HCG Diet and my First Loading Day

This first day of Loading is becoming really tough. Somehow I think I was looking forward to it, but now really all this greasy food is making me sick, I actually hope it's a HCG effect, which means that it's already circulating in my body….in small amounts maybe. But I think it might be better tomorrow, in terms of hormone effectiveness. I have to admit I am a bit concerning regarding the solution ratio of my injections, and if I took from the original vial all the HCG that was there, I somehow regretted not putting enough bacteriostatic water to help the HCG table dissolve properly. I watched many videos and most of them were saying that the tablet will dissolve almost instantly once in contact with the liquid bacteriostatic water. It was actually not quite like that, I had to wait and move the vial here and there (without shaking it to avoid air bubbles) to dissolve the HCG. I found that some residual of powder were still at the bottom of the little bottle, in the small crease of the vial, just wondering if this amount can somehow compromise me daily dosage. Maybe I'm just worrying too much, maybe I will have my answers in the next days, seeing how much hungry I am. 

From Dr. Bernstein strict Diet to Dr. Simeons Protocol

Today officially starts my HCG Diet Journey. This morning, very early, I prepared the solution of HCG and Bacteriostatic water. I decided to add 20ml to the 5000IU of HCG so the solution will go up to a 0.5 ml daily; an amount easy to draw with the insulin syringe and for me more convenient in terms of margin of error. I assumed that during my course of HCG I would have some drops of solution lost in the syringes or the bottle itself, with this ratio I figured the HCG percentage lost should be proportionally less, or at least I hope so. Dr. Simeons was somehow against the use of insulin syringes due to the amount lost inside the needle itself, but I did not feel comfortable proceeding with intramuscular injections for this treatment so I will take the chance and eventually increase the dosage along the way, if I'm feeling extremely hungry.

So today is my first Loading day of Phase 1, I thought – since I'm still a recalcitrant Binge Eater – that I would enjoy this Phase of the Protocol, however it's only 9:00 AM and I'm already so full that I feel I cannot eat anything else. I doubt is already an HCG's effect, way too early for the hormone to be in my body fading my hunger. Let's see how I will feel by the end of tomorrow with my second loading Day.

I joined a Community on YouTube, there are a lot of HCG-ers out there, everyone with different weight problems, different lifestyles and so on. I must to say, most of them do not use injections but drops. Homeopathic drops are way cheaper than injections, are easy to buy and I guess also very easy to use, they need to be absorbed under the tongue. I personally do not believe in drops, either regular HCG drops, even less the homeopathic ones (HHCG). It's scientifically proved that this type of hormone cannot be absorbed by the body if taken orally, it's like the insulin: it needs to be injected every day. The homeopathic one are clearly without any trace of HCG and can be purchased on Amazon….some people buy even at grocery store (absurd to me). The drops do work, because of course a 500 Calories regiment cannot fail with whatever product you are using. But the whole point of assuming HCG – which I mean real HCG hormone injected daily – is to preserve muscle mass, to rebalance the hypothalamus, to reduce the abnormal fat without affecting the metabolism. Any other Diet with this small daily amount of Calories is sure to fail, because done to the expenses of normal fat that will be regained quickly once extra food is introduced.   

Why do we play with our health to save few dollars I'm not sure, I'd rather take just Vitamins B6 and B12 like the Dr. Bernstein Diet than unknown homeopathic drops sold at Walmart.

For my personal experience what most count is a realistic maintenance, it's clear that portion control and weight monitoring is an essential part of every maintenance program, but with my previous round with Dr. Bernstein Diet I had so many problems introducing even a small amount of food, the regaining process was extremely fast, my metabolism was compromised and I had no muscle strengths for the whole duration of the Diet. That alone tell me that there was something wrong with what I was doing. I do not want to make the same mistake, but people are hard to convince, we prefer to believe in a magical drop that will resolve all our fat-problems – forever! Which it never happens obviously.

Dr. Bernstein Diet: the missing piece!

In the past 2 / 3 months I did extensive researches online about my Binge Eating Disorder, Dr. Bernstein Diet, and dieting in general. Eventually I came across another Diet using injections: the hCG Diet or a.k.a. Dr. Simeons Protocol. After looking more deeply into this protocol I found out that Dr. Stanley Bernstein (whom Criminal Records from his past are quite impressive!  – see Wikipedia) actually discovered first Dr. Simeons protocol during a congress in Las Vegas in 1972.

