HCG

You are a beautiful woman, and I can see by your profile that you are steadily losing weight, with healthy lifestyle changes, and that you plan to run a 5k someday! You wouldn't be able to do that on 500 calories a day with HcG

Seriously, there are lots of ways to lose weight ... you could get sick for example, but you'd have to die to keep it off. Or you could just starve yourself by eating 500 calories a day.

HcG has never been proven to work on it's own, only in combination with a 500 calorie diet. And the 500 calorie diet 'works' on its own too, but there is nothing there that the 'doctors' can charge you for. Most of the 'information' on the internet is from 'doctors' trying to sell the stuff. Fad diets were bad enough before, but know that doctors are getting in to the act, after taking the Hippocratic oath to do no harm, it just makes me so mad.

The FDA won't approve it, there are no long-term studies, and it's just flat-out starvation with an excuse to charge you for an injection. The fake 'science' behind the stuff is outrageous. The thread referenced previously had a lot of talk about 'resetting your hypothalmus gland'. Huh? There are so many things wrong with that sentence, I wouldn't even know where to begin.

Don't make deals with the devil. It goes like this "If I can lose the weight quickly, I would pay anything, do anything, and punish myself just to get it off" and the devil says, "here you go, but you'll have to pay me back later with a pound of flesh...make that 2 pounds...for every pound you lost". We know it, but we do it any way.

Keep doing what you are doing. At 1-2 pounds a week, you will be at your goal within a year. Get there strong, healthy, and run that 5K!!

You are a beautiful woman, and I can see by your profile that you are steadily losing weight, with healthy lifestyle changes, and that you plan to run a 5k someday! You wouldn't be able to do that on 500 calories a day with HcG

Seriously, there are lots of ways to lose weight ... you could get sick for example, but you'd have to die to keep it off. Or you could just starve yourself by eating 500 calories a day.

HcG has never been proven to work on it's own, only in combination with a 500 calorie diet. And the 500 calorie diet 'works' on its own too, but there is nothing there that the 'doctors' can charge you for. Most of the 'information' on the internet is from 'doctors' trying to sell the stuff. Fad diets were bad enough before, but know that doctors are getting in to the act, after taking the Hippocratic oath to do no harm, it just makes me so mad.

The FDA won't approve it, there are no long-term studies, and it's just flat-out starvation with an excuse to charge you for an injection. The fake 'science' behind the stuff is outrageous. The thread referenced previously had a lot of talk about 'resetting your hypothalmus gland'. Huh? There are so many things wrong with that sentence, I wouldn't even know where to begin.

Don't make deals with the devil. It goes like this "If I can lose the weight quickly, I would pay anything, do anything, and punish myself just to get it off" and the devil says, "here you go, but you'll have to pay me back later with a pound of flesh...make that 2 pounds...for every pound you lost". We know it, but we do it any way.

Keep doing what you are doing. At 1-2 pounds a week, you will be at your goal within a year. Get there strong, healthy, and run that 5K!!

I've wondered about this as well. If you eat 500 cals a day, you're going to lose weight (duh!) but it doesn't mean it will stay gone.

I'm doing it right now. I've been on it since 3/1/10. Look at my signature for how much I've lost. I wish the signatures would add a time element to the weight loss.

When you take the recommended dose of HCG, it releases fat from your body at a rate of 1500-4000+ calories/day, depending on your size. So a larger person would release more fat daily. They have to b/c they need more energy. The key is that it releases it to be used as fuel for the body. Not just expelled. This is why you have to eat the 500 calorie diet. If you ate more, you'd release and gain simultaneously What good is that?

On HCG, the only part of your body that your digesting is fat. I know this for a fact b/c I am actually getting stronger while doing this program, so I'm not losing muscle. Yet I've gone down 3 notches in my belt so far. Sounds like fat loss and muscle gain to me...

I cannot comment about keeping it off after I'm done b/c I haven't reached that point yet. I know many others have kept it off, and some others have not. The program provides clear instructions for how you must eat after you stop taking the HCG for the loss to become permanent (IE, reset the hypothalamus gland). Maybe some are better at following directions than others. I know I will follow them to the letter.

