hCG diet as a detox: 20 tips to reduce your toxic load and lose weight faster
I did the hCG diet as a detox weight loss program when I needed to shed my baby weight and help me get back on track. It felt great to get my body back, but I felt I still needed more after about a year. I needed to get that ‘old me’ feeling back.
I really enjoy detoxing, as long as it is manageable – and I love doing naturopathic juice cleanses. I haven’t done one since my son was born, about 5 years ago. So it was time this year and it was wonderful. And yes, I got that old me back. . . there is nothing like it! During the process I started to feel more energy, I was lighter and calmer. Oh, it was addictive!
When I do the hCG diet as a detox or a juice cleanse, at the end I always feel like I want to eat much lighter, which keeps me feeling clear and relaxed. It is so easy to get your body into a rut, especially when you love food. And it’s a real relief to have a program that allows me to come back into my body and feel so much better in myself.
We can all do with a lift to help us feel better on a daily basis and move out of the ruts we find ourselves in every so often.
I have set out a bit of information for you below about how toxins affect your body, as well as ways to reduce your toxic load whilst doing the hCG diet as a detox.
In my opinion, the hCG program is a great detox for the simple reason of not putting the “bad foods” into our body and eating less for a while.
How toxins influence our metabolism (the thing that keeps our weight in check):
Toxins can alter the hormonal regulation of your weight, via insulin, leptin, thyroid, cortisol, adiponectin, resistin, sex hormones, and gut hormones. Toxins alter your thyroid hormone metabolism and receptor function, leading to lowered metabolic rate.
Stress alters your appetite and weight-control mechanisms.
Toxins can influence your weight through toxin-mediated increases in inflammation, which promotes insulin resistance. Toxins alter your energy cells by damaging enzymes involved in fatty acid oxidation and thermogenesis (the process of heat production). Oxidative stress influences your weight via gene transcription that controls insulin resistance and inflammation. Other mechanisms may include direct effects of toxins on your liver control of lipids and glucose metabolism, and on inflammatory cytokines.
So you can see it is in your best interest while doing the hCG diet as detox – or just as a general health priority – to detoxify these chemicals from your system.
It’s also important to replenish your gut ecology. Good gut microbes are responsible not only for collecting usable energy from digested food, but also for monitoring insulin levels, storage of fat and appetite. They also play an integral role in dealing with any chemicals that enter the body.
There are more than three dozen chemicals called obesogenic compounds that can cause weight gain by altering the body’s normal metabolic responses and lipid production. Once stored in the system they have an ongoing effect.
It is a double-edged sword. The environmental chemicals disrupt gut ecology and in turn, the disturbed gut ecology cannot break the chemicals down and excrete them. They build up and so does the weight. Regardless of how much a person eats, they can still be getting larger.
In one study I looked at, researchers gave low doses (equivalent to what people are exposed to in the environment) of hormone-mimicking compounds to newborn mice. In six months, the mice were 20 percent heavier and had 36 percent more body fat than unexposed mice.
Strangely, these results seemed to contradict the first law of thermodynamics, which implies that weight gain equals calories consumed minus calories burned.
“What was so odd was that the overweight mice were not eating more or moving less than the normal mice.”
20 ways to minimise your toxic load while doing the hCG diet as a detox
1. Eat organic food and animal products to avoid petrochemical pesticides, herbicides, hormones, and antibiotics. This is particularly important whilst dong the hCG diet as a detox.
2. Eat grass-fed meat instead of industrially-produced corn-fed beef (this will reduce your exposure to obesity-causing chemicals).
3. Use glass to store your food in, rather than plastic whenever you can, to reduce exposure to phthalates and other hormone-altering plastics. Buy and store food in glass jars whenever possible.
4. Try to avoid canned food, or at least look for cans that are free of bisphenol A. (E.g. Eden sells food in BPA-free cans.
5. Wash your hands after handling store receipts (they still contain BPA).
6. Eat food containing good bacteria to help restore your healthy intestinal flora. E.g. Miso, kefir and sauerkraut, you can take probiotic (good bacteria) supplements if you prefer from time to time.
7. Drink filtered water (reverse osmosis or carbon filter).
8. HEPA/ULPA filters and ionisers can be helpful in reducing dust, moulds, volatile organic compounds, and other sources of indoor air pollution.
9. Have houseplants that help filter the air.
10. Air out your dry cleaning before wearing it.
11. Avoid excess exposure to environmental petrochemicals (garden chemicals, dry cleaning, car exhaust, second-hand smoke).
12. Reduce or eliminate the use of toxic household and personal care products (aluminium-containing deodorant, antacids, and pots and pans).
13. Remove allergens and dust from your home as much as possible.
14. Minimise electromagnetic radiation (EMR) from radios, TVs, and microwave ovens.
15. Reduce ionising radiation (from sun exposure or medical tests such as X-rays).
16. Reduce heavy metal exposure (predatory and river fish, water, lead paint, thimerosal-containing products).
17. Improve elimination of toxins by having 1 to 2 bowel movements a day.
18. Drink 6 to 8 glasses of water a day.
19. Use exercise to help you sweat regularly.
20. Use steam baths or saunas – infrared saunas may be even more beneficial.
See your naturopath for a detoxification protocol that can suit your lifestyle. It can be simple and manageable and bring you back into yourself to feel that ‘you’ that has been missing or overwhelmed by life.