He started to use hCG (a hormone produced by pregnant women) in his injections and he opened many clinics for weight loss across the country. However by the end of 1987 approximately, hCG was banned by Health Care regulations for weight loss, so he stopped to give hCG and he "switched" to his B-Comp solution of Vitamins B6 and B12.

As normal reaction I had lots of questions about this hormone and the effects on a weight loss.

Dr. Simeons was a British doctor that did lots of researches for obesity, he worked last years of his career in Rome for numerous patients, continuing his studies and helping people losing weight, and – most importantly – maintain it. Apparently even Lady Diana went to his clinic once in her youth!

Dr. Simeons wrote a brief document called: Pounds & Inches (you can find it online for free on many websites). This document, which I define as illuminating to me, gives a precise description of obesity, about 3 types of FAT and in general how to lose and maintain weight resetting our hypothalamus (hopefully this is the right word).

What he discovered, working in India during the war, was that malnourished women were still giving birth to healthy babies, so he started to look into this exceptional phenomenon of human body and he found out that this hormone hCG was produced in huge quantities during pregnancy. It was the signal to the body to use any abnormal fat reserve in case of undernourishment, in order to save the fetus.

If we imagine an undernourished diet with this hormone in our system (and no baby of course) the result is a loss of only abnormal fat and not lean mass. The weight loss can be as fast as 1 pound per day with no hunger.

Reporting some of Dr. Simeons words from Pounds & Inches is extremely important to understand the 3 kinds of fat that we have:

"The first is the structural fat which fills the gaps between various organs, a sort of packing material.

The second type of fat is a normal reserve of fuel upon which the body can freely draw when the nutritional income from the intestinal tract is insufficient to meet the demand. Such normal reserves are localized all over the body.

But there is a third type of fat which is entirely abnormal. It is the accumulation of such fat, and of such fat only, from which the overweight patient suffers. This abnormal fat is also a potential reserve of fuel, but unlike the normal reserves it is not available to the body in a nutritional emergency. It is, so to speak, locked away in a fixed deposit and is not kept in a current account, as are the normal reserves."

 

What hCG targets during its effect is releasing abnormal fat and ONLY abnormal fat, because this is the FAT that is not promptly regained after a diet.

Hence the missing piece of Dr. Bernstein Diet: hCG

(Which I believe is a sort of scam, unless he has hCG in his B-Comp is feeding us just with B-Vitamins!!)

Again from Pounds & Inches:

"…the patients begin to look weary and drawn, feel weak and hungry and any further loss of weight achieved is then always at the expense of normal fat. This is not only undesirable, but normal fat is also instantly regained as soon as the patient is returned to a free diet."

That's WHY most of the patients regain weight extremely fast after almost any Diet, just looking at the food will make you gain weight!

I experienced this problem first; I was gaining weight with an extra apple a day! Sure, portion control, calories and weight watching should always be part of any maintenance program but a strict diet, without a hormone regulator will only alter the metabolism and gaining weight back will be absolutely guaranteed. I lost my period for months after only 6 weeks of Dieting with Dr. Bernstein.

People on Dr Bernstein diet experience hair loss, dizziness, lightheaded, weakness and so many side effects that you just wonder how long your body can handle starvation without any sort of reaction.

I'm not suggesting to switch one Diet for the other one, just as my opinion, go on YouTube and look for hCG – you will find countless videos of people using injections, drops, spray of hCG and be amazed of this Diet. 

Dr. Bernstein Strict Diet and weight-loss-stabilization

What I learned from my experience with the Dr. Bernstein Diet is that it's missing an important aspect of losing weight and maintaining it, something that I would call stabilization of body weight.

I now strongly believe that any changes that I ask my body to go through: will need a time to settle.

What I believe is wrong in the Dr. Bernstein Diet is losing lots of weight without breaks along the path and a drastic jump into a maintenance program that allows us to eat way too many vegetables.

I have experienced a perfect weight loss to suddenly see a weight gain, powerless (due also to my Binge Eating Disorder ok).