@balance9: You wrote "the thread referenced previously had a lot of talk about 'resetting your hypothalmus gland'. Huh? There are so many things wrong with that sentence, I wouldn't even know where to begin. " I wrote that. I'd love to know what you think is wrong with that sentence. Actually, it's not mine, it's the doctor who created the program many decades ago who said that. Haven't you ever wondered why some people can eat anything they want and not gain an ounce, yet others smell a 3 oz candy bar and gain 5 lbs? The hypothalamus gland controls metabolism. When you reset it, you reset your metabolism to a lower weight point. The primary reason America is so fat is b/c of all the crap that's put into food that messes up the hypothalamus. MSG being the primary culprit. (do a Google search for "msg weight gain")

I love it when people talk about "science" in diet. Isn't "science" what said MSG and artificial sweeteners are OK? Isn't "science" what said Fen-Phen was OK? Isn't "science" what told us to base our diet primarily on grains? And best of all, isn't "science" what gave us high fructose corn syrup? IMHO the primary cause of obesity in America. Science is only as good as the entity paying for it, which in all of the above were pharma and food companies.

When you change your mindset and realize the simple fact that pharmaceutical companies, food companies, and hospitals & doctors make more money from you the fatter you are, all of a sudden the obesity in America makes perfect sense! The fatter you are, the more money they make. Repeat that to yourself until it sinks in. I equate most of them (there are of course some doctors who actually want to truly heal people rather than just mask symptoms so you have to return for more treatments) with used-car salesmen. Unfortunately they're used-car salesmen with trillions of dollars, so the so-called laws made by the FDA help them, not us. Why is there no cure for Cancer? For Diabetes? Because treating the symptoms for life makes them *much* more $. They can make billions by curing disease, or trillions by only treating symptoms. Simple math.

In the other thread linked to, I've done my best to not be critical of other's posts and just state the facts as they are happening to me, so here is a FACTUAL update on how HCG is working for me right now, 4/1/10 (and no, it's not an April Fool's joke ). As of this writing, I'm down 34.2 lbs in 31 days. I am still *never* hungry (do you really think a man who weighs 250+ lbs. could eat 500 cals/day and not be hungry without the HCG?). I still have more energy than I've had in over a decade (I should! I'm burning 1+ lbs of fat every day!!). I sleep non-stop all night (used to get up 3+ times/night), sometimes 8 hours, but oftentimes I find I don't need that much. I have no saggy skin whatsoever from the fat loss. My family tells me my face looks like I did when I was 30 (I'm 40). I've been able to go down 2 pant sizes, and even those are looking pretty baggy now. I am on the last notch of most of my belts and will have to buy new ones or drill new holes soon. All this after just 1 month!! I can't wait for 2 months!

And just in case anybody is thinking it's just the placebo effect (which I find absolutely hilarious! There is no freaking way I could eat 500 calories and not be hungry for a month on any placebo affect!!), my boss is doing the program too and he's lost 47 lbs. in the same 31 days and has all the same positive results as I listed above. It's logical he lost more than me b/c he's about 150lbs heavier than me.

You can believe what you want. Keep listening to the same old nonsense about how it's not approved by the FDA (of course not, they need big pharma's $), how it must be muscle loss (I can do 15 more pushups now than when I started 1 month ago, no muscle loss there!), how "anybody can lose weight on 500 calories a day" (not exactly true, you'll lose at first, then your body metabolism will shut down and you won't lose much at all, and you'll be starving and feel horrible the entire time), how dangerous it is, etc. Or realize that the program is working for thousands of people and all the negative "studies" about it are funded by big pharma & food companies, who need you to eat more so they'll make more $$$.

It was a simple decision for me, and the best one I've ever made.

That being said, like I said in the other thread, if it ever stops working, or if I follow the program and regain all my lost weight after I go off the HCG, I will denounce it for all eternity. But I highly doubt that will happen considering how it's worked exactly as described so far.

