Lose weight diet plans

True story: A few years ago, a fabulously fit friend of mine was paid a substantial amount of money by a popular diet pill company to use his image in their advertising. The catch? His current competition-ready state was the "after" picture and then he had to quickly gain some weight, lose his tan, and pose pouty for the "before" shot.

This kind of duplicity, along with photoshop, misleading labeling, and other trickery is rampant in the diet supplement industry and has been since the turn of the century. And I mean the one 113 years ago. That's why it was so surprising when the FDA came down hard on the hCG diet, declaring it "fraudulent", "dangerous, " and "illegal." What's so bad about this particular diet supplement that makes it so much worse than all the other fakes on the market?

HCG or human chorionic gonadotropin is a hormone produced during pregnancy to help the baby grow, and while it has been used for different purposes in the medical community for decades, it has recently become the centerpiece of a fad diet that uses hCG drops, shots, or pills to suppress appetite and cause weight loss. Here's what you need to know about the hCG diet plan:

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1. It can help you lose weight. My dad lost 30 pounds in 40 days on the hCG diet… except that he was too cheap to buy the hCG so instead he just did the prescribed diet plan. It turns out when you only eat 600 low-carb calories per day, you lose a lot of weight. Go figure.

2. Almost none of the supplements contain actual hCG. Even if the hormone did work to suppress appetite, true hCG requires a doctor and a prescription to dispense. Most of the supplements are sold as "homeopathic, " which is industry code for containing no real hCG.

3. It's not "homeopathic." To be considered a homeopathic treatment by the FDA it needs to appear in the Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia, which hCG does not. Elizabeth Miller, the FDA's team leader on internet and health fraud, concludes, "So they are unapproved drugs and are illegal." She adds the drugs are also not approved for weight loss.

4. It's often very, very expensive. And price is no indicator of whether you're even getting the real thing.

5. There are no clinical trials or rigorous studies that support the hCG diet plan. Miller says, "In the case of the homeopathic hCG remedies, people think that if they’re losing weight, hGC must be working. But the data simply does not support this—any weight loss is from severe calorie restriction. Not from the hCG."

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Quick fixes can be tempting for anyone trying to lose weight, but definitely skip this extreme diet and go for good nutrition and regular exercise instead. It's not as exciting, but your wallet and waistline will thank you—and you're much more likely to keep the weight off for good.