way, along with all these unsavory side effects you may not lose any weight. That’s a lot of risk.
THE SANE PATH: start a sensible (metabolism supporting) weight loss program and plan on it taking about a year. This will give you time to let your body work naturally, will restore your body to health, you’ll stand a better chance of not putting it all back on in the first 6 months, and you’ll be able to enjoy the process and learn to incorporate the new life skills that you’ll need in order to maintain your new, lean, healthy vibrant self.
***What I find is that the folks who tend to opt for these self destructive paths usually have addiction issues with food and or alcohol. How this plays out is an unrealistic, short-sighted view of the long term reality – with an emphasis on the short term gratification.
Genesis Transformation's Blog 
Tracey
February 6, 2010
Great rant! Love it.
Tracey
Badmoon
February 6, 2010
Rant on Miss Sheri! Love this rant, it’s so-ooo true. Too bad you can’t educate the trainers on the Biggest Loser!!! The mesaage sent out to those that watch is rapid weight loss comes from lot’s of hard exerise and decreased calories. No apparent boost in the metabolism, that I can see.
Someday while going through the grocery line, I know I will peruse an article by Sheri Lynn on a magazine that teaches your wisdom.
Hugs,
Badmoon
HCG Diet Brookline
February 16, 2010
Ah, This is exactly what I was looking for! Clears up
some contradictions I’ve heard
Michele
April 1, 2010
I know several folks on the HCG Diet and I plead with them to stop it. Anyone consuming 500 calories a day will lose weight initially, basic math will tell you that. Injecting yourself with pregnant mare’s urine or other supplements to facilitate weight loss is crazy. I had a doctor a couple of years ago mention this diet to me as a possible solution. I looked at it and went NO! (OK, I said it a little stronger than that). Just basic body functions require more calories than that to survive and do their jobs on a basic level. Plus what happens after their 40 day cycle of eating 2 meals a day, not wearing lotion as it has oil and that makes people fat (what a joke) and then they eat “normally” again? They will balloon back up as the body embraces every calorie for survival (fat). Plus I would love to blame my desire for soft skin and my use of lotion for my excess fat! Good lord people.
I am excited about GT as I want to join the ranks of the walking “billboards” of this way of life who have completed the initial journey and are living healthy, fit, beautiful lives. When I look at the success stories and I see these vibrant women (and one gentleman)looking fit, fantastic and proud of their journey and the majority of those pictures posted are folks in their 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s which is the time we have been told over and over is the time of metabolic death so just prepare yourself to get fat, lose energy, libido and vitality, etc. And yet, these folks who I am proud to be on this journey with, are actually rediscovering or even finding for the first time energy, fitness, vitality, and lean bodies. How cool is that? I say amazingly cool!