I agree with kicklikeaGIRL... I followed an anorexic's blog and that's how many calories she ate per day and was constantly complaining she wasn't losing weight...so eventually, it will stop working. The recommended daily intake of calories by almost ANY nutritionist, "expert", including MFP and fitness magazines, is no less than 1200. 500 calories is a big deal.

When you properly use HCG, you're NOT starving; you're not anorexic. Nobody who was properly using HCG was passing out anywhere. Those who did not use it may have passed out I suppose, but nobody who was using it properly. I know I've never passed out. You don't need to eat much because you're releasing thousands of fat calories per day. It's simple math. If your body needs 4000 calories/day to function, and you get 3500 from fat being released, you only need to eat 500. You're not starving. You already have the fat, why not use it?

I am far more of an expert on it than any of you because I've researched it for months and have actually been DOING IT and can see & feel the results in me. I don't post based on hearsay, scare tactics, or what some idiot nutrionist has told me, I post based on what is going on with me right now. I really don't understand why all the negative feedback. For any product I buy, I love personal recommendations, which is what this is. I'm not posting any affiliate links, I'm not making any $ recommending this, I'm just saying that it's working fantastic for me and describing in detail the results of my experience and research.

I don't really care what any nutrionist says. They make more money the longer you stay with them, so they're incented to make weight loss as long as possible. They'll keep blaming your slow weight loss on you rather than the simple fact that what they promote doesn't work. Then you keep going back to them for more bad advice. Repeat business! That's where the money is at.

If properly followed, this is the healthiest way to lose weight permanently. I know, I've tried them all (exercise, all-organic eating, Adkins, Alli, and even the doctor-recommended "eat low-fat and high carbs" diet). This is the only one that has worked this well.

@megamom: Since your post implies you work in some sort of medical facility, please explain how I'm getting stronger, look & feel younger, and have more energy than I've had since I was in my 20s if I'm starving myself and robbing from my muscles and bones? How can I get stronger and lose muscle? How is that possible? Why was your staff passing out in patients' rooms and what does that have to do with HCG?

@kicklikeaGIRL: I'm not really surprised it doesn't make sense to you. You haven't bothered to research it. Go download a free ebook called "Pounds and Inches" by Dr. A. T. W. Simeons and read it. It shouldn't take very long to read it, it's pretty short. If you still don't believe it, then at least you tried.

I'll be updating my weight on this site for years to come, so we'll see if I keep it off or not. My sig speaks for itself.

msrichmond-Please read this post-I type these with a thoughtful mind-not snarky or criticizing.

Sounds good to me, I'm always up for a debate. I hope you can tell by the length of this that I've put a lot of thought into my responses.

What is your education in? Do you have a medical background?

No medical education for me, and honestly, you couldn't pay me enough to do it. I'm a Computer Science major, so I'm a very logical, scientific person. I'm just a guy who has struggled with weight since I was 5 years old and has been searching for a permanent cure my entire life.

It seems that by your logic nutritionists, doctors, and anybody with a solid medical background cannot be trusted. Frankly I'm offended. Don't trust your doctors because they're only in it for the money. Don't trust the people who respond to your medical emergencies, because they're just the same. Let me tell you, if it was about money, I'd find another career. But the motivations for being in the medical field are for another post.

The next time you treat a patient, ask yourself this: are you curing the overall cause of the patient's problem or are you simply masking the symptoms? And just to be clear, I'm not talking about setting a broken arm, I'm talking about health issues (diseases, obesity, pain, etc). Are you curing them or masking symptoms? Really think about this.

My first experience with this was about 17 years ago when I hurt my shoulder badly. Fresh out of college with my fancy new insurance from my job, I went to the doctor believing he'd heal me. I was in a lot of pain, but nothing was broken or torn; I could still move my arm and shoulder. His "cure": 800 mgs of ibuprofen 3x/day. I was flabbergasted! How the heck was that going to cure me? All it would do is mask the pain, probably causing me to "feel" better and injure it even more. Where was my cure? The fix for my true problem? When I asked him point blank how ibuprofen was going to fix my injury, his response was something like "I can't fix it, all I can do is alleviate the symptoms." (I can't quote him, it was 17 years ago after all, but that was the gist of it).

