Is HCG diet safe???

It certainly does not sound healthy. I think "your friend" will not last long on this starvation diet. Why the extreme? She would only gain the weight back again anyway!

hopefully those hormones keep your friends hair and teeth from falling out! in alll seriousness though, that doesn't sound healthy at all!

Doesn't sound like a great idea for someone with a bmi of 25. My mom just started this diet a few weeks ago with supervision of her dr. She is 5'3" but over 200 lbs. She eats healthy and exercises occasionally but the weight wasn't coming off like it should. So I guess she decided to do this as a last resort....I was questioning it b/c 500 calories just doesn't sound healthy, regardless of what hormone you're on. I'm sure her body is in some sort of starvation mode but can't help loosing the weight (1st week she was down 8lbs). I don't think it's the best idea for long term weight loss...sure a quick fix but definitely doesn't sound healthy. I mean, she eats practically nothing...and no protein really, some fruit, lettuce salad, melba toast and a small dinner.
I haven't talked to her this week on how it's going...but I imagine you have to have some crazy strong willpower to make it through the 2 months of hormones. After the 2 months, you transition off the hormone and start adding regular foods to your diet...I'm just afraid she's going to have a hard time keeping the weight off afterwards.
Also, she's supposed to exercise some with the diet but I can't see how she would have any strength to....

Anyways, I disagree with it and think there's much healthier ways...but many drs will prescribe it as a quick fix for obese individuals. If your friends not being supervised by a dr, I'd suggest to forget it all together...a bmi of 25 isn't bad at all.

you might just tell her that a dentist is a dentist and a medical doctor is a medical doctor and she should consult a doctor. not a dentist before she commits to such treatment.

you might just tell her that a dentist is a dentist and a medical doctor is a medical doctor and she should consult a doctor. not a dentist before she commits to such treatment.

Wouldn't she want to consult a nutritionist then?

huh? 500 calories? She's got to be kidding!!
I don't know much about all this dieting stuff, I know to loose weight and get fit you should watch your portions and eat good food. I also know that eating only 500 calories a day is NOT a good idea!

If people are getting sick and gaining it all back then they are not doing it correctly. Abnovak is absolutely correct. You get all your nutrients (less the 500) from your fat stores, not muscle or bone or anything else.

I take my sublingual for around $30/bottle which lasts about a month.

For 23 - 40 days you eat the 500 calories. You have 2 sources of proteins, 2 veggies and 2 fruits with 2 liters of water. You cannot just eat anything you want. You can't have sugars, starches or fats, unless they are in the proteins/veggies/fruits.

after that you go 21 days reintroducing fats (like beans, nuts, cheese, etc) and double your protein, but don't eat sugars and starches and bump your calories to 1500 - 1800.

After those 21 days are over you reintroduce starches and sugars. You should also be eating correctly for your weight/height now.

The reason you do it this way is because it trains your body on how to process foods correctly and for me, it really introduced me to proper eating. I used to be a carb junkie but I've really learned to balance my meals and really see how the foods I ate really impacted my body.

I finished round 1 and lost 34 lbs and am starting round 2 and cannot wait to get the weight off!

Congrats Abnovak!!

I lost about 50 lbs on it and feel great! I'm currently taking a break from it to stabilize at this new weight, then I plan to go back on and lose another 50 to get back to my college weight!

There's no reason to freak out about the 500 calories/day diet. While on the HCG, you're using 2500-4000+ calories of fat per day! So you're not starving! You're just getting your calories from another source than food: your stored fat! Isn't that what we all want?

I started at 292 and ended at 242. 50 lbs in 51 days. And I was hungry a grand total of 2 times during that entire time. And even then only because I *forgot* to eat lunch because I wasn't hungry then!!

Will I gain it all back? Well, if I go back to eating McDonald's, pizza, and ice cream every day, yes, I will. but that holds true for any plan. So far on my break I've fluctuated between gaining back 0-3 lbs. Everytime I reach 3 lbs, I simply eat a little less and it comes right back off. My eating habits have been fixed, I no longer crave candy bars and crap any more. Instead I crave fruits and proteins.

I tried "move more and eat less" off & on for 15 years. Worked great for a few weeks, then stopped, then I'd get frustrated and quit. Sound familiar to anybody? HCG is the solution to permanent weight loss, IF you follow the plan correctly.

Since not exercising seems to be an issue with many in this thread, it's perfectly fine to exercise while doing HCG IF you were exercising before. IE, if you are used to exercise. It's only recommended not to START exercising while on the HCG if you haven't exercised before. It's not necessary. I lost my 50 lbs and did little exercise, maybe some pushups and squat thrusts every so often. You're burning fat with HCG, not exercise. Lose the weight first then exercise to get back in shape.

If you want to know more about HCG, do a search on me. I posted a HUGE post about it a month or so ago...

Like I mentioned before, my mom is still in the 500 calorie a day part of it and is always starving. She cheats on her diet almost every day b/c of it. She gets dizzy and weak very easily. Definitely not a great idea for someone with low blood sugar...she's pre-diabetic as well and her dr wasn't too happy she was on the diet (rx to her by a homeopathic dr). So it's definitely not for everyone...regardless of how "easy" it may be for some.

When I heard about this, I didn't even bother looking into it. In my experience, things that sound too good to be true always are. So I definitely cannot answer if this is healthy for her or not!

The thing that concerns me is that she cannot find it in herself to lose weight and get healthy the natural way. I understand why someone with a ton of weight to lose would feel that way but feeling that way with a BMI of 25?? To me, that suggests that she will not have it in her to maintain the weight loss once she stops this diet.