In 1954 a British doctor, A.T.W. Simeons, published a report on the use of this hormone in weight loss. The diet did not catch on very quickly. Over the years interest in this hormone-augmented weight loss method has peaked and ebbed. Recently, there has been renewed interest in this diet.

In the modern version of the hCG diet, a person is given injections of this hormone and is put on a diet restricted to 500 calories a day. It is thought that a person can lose 1 to 2 pounds a day on this regime. If you were to skip the injections and just limit yourself to the 500 calorie diet you would undoubtedly lose weight.

The hCG diet is just an old fad diet where they try to sell you an expensive and possibly dangerous hormone treatment. hCG is not approved by the FDA for use in weight loss. You will need to get a doctor's prescription to purchase this drug. The hCG supposedly resets the hypothalamus to allow the body to lose weight.

There is much interest in this diet recently because of Kevin Trudeau's book "Weight Loss Cures They Don't Want You to Know About." This is an old diet that has not been proven to work scientifically. That is why it is not approved by the FDA. If you are looking for a diet, find something that is safe and effective.

To lose weight you will have to limit your intake of calories. This means all calories, even those from soda and other drinks. For best results with any diet you will also need to increase your activity. This means exercise. You should be sure to get adequate protein, so your body does not consume muscles for protein when you lose weight. You do not need injections of pregnant woman urine extract to lose weight. Anyone who tells you that you need some magic formula to lose weight is after your money.

3 Day diet

On this diet, you can expect to lose up to 10lbs in those 3 days. It mixes different types of food to boost your metabolism, while remaining very low in calories. It is meant to be done for 3 days but you can repeat it after 4 or 5 days off and you must follow the diet to the letter. No substituting or leaving anything out.

Day 1

• Breakfast: Coffee without sugar, one half grapefruit, and a slice of toast with 1 Tbsp of peanut butter.
• Lunch: On can of tuna, a slice of toast, and coffee no sugar.
• Dinner: 3 ounces of chicken or lean meat, a cup of green beans, a cup of carrots, an apple, and one cup of regular vanilla ice cream (not low-fat!)

Day 2

• Breakfast: Black coffee or tea (Sweet & Low or Equal) or water, one egg (any style), one slice toast, and one banana
• Lunch: 1 cup cottage cheese or tuna, 5 saltine crackers, Black coffee or tea (Sweet & Low or Equal) or water
• Dinner: 2 beef franks or hot dogs, 1/2 cup carrots, 1 banana, 1 cup broccoli or cabbage, 1/2 cup vanilla ice cream, and Black coffee or tea (Sweet & Low or Equal) or water

Day 3

• Breakfast: Black coffee or tea (Sweet & Low or Equal) or water, 5 regular saltine crackers, 1 oz.(slice) cheddar, cheese, and 1 apple
• Lunch: 1 hard boiled egg, 1 slice toast, Black coffee or tea (Sweet & Low or Equal) or water
• Dinner: 1 cup tuna, 1 cup carrots, 1 cup cauliflower, 1 cup melon, 1/2 cup regular vanilla ice cream, and Black coffee or tea (Sweet & Low or Equal) or water

This diet is certainly restrictive and low in calories and carbs, hence the weight loss.

The next diet is the Seven Day Diet. This diet is based on eating as much as you of a specific food group depending on the day. Again, this is basically a very low calorie diet. A lot of people are attracted to it due to the fact that you are allowed to eat as much as you want of a specific food group. You are expected to lose up to 14lbs after the diet. Most likely from water weight.

The Seven Day Diet is a fad that continues to circulate despite being very unbalanced. This diet is a simple 7 day plan that emphasizes a different food group each day. The origin of this diet is unknown.

• Monday: Eat as much fruit as you want, except bananas.
• Tuesday: Eat as much vegetables as you want.
• Wednesday: Eat both fruit and vegetables, no bananas
• Thursday: Eat 8 bananas and drink 4 glasses of whole milk.
• Friday: Eat 4 - 3ounces each steaks of meat with all the green veggies you want.
• Saturday: Eat 4 - 3ounces each steaks of meat with all the green veggies you want.
• Sunday: Eat 4 - 3ounces each steaks of meat with all the green veggies you want.

