HCG Diet. Don't hang me.

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My thought is, why spend the money on whatever "potion" they are selling. The MFP plan works... and it works WELL... and, best of all, IT'S FREE.

Best of luck to you!

My ex husband did this and lost alot of weight.

He is actually heavier now than when before he started this HCG voodoo! So yes, he lost weight. And yes - it's back on. Money well spent for the time he was thinner if that's your thing.

I used MFP and counted calories. Weight is still off. Just my experience.


Popcorn anyone??

There's no scientific proof hCG works.

Any low calorie diet will result in weight loss. Most studies have shown that hCG has nothing to do with it.

Calories burned > calories consumed = weight loss.

You're not only risking your health, but very likely tossing your money down the drain. The vast majority of the "drops" have absolutely no useful quantity of active ingredients because they are not regulated. Who knows what you are actually ingesting?! It's nothing more than a placebo.

Can someone explain to me why someone would be interested in taking a hormone that helps women develop a healthy placenta during their pregnancy?

Desperation and ignorance would be my bet.

I have a friend who did it, she was my assistant at work. Her doctor gave her the drops and told her to eat 500 calories. He gave her a list of foods to eat: Saltine crackers, plain tuna, oranges, and broccoli. That's it. She ate those four foods and took the drops for a couple months. She was passing out at work, her hair started falling out, her teeth hurt her, and she cried all the time.

The site says you can't use skincare products with oil because you will absorb it and not lose weight.

Most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.

Everyone else already said all that needs to be said. Please stop the drops before the damage is done. You obviously haven't done all the research or else you only read the research you wanted to.

Hi everyone,

so yesterday I started the HCG 1234 Diet. I've researched thtis for about two months before deciding to actually try it. I've read the good, the bad and the ugly.

My HCG 1234 drops are not the ones that only allow 500 calories. This one has two diet options for 1200 calories and than 1500 calories.

I'm starting with the 1200 calorie one and than afterwards I'll do the 1500 calorie one and add a lot more active exercise and eventually go off HCG and keep that up.

I'm just curious if anyone else has done this one and what was your results/experience?

Apologies, long reply

Because I am incredibly hard-headed, only listen to science, logic, or reasoning when it agrees with what I have already decided, and am often simultaneously lazy and desperate, this was only one of the lose-quick-quackeries I tried eight or ten years ago. As background, after a serious illness and surgery, I stopped exercising and paying attention to what I ate. I gained about thirty pounds in a little over a year; I ended up forty pounds above the weight I had maintained for many years. I am, btw, six feet tall, broad-shoulders, and so on. I am not a small man. But it was still a lot of weight and I didn't much like it.

I wanted to get back to my pre-illness weight and I wanted it fast. I looked at a number of low calorie, no exercise options and "after doing all the research" I decided to do a "medically-supervised" HCG diet for forty days. I reasoned that I would fix my diet and start exercising again once I lost the weight. It would be so much easier, right?

Wrong. Here's what happened. I followed the diet to the letter. I lost forty pounds in forty days on a 600 calorie/day diet. I barely had enough energy to get through the day, so I slept an awful lot. I was constantly obsessing about my weight and the food I was eating (a requirement for this diet) even if I wasn't starving. At the end of the diet, I followed the rules about re-introducing food. I managed for about two weeks before I was hit with waves of endless, ravenous hunger which lasted for almost a month. I never did fix my diet; in fact, it got worse. I never did start the exercise program I promised I would start.

Six months later I was thirty-five pounds heavier. I was weaker. I was tired all the time. My eating habits were still bad. I still didn't have the energy to exercise. And, btw, I lost so much muscle weight during the diet that my body fat percentage had barely changed. Net result: I was worse off after the diet than before it.

I know four other people that tried HCG; all with similar results.

It was a bonehead move. It was expensive. It took years for my body to recover from it. And most importantly, it doesn't work over the long term unless you are willing to eat a very limited diet, weigh in every day and return to the diet if your weight changes by a few pounds, and fight off periods of ravenous hunger. If that is not enough, there is no clinical evidence that HCG does anything to limit hunger.

Please re-consider; that's what I suggest.

Edited: spelling

I don't diet anymore. I make sure I'm eating controlled portions of healthy foods and I exercise moderately every day. I've been stuck in a plateau for about a year - that is frustrating - but I'm not getting back on the roller coaster again.

Save your money, eat at a deficit and you'll lose weight for free!!! I've yet to see someone who did these, and actually kept the weight off afterwards!

Sometimes I really really wonder why I bother doing a normal job. I could start the "eat dog poop" diet or something, and with proper advertisement, I would be rich in a year. Apparently all it takes is having no conscience, and selling disgusting things to desperate people.