HCG

"Nothing in this world that's worth having comes easy" - Dr. Robert Kelso


:flowerforyou:

Good for you. However, I'm not you. I'm also not suggesting that HCG is the "end all be all". It's more of a last resort type thing.

Just to clarify, I was asking about HCG experience, so I could make an informed decision - not the opinion of people who haven't had any experience with it.

Why is it required that I 'try it' before commenting?

Exactly.. apparently you can only research HCG only by trying it and not reading studies on it or anything silly like a medical journal...

I'm not going to comment about HCG one way or another because I don't have the personal experience of using it to give an informed decision. As you indicated, you were looking for helpful input so that you can make an informed decision. You indicated that you have tried "diet and exercise" before, but that it was unsuccessful. you did not indicate why it was unsuccessful.

I have been on this journey before. I have gained weight, lost weight, re-gained weight, and am now losing weight again. From my experience and from reading about this, it is my belief that the mental part of the healthy lifestyle journey is more difficult than the physical part of the journey. I believe that having and maintaining a good mindset is important no matter how you intend to pursue the journey. As folks have said in this thread who have experience with HCG, it takes a commitment...not only to do the HCG cycle, but to do what is necessary after the cycle. The same is true for those of us who have chosen to pursue the journey via healthier eating and exercise. It takes will power and it takes an understanding of what to do when will power (as it inevitably will) wanes from time to time.

For this, I recommend that you review my will power blog below and consider taking the time to do the activity in it.

No matter how you choose to pursue your healthy lifestyle journey, I truly wish you the best success possible.

"Nothing in this world that's worth having comes easy" - Dr. Robert Kelso


:flowerforyou:

okay i am not advocating this diet, but in what universe would sticking to a 500 cal diet be consider coming easy???????

If you didn't have the willpower to follow a simple eat less exercise more "routine", what makes you think you will be able to stick to the HCG?

This was going to be my question as well. It seems so much easier to just eat a bit less and move a bit more.

I don't know much about it, but the idea of putting pregnant women's pee into my body either by drops in my mouth or shots is enough to turn me off from it. Also, I think that if I went on a 500 calorie a day diet, I would probably lose weight as well, but it would probably be from starving myself all day, not from some drops.

I agree with most people on here, successful weight loss comes from making healthy lifestyle choices and there is no magic bullet, pill, drops or shots that will get you there. You have to fix what is wrong in the first place and doing something that drastic will inevitably lead to gaining it all back plus more.

Weight loss is determined by calories in and calories out. If you are diligently tracking your intake and exercising and still not getting results, I would evaluate what you are actually eating and just write every little thing down, measure it out, count etc. Many times, we think we are eating a certain number of calories, but it is not actually accurate. If you are being accurate, then seek a doctor's advice. I have a thyroid disorder, so weight loss is difficult for me, but with different diet experiments I am losing, with no magic pills.

Good luck!

If you didn't have the willpower to follow a simple eat less exercise more "routine", what makes you think you will be able to stick to the HCG?

From what I understand of HCG, folks who follow it lose roughly 1 pound per day while on the cycle. I believe that watching the scale move every day provides the potential of added motivation that you don't get with "slow and steady wins the race". the better question might be...if you don't have will power to do the slow and steady method now, are you going to have it after the HCG cycle (i.e., when you're not losing a pound a day any longer)...or exactly what is your exit plan following the HCG cycle? As I stated above, regardless of the method used for the journey, I strongly recommend the activity in my will power blog.

The thing there, is a good portion of that weight lost is water weight, as a serious calorie restriction leads to much lower glycogen stores, which leads to much less water stored with the glycogen. So really, it's more of a placebo effect that isn't sustainable anyway. It's the same reason someone who intermittently fasts weighs lower on fasting days, as they go through all of their glycogen stores and lose the water, and then weigh slightly more when they go back to their normal eating regimen, and the body refills it's glycogen stores. Not to mention eating so little leads to less food in your stomach, because yes, the food you eat has weight and counts as part of your body weight. :laugh:

hmmmm....in April, I ate only veggies for 2 weeks. I wasn't counting calories at that time, but I suspect it was a serious calorie restriction (maybe 500 calories some days; maybe 800 calories other days...who knows...veggies just don't have a lot of calories). I lost 14 or 16 pounds during those 2 weeks. I didn't gain any of them back...ever. Instead, I have lost another 20 something pounds doing healthy eating, portion control and exercise afterwards. in fairness, I will say that I didn't get back to losing weight immediately after the cleanse. I somewhat plateaued a bit, but expected that. I was happy that I didn't gain any of the weight back and eventually began to lose again at the slow and steady method.

Good Lord. Too many things to respond to. My point was, I wasn't asking for opinions - I was asking for experiences (good or bad). But, clearly people are SUPER opinionated on this topic.

It isn't always about will power (not saying I'm overloaded with it). I guess at this point I'm to share my medical history. I do have PCOS. I have heard that people with PCOS can benefit from HCG. (also a reason I was wanting to hear from people who have tried it). Also, I have degenerative disc disease - unfortunately, it's acting up. In addition, like most fat folk, I have pretty significant knee problems. So "moving" a little more it somewhat difficult at this point. Yes, I know that people in my position (and worse) can and have done it. I really wanted to use HCG as a starting point. Drop some of this weight that is obviously assisting my back/hip/knee pain, and get back to the gym along with a healthy and balanced diet.

AGAIN, I'm not saying that this is the way people should lose weight - it was a consideration. And since this is a weight loss website (except for those trying to gain - I hate you) I thought I'd ask!

P.S. How dare you use my favorite quote against me (I love Scrubs) ;-)

You seem to be relatively grounded and aren't so thin-skinned as to freak out because the Internetz aren't agreeing with you. I respect that. You should know that MFP - as a site, not just the forum - doesn't support unhealthy/fad diets. HCG isn't very popular as a safe diet here. In fact, it gets ridiculed sometimes.

Maybe HCG is for you. I don't know. But the way you have reacted so far makes me hope that you will try HCG, come to realize that there really aren't any ways around the simple math of "eat less and/or move more" and start losing weight more traditionally. I know you state you have tried and have medical issues, and HCG is a last resort. Still, I'm stubborn. And you seem likable. And it's my fantasy. And my fantasy ends with you ditching HCG after a few months, working with a nutritionist and/or trainer, seeing a doctor, regularly logging on MFP, and a year from now replying to HCG threads with "I tried it, and it worked OK, but here's what really helped me..."

And scene. Cut background music.

Seriously, good luck with whatever you do.

Good for you. However, I'm not you. I'm also not suggesting that HCG is the "end all be all". It's more of a last resort type thing.

Just to clarify, I was asking about HCG experience, so I could make an informed decision - not the opinion of people who haven't had any experience with it.

Why do you need a last resort? I don't even work out yet. Just restricting calories is enough to lose weight. (Working out is for fitness/hotness.) I restrict mine to 1200. Try that instead of the ridiculous 500 and skip the useless drops. They very literally do NOTHING for weight loss. So save your $$.

Hope this helps. Good luck.