There it is. Those are the most popular fad diets out there. Other ones, may include the cabbage soup diet, the chicken soup diet, scarsdale diet etc... I could go on.

Some relatives were at our house a few weeks ago. We had invited The Italian’s mother and step dad, a cousin and her husband and daughter for an outdoor BBQ. We started with some olives, chips, cheese, salami, Crodino, spumante and wonderful bruschetta. Bruschetta is one of my favorite foods and is best, in my opinion, when you toast the bread on a grill. We rub fresh garlic over the hot toasted bread, drizzle our olive oil (from our olive trees!) over it, sprinkle on some salt and then, if desired, chopped tomatoes with some fresh chopped basil mixed in….mmmmm. Heaven.

I think I could live on just red wine and bruschetta for weeks. I should start a new wine and bruschetta fad diet on the internet. I wonder what results people would have. I am not a big drinker, or dieter for that matter (except for a random 'baby food' diet my friend Sarah and I went on when we were about 10 just because we thought it would be fun to eat baby food. I think we lasted around 12 hours...until the Solid Gold dancers came on TV and we got hungry for real food after dancing up a storm on the couch), but it would be worth a try….red wine, olive oil, tomatoes, garlic and bread are all good for you, right?

After the bruschetta we started in on the meat. Since I have been with The Italian I have never had the in-laws over without his mother bringing something to eat. I try to explain that I’ve got the meal under control, but they always arrive with arms full of bags. Once it was a huge watermelon and veggies, at Christmas it was fish, clams and a live eel (yup!). This time she said she would bring the meat . We had steaks, sausages and pork coming out of our ears. There are always leftovers for 2-3 days after they come over. The steaks aren’t usually thick like Iowa steaks or Italian Fiorentine steaks, but pretty darn tasty on the grill. Our Cocker Spaniel, Lily, was glued to the side of my patio chair making cute, sad eyes at me for a handout. I can never resist her and she ended up with an entire bruschetta and good portion of a steak.

We had some peas with bits of pancetta (ham), onion and oil mixed in as a side dish...

and then it was time for the salad which always comes at the end of the meal here. Cleans the pipes, I guess. I had prepared it in the usual way (no Ranch dressing here…sniff). Olive oil, salt and vinegar. I often add a bit of chopped onion for extra flavor when I don’t have to talk to anyone for the next 24 hours or when I have already ruined the fresh breath factor with garlicky bruschetta. I had not put in too much vinegar in this time because some people don’t like much, so I brought out a bottle in case anyone wanted to add extra.

Now, I use vinegar pretty sparingly so I think I have had the same bottle for at least a couple of years (don’t worry, the expiration date is in 2009, I checked). As I put it on the table I embarrassingly noticed a foreign substance floating around at the base of the bottle. It looked kind of like a brown jellyfish. I was sure the vinegar had gone bad! Before I was able to take it away, my mother-in-law pointed at the mass and said, “Guarda!”  Great, I thought. Too late, she’d seen it. 

Her cousin also noted the mass and they grabbed the bottle for a closer look. I said, “Scusa, che schifo. Vado a buttare.” (Sorry, that’s gross. I’ll go and throw it out).

“No!”  they both exclaimed. They went on to explain that the weird gunk inside my vinegar bottle was a very good thing and very difficult to create. You need to store the bottle at a certain temperature with a certain amount of light, etc., to achieve it and using that ‘stuff’ I could actually create more vinegar. Who knew?! Without even trying I had accomplished something that many only wish they could do. I’m sure now that I’ve got Italian cooking instincts in my Danish-Norwegian genes somewhere. ;)

We then had our Vienetta ice cream, coffee, and limoncello.