The real cure was icing, massage, physical therapy, ultrasound, etc. Basically everything any high school football coach would do (OK, maybe not the ultrasound). But my doctor didn't care about curing me, he just wanted to mask the pain and get onto his next patient. It was ironic how agitated he got when I kept asking him questions when all he wanted to do was go take $ from somebody else.

Do I think that doctors purposefully try to hurt people to make more money? Well, I bet some do, but most don't. What I do believe is that rather than stand up and oppose pharmaceutical companies who want everybody to buy their drugs and insurance companies that just want to pay for the bare minimum, most doctors just rush thru the exam so they can see as many patients in 1 day as possible so they can bill as much as possible. IE, they do it for the $. Not all of them, but most. If you're not like that, I applaud you!

Don't get me wrong. I'm so incredibly happy for you that you are close to your goal weight, and that you are stronger. I follow your posts to see how you're doing. My husband just finished a cycle, and he lost about 70 pounds in 12 weeks without the HCG. I holding my opinion to see how he does maintaining, and I truly hope that your maintenance is successful.

Actually I need to set a new goal, I just blasted thru goal 1 (less than 250lbs) a couple days ago. Next goal is 225, then 200!! Then I'll be back to my college weight!

I'm not sure what you mean by "finished a cycle...without the HCG". I'm glad he lost 70lbs though! But finished a cycle of what? I hope not a 500 calorie diet! I can't fathom doing that without HCG.

And don't say that I'm uneducated to the diet, because I have studied it. I've looked at BOTH sides of the controversy. I found some useful links below.

http://www.exploreexpandevolve.com/health-wellness/hcg-diet-on-the-morning-show-safe-and-effective-or-dangerous-does-it-matter/

http://health.howstuffworks.com/health-illness/wellness/physical-fitness/weight-loss/hcg-diet.htm

It looks like both of those links are by Internet bloggers. As far as I can tell, neither have done the program. And I don't think either has even read the ebook that details the program. So how can you take their word for it? The one even refers to another blogger for some of his info. So that's 3rd party blogging.

My sources of info were the original book and people who had already done it. Period. I don't really care what some blogger who is advertising some other form of weight loss has to say about it.

I believe that's what separates me from other posters here with regard to HCG. I've tried the other programs AND HCG. I've tried "moving more and eating less", low carb, etc. None of them worked nearly as well as HCG, at least not for me.

I did find an article that discussed HCG going on the banned list for athletes. Another interesting aspect. Something I would note though, is that during my pregnancies, I noticed an increase in strength and endurance until my shape changed enough to hamper my workouts. It's worth a study. And please don't take this the wrong way, but the vast majority of people who are building muscle cannot do it in a caloric deficit.

I'm not trying to build muscle, I'm losing 90+ lbs of fat. My previous post about gaining strength was simply to prove that I was not burning muscle and bone as some other poster suggested would happen on a 500 calorie diet with HCG.

Interesting that it is on the banned list when according to the FDA it doesn't even work...

What disappoints me though, is the result of your posts. The majority of people on here are making a lifestyle change. Something that is incredibly hard to do. We're all struggling and we're all vulnerable. So you come on here with a highly controversial diet, and criticize others because they disagree with you and are trying to lose weight in a way that is healthy according to the majority of well educated health professionals. In the spirit of trying to help, please understand that your posts have been inflammatory towards others. We are concerned about others on here, and fad diets are traditionally associated with negative effects. NONE of us want to see you fail.

The previous paragraph is IMHO the single most important one you wrote. This thread and the other one I posted on were started by somebody asking about HCG. IE, asking for information. Then a bunch of people who had never tried the program posted a bunch of unsubstantiated opinions and misinformation about it. Then I simply posted facts about how it is working for me and logically responded to their statements. That's it. The only reason my posts might be inflammatory is that I take great offense to somebody posting misinformation about a subject they know absolutely nothing about, especially when the subject is changing my life so positively.

