hCG?

angyltears

Has anybody here done the hCG diet? I've seen some of my friends do it and they lost alot of weight very quickly. They said though that near the end it got harder and harder to stay with the meal plan. I was wondering if anyone has done it, and how did it work for them? How were you able to stay on it?
xoxo

angyltears

Has anybody here done the hCG diet? I've seen some of my friends do it and they lost alot of weight very quickly. They said though that near the end it got harder and harder to stay with the meal plan. I was wondering if anyone has done it, and how did it work for them? How were you able to stay on it?
xoxo

Dave198lbs

hCG stands for Human Chorionic Gonadotropin, a hormone produced by the placenta during pregnancy. During pregnancy, the substance almost completely controls the woman's metabolic functions. Generally, the hCG used in the diet protocols, is synthetic.

this diet, according to the web site calls for 500 calories a day and injections of a synthetic hormone that mimics the hormone produced during pregnancy

this would scare the crap out of me and unless a team of doctors told me this do this or die I would run away from it fast

iftcheiaf

And having been pregnant twice, and having had high levels of the hCG hormone, I would never have been able to survive on 500 calories a day. :noway:

My biggest worry would be what would happen when I went off it and introduced a normal feeding schedule back in. As a woman who has fluctuating hormones, the idea of putting extra hormones in my body that it already doesn't need to produce is scary. How long did your friends do it? Once they went off of it, were they able to keep the weight off?

angyltears

They did it for 30 days, and Molly lost 25 some odd pounds. She has kept off most of it she thinks (she now lifts weights, and has gained a few pounds but it looks like it is just muscle she has gained). My Aunt did it too, but shes an emo-eater and gained it all back (she does not exercise either). Both of them said it was fine the first two and a half weeks, but as it went on they started getting BAD cravings!

I started the first shot today... I have to eat as much as I can, of whatever I want for today and tomorrow, then I start with just the 500 cals. It's a little weird giving myself a shot, but it's pretty easy... even though I hate shots I didn't even feel it.

tayner

wow, this is scary... I have been doing my healthy eating, exercising for 28 days now, and lost 15 pounds. I will go for slow and steady, but good luck to you...

Dave198lbs

They did it for 30 days, and Molly lost 25 some odd pounds. She has kept off most of it she thinks (she now lifts weights, and has gained a few pounds but it looks like it is just muscle she has gained). My Aunt did it too, but shes an emo-eater and gained it all back (she does not exercise either). Both of them said it was fine the first two and a half weeks, but as it went on they started getting BAD cravings!

I started the first shot today... I have to eat as much as I can, of whatever I want for today and tomorrow, then I start with just the 500 cals. It's a little weird giving myself a shot, but it's pretty easy... even though I hate shots I didn't even feel it.

you are injecting yourself with a synthetic hormone and are going to limit your calories to 500 a day

PLEASE PLEASE tell me that you are under a Doctor's supervision and not relying on this website for medical advice

hiddensecant

With both babies I had horrible morning sickness and had to get IV fluids at the ER a few times. Reading about the diet, I can see how I was able to function on very little calories. But I wouldn't want to do that willingly to lose weight.

Haha, cravings ... I remember when I could only eat tuna and then after a morning sickness episode, I didn't touch the stuff until long after I have given birth ... the memories!

littleluvbug

Has anybody here done the hCG diet? I've seen some of my friends do it and they lost alot of weight very quickly. They said though that near the end it got harder and harder to stay with the meal plan. I was wondering if anyone has done it, and how did it work for them? How were you able to stay on it?
xoxo

The first statement that you made that worries me is "they lost a lot of weight very quickly". People need to start getting out of the mindset of losing weight very quickly. You may lose a lot of weight quickly, but what have you learned? As soon as you are no longer taking the shot, your environment hasn't changed, you haven't learned healthy self discipline. I would much rather learn discipline, work out, teach myself how to eat healthy and make long term fixes rather than this American quick fix idea. Your body was not made to work that way, and it's not healthy. You have no idea how much you could be screwing up your metabolism, and your basic body chemistry. NOTHING can replace eating right and moving around more. This is just a temporary "fix" and I urge you to be careful.

