Too Fat to Travel: How We Lost 170 Pounds of Weight
Dang, I griped to myself, the airlines sure have shrunk the plane seats. I guess that’s so they can squeeze more people into every plane. I can’t even cross my legs sitting here. Sheesh.
Travel is only fun if you’re healthy. When you’re fat (or overweight, if you prefer to be PC), climbing stairs takes more effort, walking uses more energy, and you avoid mirrors and photo ops. And you sure don’t want to be squeezed into a child-size seat at 30,000 feet for hours on end. Ugh.
But that’s not the worst of it: Dan developed DVT on our trans-Pacific flight to Bali. Deep vein thrombosis is a life-threatening condition. The blood clot in his leg lasted for weeks, I was freaking out, and he didn’t feel like going anywhere. Way to ruin an adventure, right?
Denial is not just a river in Egypt
It’s not as though we didn’t know we were overweight. That much was obvious, duh. I could pretend that the airplanes and clothing companies had resized, but I knew it was me.
Dan was carrying 120 extra pounds around. My size 16 clothes were getting tight and I was at least 50 pounds heavier than I had been in college.
Over the years we had tried “eating right,” Weight Watchers, Atkins, Nutrisystem and more. We had moderate success and made many lifestyle changes, but nothing lasted. We were still too big.
It all began in Panama when I found a doctor who was willing to work with me to solve my weight issue. Fluent in English, he had trained and worked in the United States but had returned to his homeland. He had tired of battling insurance companies and he wanted to get to know his patients and dig into their lifestyles to find what might be causing their issues. Back in the US, he had to move patients along because he needed the revenue to cover his overhead.
Anyway, after the usual medical workup and blood tests, he gave me a series of options to try. One by one I tried them. Long story short: nothing was working and I was getting desperate. I finally decided to stop resisting the medical weight loss protocol he had been recommending.
I had read on the internet that the protocol was dangerous, and I believed it. (If you hear something enough times, does that make it true?)
My favorite excuses were:
I don’t like being hungry.
I like food and I’d be watching Dan enjoy whatever he pleased.
Cooking is Dan’s therapy and muse. He has claimed the kitchen as his domain.
But if I didn’t bite the bullet and do that I would continue to gain weight. I really had little choice.
I’m not sure what made him decide to join me, but minutes into hearing about my program, Dan was using the word we instead of she.
Maybe it was the incredible results we could expect: as much as a pound of weight loss per day, or the fact that it was a long-established medical protocol, or that we only had to be on the most restrictive part of the diet for a month.
Or maybe it was because of that DVT or that he suspected his body might be pre-diabetic.
Whatever the reason, we both decided to go for it.
Our doctor was extremely clear: This is not a diet, it’s a bona fide medical protocol that has been around for over 50 years. It was developed by a British military doctor, Dr. A.T.W. Simeons, he said, so treat it as such and take it seriously.
>> The HCG diet protocol does not allow cheating. At all. <<
At the heart of the program is a natural hormone that is produced during pregnancy called Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG). HCG is what makes it possible for a woman to deliver a healthy baby … even if she has morning sickness the whole time and can barely eat a thing.
The theory is that HCG causes the brain to trigger a release of fat stores.
Although HCG is naturally produced only by pregnant women, it has the same effect on everyone, both men and women. When administered in very minute doses and coupled with a very low calorie diet, people routinely lose between 0.5 to 1 pound per day, often more. His patients who have used it swear that it is the only program where they have been able to keep the weight off afterward.
But is the HCG diet safe?
I am embarrassed to admit that I could have been thin years ago—if I’d done my own research. Instead I blindly believed what I had read—that this is a dangerous way to lose weight because no one can live on 500 calories a day.
That’s not strictly true, our doctor said. We’re not talking about a low calorie diet here, it’s a low intake program. HCG merely helps the body access its fat stores. You get all the extra calories you need from the fat you already have.
HCG works exactly the same as every other diet. You eat fewer than your required calories, and your body makes up the difference by feeding on your excess fat.
Ultimately, we figured out that we could save a bunch of money buying it online. It's easiest to buy it as a kit so you have everything you need. That's what we did.
BUY THE HCG DIET KIT HERE
You may have heard of homeopathic HCG drops, which are taken under the tongue three times a day. That’s how we started – and they work – but it’s hard to find them in the U.S. anymore. (Want to know why? Follow the money.)
Anyway, our doctor found he had better results with regular injections, so we switched to shots. Once daily is easier than remembering to take a medication 3 times a day. We had better results and it was far more convenient. Plus, surprisingly, those diabetic syringes are painless. (Who knew?)
What can you eat on the HCG diet?
In the strictest stage of Dr. Simeons’ protocol (what is known as Phase 2), food options are limited. You are permitted selected meats, 4 fruits and about a dozen vegetables, but no fats or sugars. One grissini or melba toast is allowed per meal – lunch and dinner only. You don’t eat breakfast, but you can have coffee or tea if you wish.
You might think it could be boring but no – Dan appreciated the challenge to get really creative with seasonings and prep methods. Anyway, we could tolerate our limited food choices because it was only temporary.
As for exercise, walking is permitted but not heavy exercise. That’s fine with me, ha-ha.
Fortunately, the HCG diet has recently been updated to incorporate advanced research in low-carb/ketosis dieting, caloric ratios and basic food chemistry. They call it HCG 2.0. We think it is a smarter way to lose – not to mention much easier to do. Coconut oil and stevia are permitted in limited amounts, more vegetables have been incorporated, and your daily calories can be incresed a bit.