Even what you posted, "fad diets", is kind of offensive. This is not a fad diet. It's a life-long commitment to change that is currently helping thousands of overweight people. But all most people focus on is the first few months of 500 calories diet with HCG. They say things like "it can't be safe" "it can't work" "anybody can lose weight eating 500 calories/day", etc. with no experience with it whatsoever. I just post the simple fact that it's working great for me and counter all of their false postings with information as I've found it. Like I said before, I'm not making $ off of this. Just trying to inform.

But I've always maintained, and will do so again here, that if I ever experience any negative side effects, or if I can't maintain it afterwards, I will denounce it. The part about maintaining is tricky though. If I go back to eating a half gallon of ice cream in 1 sitting (done it many times!), I'll probably gain it all back. But that would be true for any method of weight loss, wouldn't it? So I don't think it's fair to condemn HCG for that. But the system does promise to re-program your eating habits, so I will see. I know it's helped me gain a love for organic tomatoes, which I never liked before, so it's reprogramming something.

If losing weight "in a way that is healthy according to the majority of well educated health professionals" actually works, why is America the fattest nation on Earth? "Modern" medicine doesn't want to cure obesity. They want to mask the symptoms. Let me ask you this, do you personally believe that a calorie is a calorie? Do you believe that MSG and high-fructose corn syrup are OK? "Modern" medicine says both of those are true.

Your dismissal of science is enough to raise the hackles on many of us. You are absolutely right about medical mistakes like phen-fen. Vioxx and others like that support your opinion. So how do you justify the science of HCG? It seems you are being selective about which diet science to believe and which not to believe. Also, with your mistrust of doctors, I'm having trouble figuring out your trust in Simeons. Isn't Simeons another doctor?

I don't dismiss science at all. The HCG program is all about science. It's just not science sponsored by a pharma company that will make many times more $ with 1 outcome vs. another, thus rigging the results to their favor. The reason I believe this doctor and not others is because he lived in the early 20th century and was from Europe, long before the almighty $ took over American medicine. If you read the manuscript, you would know this. Really, I beg you to read it just to get your opinion on its science. It all just makes so much sense to me, I'd love to know what you think of it, especially the part about the hypothalamus gland controlling metabolism. It's a very short read, please consider it.

"Modern" medicine used to cut down Atkins all the time. Said that low-carb couldn't possibly be good for you. Now it's just accepted common sense as a great way to lose weight. HCG is similar, only rather than losing 1lb/week, I'm losing 1lb/day.

Like I said before-the purpose of this post is not to insult.

Neither are mine. I just want to inform and answer the OP's inquiries.

As always, I like to end my posts with how I'm doing so far on HCG:

Down 43 lbs as of today (day 42 on the program), Still sleeping great! I can't even begin to tell you how much insomnia I've suffered over the past 10+ years! It's finally GONE! I still have so much energy it's crazy. I feel like I'm 25 again! My boss has started commenting about my improved performance at work, simply because I don't crash & burn in the afternoon! I've had to retire my largest pants & belts already. Fortunately I kept many smaller pairs "just in case" I ever lost weight, so I don't have to spend a fortune at Kohl's just yet. Another 25 lbs (about 1 month from now if I stay on track) I'll have to spend some money on new clothes, but the much lower food bill more than offsets that.

I'm still never hungry! Great story, I went home for Easter and decided to test myself. 2 of my favorite foods are sugar cookies with icing and Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs, both of which were in abundance at Easter dinner. I put 1 each in my hands and purposefully smelled them! I wasn't even tempted to eat them. That's how great HCG is. The real test will be if I can do that after I'm done with the HCG phase of the plan. We shall see...

So I'm sorry if I offend people. I feel some of the other posts were offensive too, but not yours. It's difficult for me not to be passionate about this. I'm literally walking around having lost the equivalent of one of those 45lb weightlifting plates in the gym! GONE! I couldn't be happier with my results and hope many people who read this decide to research it for themselves.