After the meal and a bit of rest and talking, my mother-in-law, her cousin and I took a walk in our large yard and once again I heard, "Guarda!". They had spotted bunches of cicoria growing everywhere (a vegetable that I guess grows in the wild). I been stomping on it with the dogs for weeks thinking it was just a weed. We spent the next hour gathering great bagfuls for them to take home.

Sheesh. At the rate I'm learning this stuff, soon I may never have to go to the grocery store again.

So what's all the craziness about dieting? Do you diet? Do you know someone who is on a diet? Someone who was on a diet?

I'll bet you do. I'm willing to bet everyone knows at least one if not more than a handful of people who have or had been dieting.

You would think with all the hype about diets and dieting that we would NOT have an obese nation? But it's exactly the opposite. An astounding greater than 60% of the male and female population of America are obese.

So why the conundrum? We have so many options and so many opportunities for weight loss out there.. yet we seem to remain overweight.

I did a quick Google search yesterday when I was thinking about this post.  I less than 2 minutes I was able to find 11 or more different diet plans. And that was without digging deeper.

Everything from Nurtisystem, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, to the lesser known Mediterranean & Water Diet programs. As I was looking into diets... I also noticed the plethora of spokespersons for each diet program. Everyone from Beyonce, Queen Latifah, to Valerie Bertinelli.

So where is one to turn? Which program do you choose? Which program is successful?

So the answer is all of the work and all of them don't work.

Yep, they all work for someone. Yep, they all didn't work for someone. 

The problem is no two people are made the same. Your metabolism, your eating habits, your basal metabolic rate are not the same as the spokespersons', or the same as your best friends, or that great looking model you saw on the internet.

But that's only part of the equation.

The bottom line. Diets don't work.

If you want to lose weight, simply buying different food, and following someone's reccomendations on what to eat, when to eat it, and how much to eat of it then by all means give it a go. But all your going to do is find out the same thing everyone else has and still has to continually discover on your own. Diets, while will initially give you some results, you will bounce back to your pre-diet weight in no time. Ergo the emergence of the "Yo-Yo Diet" Phenomena. 

Anyone that has a success story will give you a clue as to what works. It's called a lifestyle change. In order to change your weight, you are going to have to change the habit's that created the weight in the first place. I'll say that again just for posterity. You have to change the HABIT that created the weight in the first place in order to remove the weight you desire.

Here's the irony of it all. The etymology of the word diet is crudely defined as 'a manner of living', or 'to lead one's life'. So even the origin of the word knew that you have to change your life, and not just tweaking what, when, and how much food goes into your mouth.

So simply enrolling into a new and improved eating plan will not give the long term weight loss results you want if you don't change the lifestyle surrounding the food preparation!

My personal vice was always snacking. Boy did I love to snack. Snack while I'm in front of the TV. Snack while I'm working on the computer, etc. And I wouldn't just have a small snack. NO. I had to eat a whole bag of greasy chips, or cookies. Or I would have a whole pint of ice cream. The list goes on.

It took a lot of discipline, and a lot of self discovery, but I now only snack on little things. In fact, my snacking has become almost non-existent.

With that being said, there is the other part of why dieting does not work.

You are human. You will slip up. You will have a moment of weakness. Heck you may have several moments of weakness. The idea being you keep at it, no matter how many times you break the rules. When you on a diet, everyone talks about 'cheating' on there diet. Quit worrying about cheating on your diet, and be human. Give yourself that leniency, in the long run it will be worth it.

Of course there are tons of aspects of dieting I have not even touched on. Everything from dieting with a friend, or making your diet public. To the time and money you spend on simply adjusting your spending habits.

The take home message is this. Dieting ALONE does not, will not and cannot work. If anything, it's a temporary fix. Make LIFESTYLE changes to take better care of yourself and you'll see results that are long term.

