“Is this protocol illegal?”
No! My understanding is that the FDA does not support the use of hcg for weight loss but that any MD, DO, etc. who wishes to write a prescription for the hcg is perfectly entitled to do so. A doctor may not be allowed to write the prescription according to the contract of a “group” that he belongs to or he may simply not desire to write the prescription due to the FDA’s recommendation BUT he is legally able to write the prescription.
“Do you have to order the prescription from another country or something?”
Although I am told that this is possible, I have not even checked into it because most compounding pharmacies have the hcg available.
“Doesn’t Kevin Trudeau have kind of a checkered past? Can you really trust the information in that book?”
Mr. Trudeau’s past is of little to no concern to me. I learned a long time ago not to judge a person by his past! I suppose this is the point however: Kevin Trudeau had nothing to do with developing this protocol!!! He merely wrote an expanded book review, in my opinion, of a protocol that was developed over 50 years ago by a very respected medical doctor in Italy. This doctor developed this “cure” for obesity (his words, not mine) based upon his many years of clinical experience and expertise and it is still being used in Europe to this day. I have a copy of this doctor’s original book on the protocol and am able to report to you that Mr. Trudeau’s account of it is fair and accurate.
“How much is this going to cost?”
This is a little more challenging of a question to answer than it first appears. It depends upon how much weight you have to lose really but I know people want an estimate at least so here goes. Assuming that your particular situation requires only one time of going through phase 2 (which is a fairly accurate assumption if you have less than 40 or 50 lbs. to lose), then your cost of doing this protocol through our clinic is $750 (this includes all the supplements that you need for phase one!) plus the cost of obtaining the prescription approximately one month after starting the protocol. Again, this DOES include supplements. I, personally, was very impressed when I added up all the costs and saw that number as the last time that I checked that figure places it lower than two of the top three weight loss programs right now.
“Isn’t it really expensive to eat organic?”
Based upon price comparisons that my wife has done (by the way, you can find price comparisons of organic food between different stores and online sources on the “grocery stores and shops” page), once you get the “staples” replaced (ie, spices, flour, etc.) and are just buying the regular weekly items, the cost for eating totally organic is about 15% higher than the Standard American Diet. Notice that that stands for SAD by the way!
“How quickly do you lose weight?”
Typically, on phase two, you will lose approximately one pound a day.
“Isn’t unhealthy to lose weight that fast?”
Typically, it is very unhealthy to lose weight that fast! The hcg is what makes the difference in this protocol. And what a massive difference it makes! The weight that you lose is completely excess fat! It is not muscle nor is it the structural fat that you body needs that usually gets depleted during “dieting.” This is actually the healthiest weight loss protocol that I’ve ever experienced and I can’t even keep track of the comments on how “healthy” I look and that I don’t have the gaunt, tired look of someone that’s lost that much weight.
“Isn’t eating that few of calories really bad for you?”
Typically, YES it is VERY bad for you because it puts your body into a “starvation” mode which really messes up your metabolism! And please realize that it is ONLY during phase 2 that you are consuming this few of calories! Once again, the difference is the hcg! You see, what happens is that the hcg causes your hypothalamus to mobilize the fat out of the fat storage locations so that it’s available for use. So, you are still using the 3000 calories that most people use during the course of a day without exercising if they have an average activity level BUT only 500 calories are coming from their food. That means that 2500 calories are coming from that previously stored fat which is how you are losing about a pound a day and doing it healthily!
“Isn’t skipping breakfast bad for you?”
YES! Except for when you are on phase two and doing the hcg injections! It goes back to the previous answer.
“If I skip breakfast, I get really light headed and stuff. How am I supposed to do phase 2 and still function?!”
My wife was really bad about that! If she skipped breakfast, by about 9:30 or 10 am you could just hang it up! She was done! She got light headed, couldn’t think straight, was “foggy” and had NO energy EXCEPT for while she was on phase 2!! She had a couple days of it that she experienced an energy drop mid morning but then it quit and the rest of the 35 or so days she had great energy and clarity of mind the whole day! It was truly amazing to her.
“Aren’t you hungry since you are eating so few calories?”
