HCG Diet. Don't hang me.

I did one round a few years ago. I lost weight and didn't really have any issues with it, except I didn't learn anything about healthy living.

It's basically a starvation diet (I was on the homeo coughwatercough drops). However, I wanted to do it because I needed something to kick start me out of my desperation. I had never done anything like it before, or since. But I was at absolute rock bottom. I tried to have will power and eat better but just. couldn't. do. it. I hated myself, was mean, felt like a failure...so I went against my grain and tried a fad diet. Just the action of being proactive was a life-saver. I lost about 30 lbs quickly and felt great. Once on maintenance though, because I didn't learn how to eat better while on the diet, old eating habits crept back it. So it was only a matter of time.

I can't give you long term results because I got pregnant (surprise!) shortly after and pregnancies are not kind to me.

Now I'm losing weight the way I always wanted to, albeit incredibly slow and tedious, but through the tried and true way of eating better and exercising. Shocking, I know. I've lost almost as much as "the diet" but now it feels much, much better and a total metamorphosis of my mental health as well as physical health because I KNOW I'm doing it the correct way. Sure it takes a lot longer, but really, what's the rush? In a way it's good it comes off slow, because that means it goes on slow too so you can be more forgiving of yourself during the learning curve.

I don't support habitual fad dieting in the least. However, everyone has their story and I understand why people want an easy out and go to extremes, but maybe only once or twice. Deep down, only you know what you need to do and why.

Good luck on your journey.

You will lose weight....fast

but it will be a lot of muscle and fat...

Do your own research and speak to medical professionals about it, don't let yourself be influenced by individuals that simply have an opinion on something.

You mean like the "medical professionals" at the FDA, who DID review the research and issued the following statement:

HCG has not been demonstrated to be effective adjunctive therapy in the treatment of obesity. There is no substantial evidence that it increases weight loss beyond that resulting from caloric restriction, that it causes a more attractive or "normal" distribution of fat, or that it decreases the hunger and discomfort associated with calorie-restricted diets.

Now maybe you are one of those people who thinks that government is just one big conspiracy. So, let's try THESE professionals:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2405506?dopt=Abstract

Human chorionic gonadotrophin and weight loss. A double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

Abstract
Low-dose human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) combined with a severe diet remains a popular treatment for obesity, despite equivocal evidence of its effectiveness. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, the effects of HCG on weight loss were compared with placebo injections. Forty obese women (body mass index greater than 30 kg/m2) were placed on the same diet supplying 5,000 kJ per day and received daily intramuscular injections of saline or HCG, 6 days a week for 6 weeks. A psychological profile, hunger level, body circumferences, a fasting blood sample and food records were obtained at the start and end of the study, while body weight was measured weekly. Subjects receiving HCG injections showed no advantages over those on placebo in respect of any of the variables recorded. Furthermore, weight loss on our diet was similar to that on severely restricted intake. We conclude that there is no rationale for the use of HCG injections in the treatment of obesity.

So that pretty much covers homeopathic HCG drops and injections. I don't know how much more clear cut the evidence has to be.

This question was settled definitively almost 40 years ago. The fact that it continues to live is testimony to the power of cynical mass-marketing and the desperate need that some people feel to lose weight.

Choose sides: The anti-HCG side: The FDA, the overwhelming majority of doctors and scientists, the overwhelming conclusion of the scientific literature.

The pro-HCG side: Dr Oz, Kevin Trudeau--whose Wikipedia page starts it's description of him as " convicted American fraud artist, author, radio personality, infomercial host, and salesman who promotes various unsubstantiated health, diet and financial 'remedies'. ", various shady doctors and supplement companies.

I did try HCG diet before MFP and didn't see any change and I left feeling hungry/low energy and overall just pissed off. Hope it works for you. Good luck

This does not work in the long run and causes metabolic damage. It was after trying this I realized I was developing an eating disorder mindset and came to my senses and quite after 18 days. Worse, you have no energy to work out. If you need some kind of structure that is easier than measuring, weighing and counting calories, try using weight watchers which gives you points (easier to count than calories sort of) and make sure you eat all your points. Slow and steady is what does it and remember TBL is not real life nor a healthy way to develop good lifelong habits.

You ask how is it successful if THREE years later I gained 25 lbs after going into a bit of depression and overeating and not exercising? Perhaps you just want to make a point but you failed at that.

So when you ate at a deficit (and co incidentally took HCG ) you lost weight - when you later over ate and stopped exercising you gained it back?

this is proving HCG drops work how exactly???