Diets in Review Question
is 500 calories healthy?
David asked this question May 5th, 2012 9:33 pm
Do you think the hcg diet is safe? I know my mom tried it because she seen good reviews at http://www.realhcgreview.com. But I think only taking in 500 calories a day can be dangerous. Whats your opinion on it? I will point out that it did work for her.
This question is about hCG Diet
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Answers to this Question
Mary Hartley
Anyone can lose weight on 500 calories a day, but that doesn't mean it's healthy. Rapid weight loss encourages malnutrition, muscle wasting, early weight-plateaus, and binge-eating. Weight that is lost quickly is usually regained. The hCG Diet is 500 calorie low-carbohydrate meal plan supplemented with injections of synthetic hCG (Human Chorionic Gonadotropin), a hormone produced by the placenta at the start of pregnancy. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published evidence that hCG is entirely ineffective. The diet was popularized in the book, The Weight Loss Cure ‘They’ Don’t Want You to Know About, by Kevin Trudeau of infomercial fame. Mr. Trudeau was held in civil contempt by the FTC for the infomercial marketing of his book.
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The first thing to consider is the fact that different people have different dietary needs, but on average a person is intended to consume 2000 calories per day. That means that on this diet they are to intake 25% of their average dietary needs. For maybe a very small portion of the population this could be safe, but there is no way I would put my trust into it. Much less than 500 calories and a typical person would be considered anorexic. Why should we consider it anything else simply because a pregnancy hormone is involved?
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