That was one of the many amazing things to me as I was going through this process because the short answer to that question is NO! You may experience some slight hunger the first couple of days of the phase two, 500 cal. period but then all hunger just vanishes and some people don’t experience any hunger at all! As a matter of fact, one of my patients commented to me one day, “Doc, the funniest thing happened to me yesterday. You know that pitiful little amount of food that I’ve been eating? Well, at dinner last night, I almost couldn’t get all of my apple down! I felt like I was stuffing myself in order to get it down! It was the strangest thing!” Dr. Simeon actually stated in his original book that many patients were unable to eat all of the food on the 500 cal. days because they were just too full.
“Won’t you gain the weight right back like with all of the other ‘programs’ out there?”
No! With one exception! If you go back to eating all non-organic, “chemically enhanced” food all the time, then eventually all of those chemicals will have the same effect on your hypothalamus that they had the first time and you’ll end up storing fat improperly again. If that happens, you will begin to gain some of the weight back but even then it will be several years. You see, the primary thing that the hcg does, in my opinion, is that it resets the hypothalamus and the result of that is weight loss. In my opinion, there’s no reason to go back to non-organic though! They have so many options these days that you can have really good food (ie, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, pizza, ice cream, etc.) that is totally organic and tastes great! Now, obviously, if you travel much (like I do) then it would be impossible for you to eat totally organic all the time so in situations like that just come to the realization that you will need to do a couple of really good cleansed throughout the year and you’ll be just fine.
“So, what’s the hypothalamus gland and what’s the big deal about it?”
The hypothalamus gland is the “master” gland. It controls the thyroid, the adrenals, etc. It also controls how much fat you store, where you store the fat and the speed of your metabolism! In my opinion, part of the problem is that your body only recognizes nutrients as food. Your body doesn’t read boxes and labels so all of the junk that is out there that people are calling “food” means nothing to your body. When you ingest something, it recognizes the nutrients as food and all of the chemically modified stuff and trash or filler. So, follow along with me on this, you sit down and eat 1000 calories of a processed meal or a meal at a chain restaurant or something. Out of that thousand calories (of which most are chemically modified in some manner), your body may only recognize 250 calories or so as actual nutrients so your hypothalamus gland goes into starvation mode because you’re not getting enough calories and starts storing everything it can find for when you actually reach the point of starvation. And here’s the kicker, it will start making you hungrier so that you’ll eat more in order not to starve and all the time you’re just gaining more and more weight!
“How’s your immune system after losing that much weight that quickly? Are you sickly?”
Quite the contrary, not only will you get comments about how vibrant you look but, if you’re like all of my patients as well as others that I’ve talked to, you will feel healthier than you may ever have in your life!
“Do you recommend anybody that I can go to in order to have all of the loose skin removed after I lose all this fat?”
No! Do you want to know why? Because this is the ONLY weight loss protocol that I’ve heard about, researched or experienced that the SKIN RETRACTS WITH THE FAT!!! That’s right! I’ve lost over 75 lbs. now and counting and I do not have one skin fold anywhere! That is one of the three things that this protocol does that I’ve never heard of anything else doing. You want to know what the other two are, don’t you?
“What makes this protocol different from everything else that’s out there?”
There are three things that this protocol does that I don’t know of any other protocol anywhere that does these things! 1) It resets the hypothalamus gland so that you don’t gain the weight back after you’re done with the protocol; 2) It targets the reserve “trouble” spots of fat (for example, my wife used to help instruct aerobics and would do aerobics for 6-8 hours a day. She was in awesome shape but still had those little areas on her hips and thighs that women complain about all the time. The first week on this she lost 2 inches on her hips and she’s lost over 4 now!); 3) The skin retracts as you lose the fat so that there are NO SKIN FOLDS even after losing very large amounts of fat!
“Do you have to walk an hour a day? Who has the time for that?!”
No, you do not HAVE to walk an hour a day in order to lose the weight. It is recommended that you do just for general health reasons but I purposefully did not walk while doing the protocol specifically because I knew you were going to ask that question! The reason that you don’t is because the average person burns about 3000 calories a day just in normal activity and you are only eating 500 calories a day in food so you can see how you lose the weight!
“Who does the injections? Do I have to see a doctor every day?!”
