Feb 7, 2010 8:19 pm US/Central
Can You Really Lose 40 Pounds In 40 Days?
DALLAS (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
Chances are you've seen the ads and billboards. A new weight loss center popping up all over North Texas is claiming a simple injection can help you shed up to 40 pounds in 40 days.
The injection tricks a woman's body into believing it's pregnant. And it even works on men. So what's in the shot that has critics taking shots at the claims?
"I saw somebody go through this program, and it was amazing." Teacher Lisa Escalante of Flower Mound says she's dropped four sizes, back to the weight she was on her wedding day. "I lost 36.5 pounds in 40 days"
Becoming a single parent inspired her "Thinking about my girls and the health risk of carrying that extra weight around really made me want to do something." So what did she do?
She says the answer came from a woman on a billboard, Donna Beyer. Beyer is a registered nurse who says she brought the diet secret in a vial to North Texas. "I was 206 pounds and I was 50-years-old."
Two years ago, suffering from heart problems and obesity, Beyer traveled to Argentina to learn more about
a weight loss method that dates back to the 1950s. "I wanted training actually at that point because I knew it worked, what I learned there was people were not only losing it but keeping it off."
The hype is all about a specific very low-calorie diet combined with injections of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin or HCG. It's a hormone naturally elevated in a woman's body when she is pregnant and is known to speed up metabolism.
"When they experience that rebalancing desire is different, so hunger is not uncontrollable" says Beyer.
Beyer says during pregnancy HCG increases your energy when the baby takes it, and decreases your appetite when the baby takes your food.
Beyer brought her newfound discovery back to the United States. She's opened more than dozen
B-Ki Weight Loss Centers from Frisco to Waco, but the use of HCG in weight loss has not arrived in North Texas without critics
"There have been a number of studies that the FDA has concluded there is no evidence of HCG in weight loss or fat distribution" says UT Southwestern Endocrinologist Richard Auchus.
Publications disputing the effect of HCG in weight loss date back as far as 1976. Studies like one in the
Journal of American Medical Association report no 'significant difference between dieters who received HCG and those who did not.'
Dr. Auchus says HCG programs only work because of the low-calorie diet. "If you want to lose weight seek medically supervised programs. Forget the HCG, save your money."
But Doctor Lisa Kirk, a family practitioner, says the protocol would not work without the HCG. Kirk is part owner of the B-Ki centers. "Yes you would lose weight if we brought the calories down, but it would be totally unhealhty and you would feel terrible in process… don't try it without HCG"
For now, B-Ki appears to be growing, and people like Lisa Escalante are shrinking. They say, because of the ingredient in the bottle. "It's a life changer for me… I would recommend it to anyone."
The FDA has approved HCG for fertility use. Using it in weight loss is not approved, but many drugs are used off-label.
In this case both critics and supporters of the diet warn not to use HCG without medical supervision.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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