The Hormone Diet: Can it Help Me Lose Weight

Although the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not named any diet or supplement as a cure for obesity, weight loss guru Kevin Trudeau claims there is--and it's called the Hormone Diet.

"This weight loss approach is quite different than anything else in the treatment of obesity," writes Trudeau. "There are no hunger and food cravings. You have increased energy. You lose weight from the very first day."

But health experts believe the Hormone Diet is actually a starvation diet in disguise--namely because the diet requires you to eat as little as 500 calories per day.

How the Hormone Diet Works

The Hormone Diet works by suppressing your hunger and improving your metabolism--or that's what proponents of this diet report. They credit this metabolic transformation to the human chorionic gonadotropin hormone, or hCG, a hormone usually found in the urine of pregnant women. Available as an injection or supplement, dieters are instructed to take this hormone every day to stimulate their metabolism, which supposedly results in weight loss.

However, dieters also have to follow a restricted eating plan to cleanse the body, with calorie totals reaching no more than 500 calories per day.

Proponents of the Hormone Diet claim this helps people lose weight quickly--sometimes in excess of one or two pounds per day. Although health experts also agree that the Hormone Diet can cause weight loss, they don't believe it's because of hCG.

Why the Hormone Diet Really Causes Weight Loss

So if hCG isn't the cause of weight loss, what is? Kathleen M. Zelman, the director of nutrition for WebMD.com, claims it's the lack of nutrition.

"You will lose weight on the hCG diets but the weight loss will be the result of the very low-calorie or starvation-like diet, not the hCG," says Zelman to WebMD.com. " Although it may sound like a plausible weight loss plan, the scientific evidence for using hCG is lacking."

At the minimum, nutritionists recommend consuming 1200 calories at the minimum to lose weight--it's difficult to meet all of your nutritional demands if you don't. The Hormone Diet advocates eating 500 calories per day, less than half of this requirement.

This can cause rapid weight loss, due to the serious lack of nutrition and energy (calories).

But what the Hormone Diet doesn't tell its dieters is that it can also result in a loss of water weight and lean muscle tissue. According to Juliette Kellow, R.D. of WeightLossResources.co.uk, people who commonly undergo starvation diets, which the Hormone Diet fall under, often lose more muscle mass than actual fat because the body enters starvation mode--a mode where the body clings onto its energy stores because it thinks the body is starving. Yes, you'll lose weight--but you'll lose it from the wrong places.

To lose weight from the right places, there is no true shortcut--healthy eating and exercise is key. It may take longer to lose the weight, but it's more effective (and safer) than resorting to a starvation diet.

The Hormone Diet: Can it Help Me Lose Weight? does not constitute medical advice from a licensed nutritionist or physician. Any dieting concerns or questions should be discussed with your local healthcare professional.

Sources:

Kevin Trudeau, "The Weight Loss Cure 'They' Don't Want You to Know About" (Amazon.com)
Kathleen M. Zelman, "The Truth About HCG for Weight Loss" (WebMD.com)
Juliette Kellow, "Dieting and Metabolism" (WeightLossResources.co.uk)