Just a little vent: I went to an appointment today and while I there the gal I was seeing mentioned she started a diet - the Hcg diet. She is eating 500 calories a day. She takes pills daily. She has lost 8 lbs in 4 days.

For someone who is fighting one pound at a time it is so frustrating to hear this!!

Vent over.

Thanks.

Yeah, but I betcha she'll gain it back fast!!!!! Hang in there because you'll still be smiling when you've reached and maintained your goal!!!! :flowerforyou:

Anita

Exactly!!!

I would rather lose more slowly, get to eat actual food and not have to take hormone injections or pills. I also have to laugh because of course you will lose weight eating 500 calories a day, I don't even know why they bother with the HCG.

Waste of money. Waste of Time.

Totally, in 3 months time she will be on another diet to lose the same 8lb again and again...

also I'm doing this properly cos I want a family in a year or too and I don't want my son or daughter to see me battling with 500kcal dieting constantly but rather treating my body and food with respect. That's my personal motivation but not a comment on anyone else's choices

I have an acquaintance that did this diet last year and guess what????..........Her *kitten* is back!

Not to be mean, but that was the place you could visually see the difference the most.

Just a little vent: I went to an appointment today and while I there the gal I was seeing mentioned she started a diet - the Hcg diet. She is eating 500 calories a day. She takes pills daily. She has lost 8 lbs in 4 days.

For someone who is fighting one pound at a time it is so frustrating to hear this!!

Vent over.

Thanks.

You have to remember that most of that is water and muscle weight not fat loss. Even if a person stopped eating for 4 days they could not lose 8lbs of fat. Remember 1lb of fat =3500 calories. So if you have a person that burns a total of say 2000 calories per day and they stop eating for 4 days that is only 4x2000=8000 calories they have lost which would equal 2.28 lbs of fat if they only lost fat and nothing else. The body does not work that way, it will shed water first, then muscle and fat mixed together in a very low or no calorie period.

Moral of this story is when you hear people losing outrageous amounts of weight in short peroids of time, rest assurred they did not lose fat. And on top of that the large amounts of muscle they do lose just makes lossing fat even that much harder due to lower metabolic rate from less muscle mass in the body.

Hope that helps you feel better staying on a healthy weight loss plan rather then a crash diet.

I have a similar experience, I have a friend that went for lap band surgery almost a year ago now and is already to goal, I have been at this for about 17 months now. I have been working my butt off exercising, she doesn't exercise. I have been diligently counting calories, macros and restricting myself when I was truly hungry and she got full on a wee little bit of food. It didn't seem fair to me.
I just saw her recently and you know what? She doesn't look healthy to me. Her hair used to be so pretty and she had nice skin and now it's just not. I know she has lost a lot of muscle, no way around that. Sure I would like the quickness of it, but nothing else that goes along with it.
Besides her, I have several mfp friends that are basically eating 500 calories (or worse) when you add in all the exercise they are doing. It really is no different than hcg or lapband. I have learned to keep my mouth shut though unless someone asks because they don't want to hear it. Everyone wants a quick fix and this is not it. You can have healthy or quick, but not both unfortunately.
I choose healthy!

ETA: I am not perfect, I used to eat too little and exercise too much, but I feel like I have finally found my way. I am not judging others for their decisions, I feel like we all have to find our way in the world. Like the old saying, "you can lead a horse to water. . ."