About Me

Ten years ago, I lost close to 100 lbs (97.5lbs to be precise).  Wanna see me then? Click here.  Since 1990, I've flirted with 10 to 15 pounds up and down, but managed to stay in my range.  Then, in December of 2010, the "test your mettle" fairies got together and decided to do a drive by.  What followed was "the year of the big loss, and the big gain."

I’m not complaining (too much).  I lost a number of things this year that were very important to me and my sense of self.  I haven't lost people, mind you, and I haven’t lost anything I can’t get back.  But I did lose some tremendously important stuff.  And the big gain?  Oh that.  That was the 53.6 pounds I put on under the auspices of 'coping.'  Weenie. 
 
See that chick?  Me, sans the 54.  That body?  That's right, I didn't lose it, I gave away.  And I want it back.  I’ve worn sweats every day since April.  I’ve mastered the art of getting dressed and putting on makeup without ever actually looking at my reflection.

<sigh> Double weenie.

While researching how to fight the good fight, I encountered a lot of stuff about the HCG diet or HCG as a weight loss aide.  I won’t try and explain how HCG works because I don’t know and would only be quoting others who could tell you better than I.  I will say this:  HCG is touted as a hormone that not just helps you lose weight but dramatically speeds up the process by using your bodies own programming to your advantage.

I will also tell you that HCG sounds too good to be true.  Thirty pounds in forty+ days?  Really?  Really?? 

But what if there was really something to this whole HCG thing?  I mean, the natural phenomenon HCG is said to exploit seems to be medically supported – a pregnant woman’s energy stores are used to help sustain her growing baby.  So, what if that process – or the thing that triggers that process – really was synthesized?  What if it could be recreated by introducing the trigger into a non-pregnant body? 

Before I go on, let me tell you one more thing about me:  I believe in data, in facts.  As a former software engineer, I collected facts, and turned them this way and that, watched them for trends, used them to make predictions.  And I trust my own facts.  Mine; not anyone else’s, mine, when others' data can be avoided. 

So, I have decided to review the HCG weight loss diet thing for myself.  I’m not in medicine. I have no vested interest, financial or otherwise, in HCG (other than for my own weight loss success).  I’m just a person, carrying around the equivalent of another smaller person.  And both of us want to know how hundreds – or thousands – of people on one side of the equation or the other could be wrong?