Talan talks HCG and America's Biggest Loser

I had a great opportunity to sit down with Talan Nielson, who just started his second round of HCG injections at La Bella Vita Health & Wellness Clinic in Scottsdale.

Talan is a unique guy. He did great job on his first round, losing 40 lbs, early this year. Now, he’s dedicated himself to dropping 65 pounds over the next few months, and predicts he’ll be done after this current round and one more round of injections a few weeks later, following the required break in-between.

Mr. Nielson’s earlier weight loss efforts almost brought him a shot at national reality television fame. Two years ago, at the prodding of his sister and mom, he tried out for “America’s Biggest Loser.”

He stood in the cattle call line at US Airways Center, all the time thinking “what am I doing here?”

“They brought us in like a herd of cattle in a group of 20, and asked one question to the entire group,” Talan said. “I got called back for a one-on-one interview, one of only 20 people selected from the entire Phoenix casting that year."

After that interview, he never heard back. He then sent in a “Chippendale's spoof video", thinking he’d spur on some reaction, but nothing happened. Talan was never concerned or motivated to lose weight. So, he didn’t think much about not hearing from the show.

Flash forward to February 2010, one week after he started the HCG protocol, he was contacted by the casting agents again, but since he was on the diet and doing well, he didn’t pursue it. (He also, accidentally erased his voice mail before writing down the contact number, oops!)

Over the years, Talan's experienced a lot of diets. His HCG experience is different, however.

“I was amazed how I felt, I didn’t have heavy cravings, with the HCG inside you, you don’t feel hungry, but you do feel empty a bit,” he said. “However, I lost the desire to have junk food.”

Talan had this observation about his experience with La Bella Vita and the HGC diet protocol. “This diet is truly different, you are motivating by seeing the weight loss every day. The greatest thing is you get off the starches and sugars, and that all equates to healthy living.”

One of the big reasons for his success came from taking the time to prepare the food, he eats on the diet. "It makes you enjoy it, heck my kids want to eat it, as it is so healthy and I have a lot of great food to eat."

With all that personal motivation in place, he noted, “my cheating wasn’t with a cupcake; it was with an extra piece of chicken or an extra apple. I was pretty proud of myself.”