What I think is a better approach to a strict Diet is that I need to give time to my body to stabilize the new weight, I should stay on a Diet not more than 4 weeks for instance (which for a Dr. Bernstein program 4 weeks is a lot of time and a lot of pounds), after 4 weeks I believe my body needs to settle for good into the new scale number – stabilize that weight, being comfortable. To do so I'd suggest to go over a sort of Maintenance Program, that might require still strict portion controls but just enough to have the body weight remaining on the same weight (with an approximation of more less 2 pounds) for at least 2 weeks. So, for at least 2 weeks, your weight must not change, in this way the body will become attuned to the new number and you could ensure you're not going to gain back everything you've lost so far. To clarify more in details this requirement I'd need to highlight that the weight must have a span of at least 2 weeks, in which does not change; swinging is a change, even if at the end of the 2 weeks the weight is exactly how it started. I must not see any drastic weight changes for the entire settle-period.

I learned this process reading and watching tutorials regarding the hCG Diet. This hormone-based strict Diet teaches patients to go over a very restrictive food protocol for just few weeks and then stop the hCG injections working on stabilizing the new weight, allowing so the body to settle. It's clear to me now that we're habits-animals, even my weight it is, so if I don't let my body adjust to it, forcing to accept my new me, it will go back exactly where it was.

To give a stupid example: when I first learned English, I had to think before creating a sentence, and then speak. Now that I'm fluent I just speak, without thinking. During this process I noticed that my brain was simply creating sentences in my native language, because that was what I always did for all previous years of my life. I did know how to speak; I just needed to let my brain accept a new automatic alternative way to speak. So let your body accept the new changes before moving forward, or you might ended up gaining back all the pounds you've lost with so many sacrifices.

Another reason why I do believe is not advisable engaging in a long term Dr. Bernstein strict Diet is for the side effects. If you put your body into starvation for months, naturally it will activate a surviving system control, resulting in hair loss, dizziness, weakness, eating disorder, and everything related to malnutrition.

After losing 20 pounds with Dr. Bernstein Diet, during maintenance, I found myself gaining weight with just an extra apple. It's very common for strict diets. The rule calories-intake vs calories-burned does not apply whatsoever for unknown (to me at least) reasons. Which I know it sucks!

So, if you're going through the journey of a very strict diet – whatever it is – be aware that maintaining your lost weight is the toughest part, losing weight is easy; not let your body going back to where it was is the real war.

Dr. Bernstein Diet and my Binge Eating Disorder

It's been a year now since I started my first Dr Bernstein Diet. After meeting my goal in October 2014, I gained back slowly everything I lost, and some more. Apparently this is something common for these types of diet – and now I know exactly WHY.

One important detail – that's not mentioned in the Dr. Bernstein instruction Manual – is that when you put your body into a starvation mode, chances are that you will develop a Binge Eating Disorder.

Binge Eating is a normal instinctive reaction of your brain to survive, to compulsively request all those nutrients that you removed with your strict diet for so long, that you craved for so long.

Binge Eating affects more people that you would believe.

At the begin of my maintenance I started to have episodes of binging, at the time I didn't even know what was a B.E.D., I thought I was stupid and incapable to control my insane desire of eating 8 muffins in 3 minutes or an entire package of chocolate chips cookies. I thought my sweet tooth and my chocolate addiction were the reasons I could not control myself. Well that wasn't the reason.

Lots of people assume that Binge Eating Disorder is caused by an emotional state, that for sure there's an emotional trigger that makes you binge so compulsively and with no control.

If for some people, that could be true I guess, most of the times it's not. I tried to analyze any emotional reason that could have caused my binge attack, each time. But there was no pattern; once I was sad, once I was happy, once I was tired, once not….nothing that could relate that nonsense uncontrollable behaviours. I deducted that it was only my brain screaming for food, it was just a habit that my brain developed after all I put through with my Dr. Bernstein strict Diet.

The sad part is that not only I spent lots of money with Dr. Bernstein Diet, I kept on going back to the clinic - because weight becomes an obsession when you have a Binge Eating Disorder, I kept on starving my body and frightening my brain, I kept on gaining back pounds on and off and on again, not only that but what more depressing is that I now have an Eating Disorder that kills me inside as person, I don't enjoy food in the same way, I don't think about eating in the same way. I have a food obsession that is taking my days away from what should be living a normal and healthy life.

