HCG Diet

If you're wondering how in the world something can be healthy for you, chances are it's not.

I found info on the diet on http://health.howstuffworks.com/health-illness/wellness/physical-fitness/weight-loss/hcg-diet.htm

If you dont feel like reading the full article: you get these shots (daily injections for 26-40 days costing on average $10/each), eat 500 calories of high protein, low carb & low fat foods and the HCG helps lower hunger pangs by releasing body fat. Most newer versions of the diet recomend additional appetite suppresants to help with hunger pangs. Side effects have been reported: increased risk of blood clots, headaches, restlessness and depression. Along with pregnancy symptoms like swelling, breast tenderness and water retention. HCG can also cause a potentially life-threatening condition called ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome.

And if those side effects aren't enough to scare you off: peer reviewed studies comparing its effects to a placebo showed at the least no difference with HCG and at worst one study showed major hunger pains on both treatment types. Also HCG proponents themselves say that the program is designed to help break bad eating behaviors which means you can't go back to "normal" eating afterwards or you'll gain it all back!

Moral of the story: at the very least this is going to cost you an arm and a leg, you're probably going to feel starved throughout the process, and at the worst you could develop severe and potentially life threatening side effects. You would get the same results, without the potentially dangerous effects, by just limiting your diet to 500 calories a day. I do NOT recomend this!! Anneke your profile says you're a single mom working 3 jobs who plans to go back to school, do you have $400+ to spend on a diet that could make you sick? I know I don't.

I've gone my round with diet pills (even found a few that worked GREAT... while I was taking them. On one I lost about 30 lbs with no hunger whatsoever. I also gained about 40 lbs within 6 months of quiting the pills) Truly the ONLY way to safely, and healthily lose weight is to reduce your calories and exercise. If you want something to jump start your weight loss I'd recomend South Beach. I tried it and had tremendous success, the first few weeks I dropped a ton of weight and because you slowly add back normal foods it helps to teach you portion control & proper nutrition. combining that with exercise to build and strengthen muscles (the more muscle you have the more calories you'll burn even when you're sitting on the couch!)

Good luck!

I actually did research the HCG diet in May 2009 because my mother and stepfather were seriously considering it and I was very skeptical. I proved myself to be correct: I don't know if most people know what a meta-analysis is, but I read the summary of one, as well as other peer-reviewed academic research, all of which COMPLETELY denounced the efficacy of HCG and determined that placebo along with a 500-calorie/day diet was equally as effective. So, the meta-analysis thing: it is a review of ALL of the academic literature on a particular question. Remember the adage, "don't believe everything you hear?" Well, DON'T believe everything you READ, either!!!!

I concur with posters above: there is great weight-loss advice on this site that can point you in the right direction. AND, you've made it this far already, you are totally capable of losing the weight without a crackpot method like the HCG starvation diet! You have yourself and support from others on here. Best of luck to everyone!

ps, I would post what I read, but I don't want to get in copyright trouble and I had access through a database at my university.

I don't know anything about the diet, but I DO know what HCG does to my body! Having been pregnant twice (and thus getting daily doses of it!), I have discovered I am basically allergic to it! I broke out in hives, full body, can't sleep they itch so much, benedryl doesn't even touch it, HIVES.:sad: HCG has a lot of naturally occuring side effects: water retention (which equals weight!), breast tenderness, and some people think it is what's responsible for morning sickness (not proven, so who knows on this one!). I personally wouldn't do it because of my allergy. I truly suggest that you research this THOROUGHLY before shelling out the $$$$ for it! Go to a University library, if you have one within striking distance, and use their databases. Talk to your doctor. Get a second opinion. Check medical journals. If it really is $10 per injection, every day for a month, that can get really expensive really fast, and my bet is that insurance won't cover it. If I were you, I'd research, research, talk with my doc, and research some more before I made a decision.

Good luck on whatever you decide!

Has anyone tried this diet?

This injection diet has been around since I was in college, if not before, and I am 57. My lady boss used to give herself a daily injection before leaving the office (she got the product from a friendly doctor). Yes, she ate less while on the shots. Yes, she lost weight. Yes, she regained the weight due to not having learned new eating habits for long term maintenance. I thought at the time that it was a desperate attempt at a "fast fix" to her weight problem. Now, 35 years later, I feel the same about the product.

Ask yourself what this diet does, in reality. So lets take a look. I'm more practical about this stuff than many, so I'll generalize this to fit almost any pill or diet.

What does a "diet" ( in these terms) mean? It means you are changing your eating patterns temporarily to get a desired result.

Lets examine why this isn't a good thing.

1. the body likes status quo. When you change something (bio-chemically) in the body, it changes it's response. so when you literally change the hormones your body is producing, you are changing everything about your body. If this change isn't permenant, then you WILL return to the former processes (and by that I mean weight).

2. How does one change their lifestyle? Not by taking a pill that's only temporary. You change the factors that made you that way. You change your lifestyle by permanently altering eating and exercise patterns.

3. How does one create good habits and eliminate bad habits? Not by taking a pill or a shot. Chemically changing how your body handles food temporarily does nothing to teach you how to eat right. And the goal here is permanent change, not temporary weight loss. Some (a VERY small percentage), can use a pill as a catalyst for change, but most will learn to rely on that pill or shot for the actual results, this is no good, it's the wrong way to think about being healthy.

4. I believe in the old adage, "Anything worth your time is worth the effort". If it took no or little effort to change, you won't appreciate the change and you won't change because of it.

I absolutely couldn't agree more.

No offense to any previous poster, but to me, the true test of whether a diet works is NOT if you are losing weight while you are on the program. It is whether the weight remains off a year or more after the program ends. I used to get really excited when people talked about the great results they had with this diet, or that pill, but I have FINALLY gotten enough wisdom to realize that the quick results do not equal long term change.

And by the way... I did Google the HCG diet. All the sites that I found that promoted it were totally biased - no reference to any quality, peer-reviewed studies. I am a college professor, and if any of my students used those sites as sources in a paper, they'd get an F. I wish people would learn to be smarter consumers of the information on the Internet!!! 95% of what you read is biased junk.

I just wanted to let everyone know that I was VERY skeptical about hCG too until I started it on 02/09/10....I am now down 8 pounds and honestly I feel great. I am not hungry and I have a scale that shows body fat % on it and for every pound I lose, it is pure body fat!!! I know it is easy to say that people are naive for doing it but I am proof that it works!!!!!!!! You just have to retrain yourself on what to eat and stop eating JUNK!!!