HCG - another too good to be true diet?

What will happen if you start eating normal again is you will put weight back on because your metabolism will be slower than it was prior to the diet, as during the diet you lose a lot of muscle.

There is one person in this thread that lost 28 lbs, but more than half came from lean mass (muscle) while losing weight you will lose some muscle, but to lose more than half your loss not be due to fat loss is an extreme waste of time and effort.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/356410-hcg-diet?page=3#posts-4859302

good friend of mine did a course of this diet with his wife, both lost nearly 50 lbs, but I doubt it had anything to do with the drops. More with the 500 calorie diet and then having only apples to eat for a day if you screw up.

I was at the verge of trying this before I cracked down and just started using this site. My problem with it, is how does this diet teach you to eat properly to maintain your newly found weight?

Good luck with your choice.

that's the right question to ask.

On MFP we're (hopefully) looking for long term, lifestyle changes to help us become healthy and happy, not for weight loss at all costs. that being the case, do we want to choose what we all must recognize is a rather extreme weight loss method?

I know some HCG programs have a "weening" process, but you must ask yourself this, would you rather follow a plan that teaches you how to eat right and exercise for life, a plan that doesn't overly stress your body, a plan that gives your body time to adjust to changes? Or would you rather use a plan that puts a foreign substance of dubious chemical success (at best) into your body, open your body up to serious immune system complications, drop weight at a precipitous rate creating odd situations including (but not limited to) anemia, wild mood swings, fatigue, muscle canabalization, bone loss, possible depression, head aches, and serious complications brought on by various vitamin deficiencies. And then when you're done, you have to learn how to eat healthy again anyway.

Those are the questions I ask people when they ask me about HCG.

I dont think the drops work at all. I think the weight lost comes from being on a 500 cal per day diet. The drops are more of a placebo, in my opinion....
One of my clients lost 150 lbs In a year on the hgc diet. She spent $300 a month on the drops and ate only 500 cals a day.
But she lost too much way too fast. Her skin is hanging because she never excercised. And when she stopped taking the drops and tried to go back to eating more than 500 cal, she started to gain again. She regrets it, poor thing. She says she has no idea how to maintain the weight lost and now she has to learn how to eat a healthy amount of food--she says it's amost like she's getting over an eating disorder....sad.

nothing will happen because the drops don't do a thing, even the injections of HCG (which are RX) were found to do nothing.

Well... there is the possibility of re-feeding syndrome if the 'diet' is suddenly stopped.

Listen to Acg67.

Snake oil is snake oil. The drops do nothing, it's been proven. Weight loss happens in HCG cases because of a sudden lack of surplus calories, that's the only reason. This diet is not sustainable, healthy, or affordable. Homeopathic (anything) is a waste of time and money for the consumer and has been debunked time and time again.

What will happen if you start eating normal again is you will put weight back on because your metabolism will be slower than it was prior to the diet, as during the diet you lose a lot of muscle.

There is one person in this thread that lost 28 lbs, but more than half came from lean mass (muscle) while losing weight you will lose some muscle, but to lose more than half your loss not be due to fat loss is an extreme waste of time and effort.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/356410-hcg-diet?page=3#posts-4859302

Serious question here.
How can you tell if you are losing muscle or fat?
Thanks

What will happen if you start eating normal again is you will put weight back on because your metabolism will be slower than it was prior to the diet, as during the diet you lose a lot of muscle.

There is one person in this thread that lost 28 lbs, but more than half came from lean mass (muscle) while losing weight you will lose some muscle, but to lose more than half your loss not be due to fat loss is an extreme waste of time and effort.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/356410-hcg-diet?page=3#posts-4859302

Serious question here.
How can you tell if you are losing muscle or fat?
Thanks

that's a good question, and the reality of the answer is, in a day to day situation, you really can't tell. Over the course of weeks or more likely months, you can take the difference of 2 body fat tests, but other than that it's very difficult to tell. That's one of the big problems with nutrition, because the body is so efficient at just about everything, it's very tough to tell when you're doing something wrong. It's why doctors specialize, there's just to much going on for 1 doctor to know everything about the body.

The only thing you can do is arm yourself with knowledge. In this case an understanding that the human body will fight back against starvation in the best way it knows how. That means it'll try to cut down on extra energy needs, it'll do this by slowing down bodily function, storing every last bit of energy as fat that it can, and burning muscle mass when it deems that mass not necessary. If your deficit is big enough that your body can't compensate for it by using glycogen stores, then these things start happening.
Add to that that it's virtually impossible to receive enough micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) to keep you healthy with 500 to 650 calories a day, even with supplements, and you're really setting yourself up for trouble.