Here are some truths and pearls of wisdom when referring to dieting, weight loss or fat reduction:

1. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SPOT REDUCTION- you will not and cannot lose weight just in a particular area of your body!
2. MULTIPLY THE TIME IT TOOK FOR YOU TO GAIN THE WEIGHT BY 3 OR 4, AND THAT IS HOW LONG IT WILL TAKE TO LOSE IT - sorry it's true, anything else is just a temporary loss and you will gain it back
3. THEY DON'T CALL THEM FAD DIETS FOR NOTHING
4. YO-YO DIETS ARE MORE POPULAR THAN EVER BEFORE
5. WEIGHT LOSS IS A SIMPLE MATH EQUATION: GET RID OF AND BURN OFF MORE THAN YOU TAKE IN
6. YOU WILL NOT LOSE WEIGHT IF YOU CAN'T ACCOMPLISH #5, NO MATTER HOW MANY PILLS YOU TAKE
7. WE ARE A CONVENIENCE SOCIETY - we love to be lazy. When was the last time you purposefully parked farther away when shopping?
8. DISCIPLINE AND PATIENCE ARE EQUAL PARTNERS IN THIS GAME OF LOSING WEIGHT
9. THINK ABOUT THE FOOD YOU ARE PUTTING INTO YOUR SYSTEM - are you living to eat, or eating to live?
10. NO MATTER WHAT RESULTS YOU GET DO NOT POINT FINGERS - the only person responsible for your weight is you.

Carpe Diem

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He will still be confined to the bed, but will be  hauled onto a tow truck for a trip to his home countryside in northern mexico. Uribe gained the weight through a combination of pizza, greasy food, tacos, and other junkfood while working as a computer repairman in the 1990s. He claimed he considereed suicide two years ago when his wife left him.

A turning point came for Uribe after undergoing a tummy-tuck operation that was unsuccessful and resulted in excessive swelling for him. After this he plead on Mexican television for help after he lost his income, and his wife had left him. He has lost weight following the Zone Diet which is high in protein and low in carbs. Uribe also admitted his excessive obesity had caused him to be impotent, however he claims everything is back to normal again.

Uribe has said he would like to be down to 285 by 2010 which would give him the record as losing a total of 950 lbs.

I could possibly eat a lot of vitamins and nothing else.  Is that healthy?  Would that work?  Vitamins and coffee.  Maybe some sugar free sugar.  I'd be running off the walls. 

The Biggest Loser contest starts at work next Wednesday, runs three months and there are cash prizes.  I like cash.  Kind of a lot.  It's going to be run similar to the show, with percentage of weight loss being key, not actual pounds, which is kind of good.  Hopefully my team will commit to it, and we can fly to victory!

Oh, glorious victory.

I'll tell you a secret...you're not alone. Secret #2-like the rest of us, you most likely have no personal trainer. Below are some tips for Average Jane to get a good start on an exercise program. Specific workouts and diets of celebrities will follow in days to come for those, like me, who are still obsessed despite the good intentions of the five steps below.

Step #1-Focus on your health, NOT on looks, to get lookin' good!

Step #2-Keep things interesting so you don't get bored. For example, dance classes, running with a friend, weight training, boxing with your boyfriend, hiking, biking, or playing a sport you enjoy are all considered exercise. Mix it up, add some friends, and have fun!

Step #3-Intensity, Intensity, Intensity. A good judge of the correct intensity is that although you can have a conversation, you would really rather not.

Step #4-When you are tired, don't quit or skip a day. Simply make your workout slightly easier that day, a compromise you will be able to win.

Step #5-Don't expect results overnight. Any exercise or weight loss program should only be attempted by consulting your doctor. After all, this is a lifestyle change. "Fad" diets and programs don't make you look fabulous. They simply make you hungry, tired, and feel more worthless.

Remember, when it comes to celebs, of course they look great. They have a personal trainer, and keeping in shape for most of them is a part of their job description. They don't have to stop by McDonald's for a quick breakfast because their kids refused to get up and ready for school. They also don't have to get home after a long day at work and choose between staying up, cooking, and cleaning, or ordering pizza and having it done with.

Finally, please note that any change of diet or exercise is a life-changing experience and should only be began with the help of a doctor.