Whatever Dr. Oz.....

 My wonderful father is one of the most health conscious men you'll ever meet. He knows all about every new health craze and concern as it comes up. He takes his vitamins every day, eats his vegetables - and he worries about me, because he loves me. I'm lucky.

Today he sent me this link

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/weight-loss-controversy-hcg-diet-pt-1
 This is what I wrote to him after watching as much as I could take of Dr. Oz:

*My* experience with it, and understanding of it is different than the guys that want to scare everyone.
Yes, absolutely, a 500 calorie a day diet without this kind of supplementation would send your body into starvation mode and you would experience organs shutting down. This isn't just 500 calories a day though - it's also your fat stores, and your body *doesn't* go into starvation mode and start hoarding calories as it would if the hcG weren't releasing that fat to be available to your body to burn.

Their professional witness says the drops have no active ingredient in them, I simply can't agree. 
Throughout my life I have struggled with blood sugar - having to eat at very regular intervals, and had to be really careful what I ate, balancing protein and carbs really carefully. During the diet I didn't have blood sugar dives like I was accustomed to. My boyfriend even noticed this and commented how nice it was that my energy levels seemed to be better than usual.

I will say that I was really careful to eat a lot of dark green leafy vegetables and ALWAYS organic. I've heard that organic food has 100s of times more nutritional value than non-organic and I suspect the people that have the headaches and faintness weren't eating organic, and may have been eating just lettuce, not raw kale as I was. They also might not have had very good eating habits before they started the diet - if you had an addiction to fast food and then went on this diet I bet it would be really hard.

Dr. Oz is so....reactive.... that I couldn't listen to the whole thing, so I don't know what long-term concerns he has.
As they said, the doctor that came up with this did so in the 1960s, so I doubt it would still be a going concern if it were killing people.

What I loved about hcG is that I was able to get to my target weight in under a year - my feet and knees feel better, my skin still fits me - but I don't know that this would be ideal for everyone.
The first round I did with it was harder than the second one. The first time I did it I had a few dreams about eating cookies. I don't anymore. It's kind of like when I was vegetarian - it feels like a choice now, not a deprivation. I no longer think "I can't have that." I think "I don't eat that."
In addition I think I'm over my sugar and wheat addiction at last, and that is really nice. I'm going to do my best to stay away from them even after my three weeks of "phase 3."

A very good friend of mine lost about the same amount of weight as I did, but she did it with Weight Watchers and running - and it took her a year, one long slog.  I tried Weight Watchers a couple times - it's hard and didn't really work for me! This wasn't always easy, but it did work (in 4 months,) and I feel good. Being lighter feels wonderful. Exercising is easier, walking up my 4 flights of stairs to our apartment is easier...the list goes on.