The least surprising news article of the year

So, the FDA and FTC have awakened from their slumber and sent warning letters (ooh, scary!) to the manufacturers of the HCG hormone, which is used in the popular HCG diet.

You know the one...where you either inject or ingest the same hormone produced by the placenta during pregnancy (human chorionic gonadotropin) and consume 500 calories a day for some amazing weight loss.

You think? It's called starvation. Look it up!

How do people come up with this crap? According to the Fooducate blog, it came from a study by a scientist in India about 50 years ago.

"Around 50 years ago Albert Simeons, a British scientist, in India studied the pregnancy of poor women in India who were living on very low calorie diets. Despite this, they were able to reach term and have their baby. Simeons, an endocrinologist, concluded that the HCG hormone was instructing the body to burn FAT from the mother’s body in order to save the baby.

Since then, the HCG method has been used in various settings and tested in various studies. The conclusion – no evidence that the HCG diet actually works. Obviously, consuming 500 calories a day causes weight loss at first. But it may cause severe health problems due to a prolonged period of malnutrition."

And do you think people are able to keep that weight off once they stop injecting pregnancy hormones and eat a regular diet? No. No, they are not. People on the HCG diet are also at a greater risk for gallstones, irregular heartbeat, clots in the lungs, depression, cardiac arrest, and death.

How about we quit looking for a quick fix and instead cook a vegetable and go for a walk. You'll feel better mentally and physically, AND you get the added benefit of not keeling over prematurely.

Such a deal!

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Workout of the Day

P90X Core Synergistics

After three years of doing this workout, today I was FINALLY able to stay up on my toes during the Plank to Chaturanga Iso move in the bonus round. It's the one where you hold in a plank for 1 minute total, and every 10 seconds you switch from regular plank (with arms straight) down to chaturanga (arms bent, close at your sides). I'm still making progress, even after all this time! That's why I love this program.