In Dr. Simeon’s original clinic, you would have had to see the doctor everyday! No, when the doctor sees you for an exam and to write the prescription he will show you how to do the injection (and a spouse if that is desired) and then you will simply do them yourself. They are extremely simple to do and it is a very thin needle so there is hardly any discomfort at all!
“Do you really lose a pound a day?”
With very few exceptions, YES you really lose about a pound a day. Sometimes it is slightly less but it’s pretty close the majority of the time.
“Do I have to do phase 1?”
Yes, you do. Phase one, particularly in this country with all of it’s “chemically altered” food, is necessary to get your body ready and in condition to more easily release the fat when you start phase two. You will usually lose a fair amount of fat in the process as well.
“Do I have to do the colonics?”
Colonics are a good thing to do for health but a lot of people do not really care for the idea of doing them so the answer to your question is no, you do not HAVE to do them. If you will do a couple of good colon cleanses and commit to doing as many of the other recommendations as possible, we do not require colonics.
“Can you live without a microwave?!”
Yes, believe it or not people have lived on this planet many times longer without a microwave than they have with microwaves! Ok, take a deep breath, relax, breathe! Better now? Let me tell you, if we could switch from not using a microwave ANYBODY CAN!! I use to call my wife the microwave princess! It takes a little more thought (for example, remembering to get things out to thaw!) but it is well worth it health-wise.
“My schedule is busy. How can I do this without eating out?”
A lot of this comes down to priorities. We understand busy! Lynn and I are both doctors, we have a successful office, I travel extensively, we have two kids with which we juggle babysitters, school, football practice and games, etc. BUT we made a quality decision that we were going to do this! So, there are times that we sacrifice 1/2 hour of sleep to stay up and work together in the kitchen fixing the next days meals (or if things get really busy, a couple of days of meals!) or even if we don’t feel like it, we take the time and effort to drive a few extra miles so that we can get the organic things that we need instead of going across the street to the grocery store there. And we do make the “sacrifice” of going hunting together in the fall as often as we possibly can in order to stock the freezer with organic meat!! The point is that it really wasn’t that hard to find the time and ability to do this once we made the decision that that’s just the way it’s going to be!
“Do you have recipes or a cookbook or something for this organic stuff?”
No, you simply use your existing, favorite recipes only use organic products instead of what you have been using! An added bonus is that in almost all cases the final product will be even tastier than it was before!!
“Since you’re injecting estrogen, what effects might this have on your reproduction capabilities?”
HCG is not an estrogen. It is a polypeptide more closely related to luteinizing hormone than estrogen. Estrogen is a steroid, and a synthetic form of estrogen is in birth control pills which people consume on a very regular basis and don’t even give it a second thought. Injecting hcg is actually used in couples who are having fertility problems, so affecting your ability to have children in the future should absolutely not be an issue. This opinion is based not only on common sense but also on medical opinion from medical doctors that I have consulted.
The following is a comment that one of our patients received from a friend that I wanted to address: “You are so young and fit, that I HATE to see you turn to a drug to assist in weightloss, when you really don’t have that much to lose anyway. Just good ol’ heathy eating and exercise would do the trick. From what I understand, the Protocol was for people who need to lose quite a bit more than you do!”
Number one. In Dr. Simeons’ manuscript, he actually worked with young ladies that were anorexic by just modifying the protocol slightly. The ladies came to him basically skin and bones but still with the pockets of “abnormal fat” on the outer thighs and stomachs. Dr. Simeons truly believed that very few women deserved the label anorexia nervosa, because they were seeing real signs of obesity although they were starving their bodies trying to rid themselves of these “pockets” of fat. He put them on the protocol with slightly higher calorie consumption and the protocol actually redistributed the pockets of abnormal fat to the rest of their body and some of them actually left the program weighing a few pounds MORE than they started, but extremely happy with their weight and body.
Number two. Hcg is not a “drug,” it is a hormone and it is not even a synthetic hormone at that!
Number three. “Good ol’ healthy eating and exercise” is the answer that the standard medical approach and the food and drug industry would have you believe, but if you ask any of the millions of people who have tried to achieve optimal weight (let alone shape) by following those instructions, the majority of the time it simply doesn’t work that way.
Well, if you didn’t see the question that is burning in your mind that you need the answer to, please e-mail me at doc@docweeter.com and we’ll get your answer back to you as quickly as we can!