If someone tells you that you won't feel hungry during Bernstein Diet, he/she is lying. I was constantly starving, feeling weak, dizzy all the times. That was the real feel of what starvation is. How can I possibly think that my brain does not get affected by this state of my body? We are perfect machines, being in Ketosis activates parts of your brain that we usually don't have in alarm (if taking a normal food Diet) – your brain is asking you for help to survive, hence it will start to binge as soon as it can.

I'm not here to give any advice in regards of BED, since I'm not a doctor and I'm still a binge eater myself. I've to say – from my personal experience – that realizing and accepting that I've an eating Disorder helped me to fight it back. Now I know that, with the time, I will be able to overcome this disorder. I'm practicing on breaking the habit on Binge Eating, talking to myself that it's not me compulsively desiring to eat so much, it's my irrational brain, and I stay still, waiting for the impulse to leave. Sometimes are better than others, I'm strong and stubborn so I'm not giving up, I'm conscious though, it will be a long journey.

Dr. Bernstein injections and nurses

Dr. Bernstein Diet is a strict weight loss program, it works – but it needs to be followed religiously, or it can be an unpleasant experience (due to the extreme food restriction) and costly as well.

For me switching to self-shots option is mostly due to the expenses that I cannot possibly afford anymore, and also is becoming annoying going to the clinic 3 times a week. Some of the nurses there are really dumb, so if they can do an injection: anyone can do it!

Once I was concerning to one of the nurses on my slow weight loss, and the fact that I've hard time to give up my coffee. She explained that coffee is bad for dieting since…."…it expands cells fat in the body"!!  I'm not kidding, that was her answer! So this should give you an idea on how the personnel are trained in those clinics.

Nurses in the Dr. Bernstein clinics are not highly skilled, not even regarding the Strict Diet itself, most of the questions I asked in the past months, were redirected to the doctor…or answered with no clue on what they were saying.

Today I was trying to get as much information as I could regard the injections. I asked the nurse if the B6/B12 ratio in the double injections is the same, she didn't know, she told me that they receive the B-comp like that, so not sure exactly how much of each is in it. However based on my researches, it should be 50/50, no reason not to be that way really.

I also asked the amount of Vitamins I was injected during the Strict Diet (on each double shot taken), she told me – for privacy reason – she was not allowed to tell me how many cc/ml it was, but I can obviously see the syringe and I saw that was at 1ml of dosage.

The needle used is the Insulin short one - I believe is the Needle Insulin Syringe, 3/10mL Syringe -30G x 12.7mm (1/2") – that is what I bought also yesterday, I thought it would be easy for me to use, once I do my first self-injection on Friday. I'm a bit scared of the idea of taking the shots myself, but then again I think on how much money I'm spending, that without the B6/B12 injections I cannot possibly continue this strict Diet (without compromising my health as well as my metabolism), so I must to learn on how to do it, at the end Vitamins B6-12 don't get stored in the body and drinking lots of water helps to get rid of them.

Today I also bought another bottle of Cal-K pills at the clinic ($16), although I'm not going next Friday I needed to have an extra bottle to continue the treatment by myself. Apparently it works in conjunction with the B-shots to boost metabolism and reduce the amount of stored fat.

Looking for a change

Today it was my last day on the Dr. Bernstein program…well at least for now.

Let's face it, this Diet is very expensive (I've already spent more than $2500) and keeping on going on and off is not helping me to stay thin. So I decided to take a different path: yesterday at Shopper Drug Mart I bought 20 syringes and B6 and B12 vitamins in liquid form.

I always read on the Internet of people doing their own injections and always thought: this is crazy! I can't possibly do that!

But after so many months on Bernstein Diet and getting 3 times a week injections, I feel I can do it and it's actually not a big deal, at all.

I checked on Internet, You Tube, wherever I could find any information on how to do injections or what type of Vitamin B6/B12 should I buy - that was the easy part. I went to Shopper's and just asked for B6 and B12!

The B6 is quite pricey compared the B12; I got the B6 for $51 and the B12 for $8, so big difference - but still way cheaper than Dr. Bernstein. Based on my estimation with a budget of $100 or so I'm good for 3 months. With Bernstein Diet Program I would have to pay $1800 for that length of time!