angyltears

OKAY... it sounds a little dirty here, but I'll give you all the details lol

So my Aunt did it, and went to a Dr. (yes, a real Dr.) then she found it at a place that was much closer to our house and much cheaper. The place was okay... Not the greatest looking. The Dr. though was aweful! I'm hard of hearing, so anybody with an accent is difficult for me to understand. I could NOT understand a word he said. My Aunt tried it again with this new place, and it worked the same as when she went to the more expensive. So I called them up, and spoke to a different Dr. today to get the info I couldn't understand. I'll be having a checkup next week, and every following week. They will check my bloodpressure and heart and all that good stuff to makesure I'm not stressing my body.

No worries, I'm not relying on this site, I'm just concerned because it got harder for my Aunt and Molly to stay on it with the cravings they got... I just wanted to see if anybody was on it and had ways to beat their cravings for sugar and carbs like they had.

hiddensecant

Kevin Trudeau! :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Maybe you should google him before listening to anything he has to say.

hiddensecant

Ok, here we go ...

Critics note that as early as 1962, the Journal of the American Medical Association warned against the Simeons Diet.[30] In 1976, the FTC ordered clinics and promoters of the Simeons Diet and hCG to cease making false claims about the effectiveness of hCG and its approval status by the FDA for weight loss.[31] Clinical research trials published by the Journal of the American Medical Association and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition[32] have shown that hCG is ineffective as a weight-loss aid.

The online consumer watchdog group Consumeraffairs.com has received many complaints about the book.[33] Additionally, the FCC has filed a contempt-of-court action against Trudeau alleging that the alleged misrepresentations in the book violate a 2004 consent order.

You'll find citations on wikipedia as well as souces for this information.

They lost weight quickly but they were also on a very restrictive diet including a phase that looks very similar to atkins. Try the diet, you'll have similar results without the hormone.

Marla64

I do believe most people would accurately tell you, including doctors, that there is no quick fix, no easy solution that's healthy-- make sensible eating choices, count your calories based on healthy guidelines and exercise-- you may lose a lot of weight quickly using other means, but the damage to your body isn't worth the aesthetic benefit you feel you may gain--

Be careful. Be sensible.

hiddensecant

NOTE: When I said try the diet without the hormone, definitely not without following up with a doctor. You should never eat less than 1200 calories without the care of a doctor.

Nich0le

I know three women at my gym that all did this "diet" and one recommended it to me. I read the pamphlet and NOWAY! Yes, they lost weight.......initially, but the hormones most likely weren't the true cause of weight loss it was teh highly restrictive calorie intake. And yes, they all gained it back and then some.

Just face it, there is NO magic pill, shot, drink, wrap, powder, scent or water you can use to lose weight PERMANENTLY. They are all band aids for a problem that needs stitches! You need to learn to do it the right way, as aggravating as that can be at times. IF you don't you are sure to end up gaining all your weight back and some bonus pounds.

Dave198lbs

I really wish I could understand this

here is the question

say you walk into your daughters room and she is in there injecting herself with a synthetic harmone that mimics the hormone produced by a pregnant woman.

say she tells you she is doing this to lose some weight.

forget the absurd 500 calories a day part of this diet.

would you let your daughter inject herself with a synthetic hormone?

where is the outrage?

Marla64

How's that for outrage?

Iceprincessk25

I take synthetic hormones everyday. Birthcontrol pills trick my body into thinking it's pregnant.

A lot of women get it injected.

A lot of women take hormone therapy when they're in menopause.

I think the outrage should be the funky diet. NOT just the hormone injection.

Rachael

Please reconsider what you're doing. I can totally relate to wanting to lose alot of weight quickly. I was also under the care of a doc, visiting a reputable little establishment called "Pound Melters" for my monthly prescription of Phen-Fen (yeah, the drug the FDA took off the market because it causes heart failure, etc). Once Phen-Fen was taken off the market, "Pound Melters" stared prescribing Phendimetrizine (I think that's the half of Phen-Fen that wasn't taken off the market). Then after that, they started prescribing Adipex - yet another speed-ball weight-loss drug. My own general practitioner and GYN were both mortified years later when I told them I had done this. I guess my point is just because you're under the care of a doc, doesn't mean the doc is reputable. (Think Octo-mom's doc, the doc that prescribed Anna Nicole' prescriptions, etc - not necessarily reputable, more likely, just greedy).