You can even exercise, within reason. The fastest and most effective method is high-intensity interval training (HIIT).
How is the HCG diet different from a regular diet?
According to our doctor, there are two big differences between losing weight with HCG vs. other diets:
You lose weight faster, which keeps you motivated to stick with it.
When I heard that, I nearly cheered out loud. Woo-hoo! If I’m not hungry and see results, I can do this!
Why don’t more doctors recommend HCG?
Our doctor left his U.S. medical practice because he said it was too heavily controlled by insurance and Big Pharma. And then he gave me something to think about:
Weight loss is a multi-billion dollar industry. Heavy people rely on medications for weight-related illnesses, while diet pills and shakes are often made by pharmaceutical corporations.
Ask yourself: Who stands to lose if a weight loss program works too well? How far would you go to protect your source of income?
Boosted by the information he gave us, we were convinced it was worth a try. Once our doctor recorded all our baseline measurements (bone density, fat, muscle, etc.) with a machine, we left his office with the booklet outlining the protocol and the homeopathic medication we’d be taking for the next 40 days.
As required, we weighed ourselves daily. Over the next 40 days, I lost an average of 0.4 pounds/day and Dan lost twice that. (Unfair how men always lose so much faster!) But who cares? I was excited: 18.2 pounds lighter in just 40 days!
We did a few more rounds of the protocol while we were in Panama, but to be honest we got lazy and stopped paying attention to our intake. We had read that the protocol resets the body’s “set point” and thought we could eat anything we wanted to without gaining any weight.
Take it from us: It’s hard to lose weight when you’re traveling all over the globe. (You have to try the local foods, right?) By March 2014, I was back where I started and Dan was at least 30 pounds heavier as well. We agreed that it was time to get serious about keeping the weight off.
As I researched the protocol further, I discovered something important. Dr. Simeons was incorrect: It is actually possible to stay on the protocol for more than 40 days without developing a resistance to HCG. (I guess it stands to reason: Pregnant women have HCG in their bodies the whole time, don’t they?) We also learned how to correctly monitor our weights afterward so the fat doesn’t return in apocalyptic proportions.
When we returned to the U.S. after being overseas for three years (read about how we were kicked out of Ecuador here), we decided to stay put for a while and work to get down to our ideal weights.
We devoted ourselves to staying on the protocol for as long as it takes. And that’s how we’ve finally reached our weight loss goals.
The following year saw us do three rounds of HCG and we were thrilled with the results. Between us, we lost close to 170 pounds and haven’t regained it since. At 120 pounds lighter, Dan jokes that he almost lost his wife!
The hidden benefit no one talks about
Remember that I mentioned daily weigh-ins? The goal is to stay within two pounds of your last dose weight every day for the rest of your life. (There are ways to correct it, but that’s beyond this article.) As you enter the final, maintenance phase of the diet, you will reintroduce one food every day or two and monitor how your body responds on the scale the following day.
Through reintroducing foods one by one, I have learned which foods my body can handle and which ones it doesn’t like. When I eat wheat, for instance, my belly will quickly pooch from bloat and the numbers on the scale will rise by at least two pounds for a couple of days.
I had an aha moment when I realized that. Now, I can make informed, conscious choices: Do I really want that bread/pastry, or not? Sadly, it looks like I have similar reactions to rice and oats, so gluten-free may not be enough. But at least I know.
Side effects from our HCG diet
Whoever said that rapid weight loss can be dangerous needs to back that up wth facts. People have been doing this protocol for over 7 decades and no one has died from following the program correctly.
Seriously: it’s more dangerous to remain fat.
When we began this journey, we got winded and broke a sweat just walking a mile. Now, we easily cover 4 miles in an hour. I am far happier—and healthier—than I was in the 170’s. And I’m not done yet; I’ve set a new goal. As for Dan, friends tell him he looks like he did in high school … and he has no more DVT or sugar shakes to worry about.
That was expected, but other side effects surprised us:
Going without sugar has retrained our taste buds. Things that once tasted yummy now taste way too sweet.
Drinking water has become a habit.
We’ve learned that coffee without cream doesn’t taste too bad.
We became aware that boredom and stress are triggers. We no longer head straight to the refrigerator to deal with them.
Now, how good does that feel?
Our friends have noticed.
Friends often ask about our weight loss. We can tell who is ready to shed some pounds by how they react to our answer. We get the gamut, everything from “I can’t live without bread for a day” to “I want to do that!”
What about you – do you need to have your bread or are you ready to do this? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Resources for losing weight with HCG
If you're considering the HCG diet, here's what you need to do:
STEP 1: Start by reading the original medical paper that Dr. Simeons wrote: Pounds and Inches: A New Approach to Obesity.
STEP 2: Decide if you want to do it yourself or get help. Either way, you can buy real HCG only by prescription.
Find a doctor. Many physicians offer the HCG diet protocol, but if your doctor doesn't feel comfortable with it, you can easily find clinics and doctors who do. Just be aware that some of them charge outrageous prices for dedicated HCG programs.
Do it yourself. If you want to do the HCG diet on your own and have done your research, go for it! Like us, you can get support and buy everything you need online.
Facebook. Join an HCG Facebook group or two. Members share tips, recipes, ideas, victories and advice. Ask questions. (Of course you can ask us questions too, silly!)
Podcasts. we learned a lot from Colin F. Watson's HCG Body for Life podcast (we listened on iTunes). Maybe start with this recording: HCG Body for Life Phase 1 & 2. (We listened to all of them, mostly while driving.)
