Have you ever considered what it would emotionally feel like to be limited to less than 500 calories of food, while living amongst gluttons? For most, when considering the benefits versus the risks of the hCG protocol, emotional hardship isn’t well thought-out. Instead, the biggest influence when deciding to do the protocol, is potential weight-loss.
They’re tired of battling with weight, and frustrated with the diet industry’s failure to make a difference. They think, “If what thousands of people proclaim on the Internet is true-- eating such a small amount of food must be worth it.” There’s no hunger, the food is simple, and if the weight is lost as fast as everyone says, how could the protocol be difficult?
This mentality is naive. The hCG protocol requires the participant eat 500 calories in food for about a month, and when done correctly, hunger may limit eating to even less. Take a step back and observe this amount of food. Compare it against the backdrop of our normal cultural eating behavior. Notice the difference? Our culture is the most gluttonous and dysfunctional culture with food --in the Universe.
We spend hundreds of billions of dollars on food,
and what’s ironic is that we spend billions, trying not to eat it.
The hCG protocol is the extreme opposite.The naivety is in thinking that weight-loss will perpetually motivate us to eat less, even amongst friends, family, and coworkers who eat significantly more. And to believe that without hunger you’ll be emotionally resilient-- is crazy!
How many of you eat without hunger? When you’re bored, when you’re celebrating, when you’re drunk, have the munchies, when you’ve had a difficult day at work, to suppress negative feelings about someone, or to avoid having to talk to strangers in social settings? Anybody who thinks that hunger is why American’s eat too much, needs a reality check.
If you ask anybody who is obese how often they’re hungry (I’m talking true physical hunger), they will tell you they’re not hungry that often. However, for reasons I’m not going to explain in this blog, their hunger occurs more rapidly than others who have less fat. In general, they’re not hungry for breakfast; they could wait hours and hours before feeling that physical irritation and urgency to eat, and they don’t need as much food to reduce hunger.
This makes sense, considering the science that has proven the more fat a person has, the higher (exponentially) their blood leptin levels are. Leptin, in the brain, reduces hunger. So it makes sense that if you have more leptin, you’re going to experience hunger less often. But does lack of hunger and weight loss keep you from continually eating with the rest of our gluttonous culture? Probably not. Otherwise the first diet you ever attempted would have worked long term.
The hCG protocol is not as easy as you think. It requires you eat less than what small children eat, and for over a month. If you live in America, that means you’re going to be constantly surrounded by food commercials, surrounded by restaurants and fast food joints on every corner, and will have invitations to eat all the time-- for any reason. Our culture is defined by eating and food, so to think any amount of fat loss would completely overhaul your desires to eat is naïve.
Before considering the hCG protocol, take into account the desire and emotional strength you’re going to have to develop to let go of excessive emotional eating. And to keep from gaining fat back, you'll have to let go of emotional eating forever. Are you ready to divorce this gluttonous way of life? Do you really want to let go of food emotionally? Are you seeking an intrinsic desire to eat less, whether you lose weight or not? If so, the hCG protocol will change your life. Your body will heal and your relationship with food will too. With freedom from emotional eating as your goal, consider yourself anything but a sissy, and ready to take on the hCG protocol challenge.
"...you'll have to let go of emotional eating forever."
ReplyDeleteFinally... someone who understands that it's not hunger that drives most of "us" to eat.
I'm off to check out your book, thanks!
Wonderful! I find it interesting how many scientists assume people who are obese eat all the time because they must be hungry all the time. They obviously spend too much time in the lab and not enough time in the real world! They make the assumption that we eat only based on the signal of hunger, similar to their studies of mice feeding behavior. We are not mice and we eat without hunger most of the time! The more fat a person has the more leptin they create, which in turn, reduces how often they experience hunger. But every which way you turn we're being told to eat. Eat breakfast, eat 5 meals a day, eat because you want to have fun, because you're bored, etc. When do we stop and start listening to when the body says its time to eat??? This is turning into another blog... : ) Thanks for your comment!
ReplyDeleteNo, thank YOU for your blog and book (which I am ordering). I recently dismissed my doctors suggestion to look into the hcg protocol, simply out of ignorance. I assumed it was the 500 calories that caused the wt loss, along with muscle and a FURTHER ruined metabolism from a starvation response.
ReplyDeleteI've lost a bit already, but it's taken literally years, and I've stalled out at about 125 lbs lost, but with having about that much to GO. I follow a low carb plan, so know the freedom from being physically hungry all the time. But then... there is that emotional eating...
Imagine the curiosity first, then hope, then excitement as I read more and more from your site. So yes, thank YOU.
My pleasure! I was very skeptical too when I first heard of the protocol. But after watching and witnessing the process, there was no doubt something was very different. Most people make the assumption (and rightly so) that the reason people lose weight is because of how little food there is. There is no denying that! But, what determines where that weight is coming from? That is information most doctors, pratitioners, personal trainers, and over 95% of the entire diet industry doesn't know exists. I am VERY excited for you! Whether you do the protocol or not, you will have incredible success by just listening to hunger and using as a guide to know when and how much to eat. Try this for a couple of weeks (do not weigh yourself until then) and let me know how it goes! You'll notice some differences in how you feel immediately, the first few days.
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