If these practices were safe, every doc would be prescribing speed balls and injecting hCG hormones and we'd all be thin. Admittedly, my example is different than your hCG question and I don't know much about the hCG diet, but it sure sounds suspect. Please be careful :flowerforyou:

arewethereyet

If my daughter was doing this there would be outrage!

If you eat sensibly, exercise each day, have treats now and then and dont eat fast food, you WILL lose weight. The good news in doing it this way is it is for LIFE. When you have children, you will teach them to eat an apple-not cookies. Exercise is good for you and fun.

We are so about the NOW we forget about the forever. You only have one body, thats IT!

Take care of it.

:flowerforyou: Jeannie

p.s. If you were my daughter I would tell you to get off that crack right now and get thee to a gym.

Heather125

this thread scares me:noway: I think I'll do it the old fashioned way

Heather125

p.s. If you were my daughter I would tell you to get off that crack right now and get thee to a gym.


:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Thank you I was thinking the same thing

stillkristi

I thought I would just chime in here, too. angyltears, I hope what you are hearing is concern. One of the things I have learned here on MFP from those like arewethereyet and Marla, not to mention others that have lost significant amounts of weight is this: while we are all different, there are some tried and true rules of the road. One of the rules is that weight that comes off quickly typically goes back on the same way. Its a bummer, but it seems to be true. If you are like me, with a significant, and I mean REALLY SIGNIFICANT amount of weight to lose, you will lose the initial pounds quickly. I lost 11 pounds my first week. Since then, I have been losing a couple of pounds a week.

For me, its not just about the weight loss - its about living life in a less restrictive, more abundant way, doing the things I love that I haven't been able to do because of the weight I've gained. So having said that, one of the reasons your aunt and Molly experienced severe cravings after a couple of weeks is that their bodies were letting them know that they were literally starving to death. Eventually, that craving will become strong enough to override your "will" and make sure you eat if the food is available. Not a healthy place to be. That same set of rules will make sure your body's metabolism slows way down to compensate for the lack of fuel. It also attacks your lean body mass (muscle) for fuel if you aren't fueling your body regularly. Then, when you do eat, your body has "learned" to store every little calorie it can against the next famine, so you bulk up just thinking about food! Its literally a lose, lose situation. In his book, "How to Lower Your Fat Thermostat", Garth Fisher, PhD, a doctor and nutritionist describes this quite well. So does Banks (SHBoss) one of our better informed peers here at MFP.

Again, from what I am learning, which is all I have to offer, we seem to get too hung up on specific numbers. For example, the idea that we all need a minimum of 1200 calories. Its just a number. In fact, it is the number that the World Health Organization determined was a minimum caloric requirement for WOMEN. Men usually need more, pregnant and lactating women need more. Athletes in training need more. When in training, MIchael Phelps consumes 10 times 1200 calories a day! So, 1200 is a number, a minimum rather than maximum number. Next, our ideal or goal weight, again, just a number. We probably should think of our weight in terms of a healthy or ideal range, rather than one magic number. Most measurement standards recommend a range, rather than a number. I am a woman, 5' 10.5" tall. Most of the "standard" tools recommend a range of 139 to 174 lbs for me. However, a nutritionist and fitness expert who works at the fitness institiute at a local hospital, after running a body composition test on me suggested my ideal weight is closer to 185 to 195 lbs. He pointed out that my wrist circumfrence is 7.75 inches -- thats larger than a lot of men. I have a big frame, so I need to adjust accordingly.

So, I hope you are reconsidering the injections. If you are really serious about being healthy and losing weight is a part of that, I urge you to do it in such a way that your body can sustain the weight loss and maintain or build optimal health. Good luck, and make sure you let us know how things are going!