hCG?

hCG stands for Human Chorionic Gonadotropin, a hormone produced by the placenta during pregnancy. During pregnancy, the substance almost completely controls the woman's metabolic functions. Generally, the hCG used in the diet protocols, is synthetic.

this diet, according to the web site calls for 500 calories a day and injections of a synthetic hormone that mimics the hormone produced during pregnancy

this would scare the crap out of me and unless a team of doctors told me this do this or die I would run away from it fast

They did it for 30 days, and Molly lost 25 some odd pounds. She has kept off most of it she thinks (she now lifts weights, and has gained a few pounds but it looks like it is just muscle she has gained). My Aunt did it too, but shes an emo-eater and gained it all back (she does not exercise either). Both of them said it was fine the first two and a half weeks, but as it went on they started getting BAD cravings!

I started the first shot today... I have to eat as much as I can, of whatever I want for today and tomorrow, then I start with just the 500 cals. It's a little weird giving myself a shot, but it's pretty easy... even though I hate shots I didn't even feel it.

you are injecting yourself with a synthetic hormone and are going to limit your calories to 500 a day

PLEASE PLEASE tell me that you are under a Doctor's supervision and not relying on this website for medical advice

Has anybody here done the hCG diet? I've seen some of my friends do it and they lost alot of weight very quickly. They said though that near the end it got harder and harder to stay with the meal plan. I was wondering if anyone has done it, and how did it work for them? How were you able to stay on it?
xoxo

The first statement that you made that worries me is "they lost a lot of weight very quickly". People need to start getting out of the mindset of losing weight very quickly. You may lose a lot of weight quickly, but what have you learned? As soon as you are no longer taking the shot, your environment hasn't changed, you haven't learned healthy self discipline. I would much rather learn discipline, work out, teach myself how to eat healthy and make long term fixes rather than this American quick fix idea. Your body was not made to work that way, and it's not healthy. You have no idea how much you could be screwing up your metabolism, and your basic body chemistry. NOTHING can replace eating right and moving around more. This is just a temporary "fix" and I urge you to be careful.

Kevin Trudeau! :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Maybe you should google him before listening to anything he has to say.

I do believe most people would accurately tell you, including doctors, that there is no quick fix, no easy solution that's healthy-- make sensible eating choices, count your calories based on healthy guidelines and exercise-- you may lose a lot of weight quickly using other means, but the damage to your body isn't worth the aesthetic benefit you feel you may gain--

Be careful. Be sensible.

I know three women at my gym that all did this "diet" and one recommended it to me. I read the pamphlet and NOWAY! Yes, they lost weight.......initially, but the hormones most likely weren't the true cause of weight loss it was teh highly restrictive calorie intake. And yes, they all gained it back and then some.

Just face it, there is NO magic pill, shot, drink, wrap, powder, scent or water you can use to lose weight PERMANENTLY. They are all band aids for a problem that needs stitches! You need to learn to do it the right way, as aggravating as that can be at times. IF you don't you are sure to end up gaining all your weight back and some bonus pounds.

How's that for outrage?

Please reconsider what you're doing. I can totally relate to wanting to lose alot of weight quickly. I was also under the care of a doc, visiting a reputable little establishment called "Pound Melters" for my monthly prescription of Phen-Fen (yeah, the drug the FDA took off the market because it causes heart failure, etc). Once Phen-Fen was taken off the market, "Pound Melters" stared prescribing Phendimetrizine (I think that's the half of Phen-Fen that wasn't taken off the market). Then after that, they started prescribing Adipex - yet another speed-ball weight-loss drug. My own general practitioner and GYN were both mortified years later when I told them I had done this. I guess my point is just because you're under the care of a doc, doesn't mean the doc is reputable. (Think Octo-mom's doc, the doc that prescribed Anna Nicole' prescriptions, etc - not necessarily reputable, more likely, just greedy).

If these practices were safe, every doc would be prescribing speed balls and injecting hCG hormones and we'd all be thin. Admittedly, my example is different than your hCG question and I don't know much about the hCG diet, but it sure sounds suspect. Please be careful :flowerforyou:

this thread scares me:noway: I think I'll do it the old fashioned way

I thought I would just chime in here, too. angyltears, I hope what you are hearing is concern. One of the things I have learned here on MFP from those like arewethereyet and Marla, not to mention others that have lost significant amounts of weight is this: while we are all different, there are some tried and true rules of the road. One of the rules is that weight that comes off quickly typically goes back on the same way. Its a bummer, but it seems to be true. If you are like me, with a significant, and I mean REALLY SIGNIFICANT amount of weight to lose, you will lose the initial pounds quickly. I lost 11 pounds my first week. Since then, I have been losing a couple of pounds a week.

For me, its not just about the weight loss - its about living life in a less restrictive, more abundant way, doing the things I love that I haven't been able to do because of the weight I've gained. So having said that, one of the reasons your aunt and Molly experienced severe cravings after a couple of weeks is that their bodies were letting them know that they were literally starving to death. Eventually, that craving will become strong enough to override your "will" and make sure you eat if the food is available. Not a healthy place to be. That same set of rules will make sure your body's metabolism slows way down to compensate for the lack of fuel. It also attacks your lean body mass (muscle) for fuel if you aren't fueling your body regularly. Then, when you do eat, your body has "learned" to store every little calorie it can against the next famine, so you bulk up just thinking about food! Its literally a lose, lose situation. In his book, "How to Lower Your Fat Thermostat", Garth Fisher, PhD, a doctor and nutritionist describes this quite well. So does Banks (SHBoss) one of our better informed peers here at MFP.

Again, from what I am learning, which is all I have to offer, we seem to get too hung up on specific numbers. For example, the idea that we all need a minimum of 1200 calories. Its just a number. In fact, it is the number that the World Health Organization determined was a minimum caloric requirement for WOMEN. Men usually need more, pregnant and lactating women need more. Athletes in training need more. When in training, MIchael Phelps consumes 10 times 1200 calories a day! So, 1200 is a number, a minimum rather than maximum number. Next, our ideal or goal weight, again, just a number. We probably should think of our weight in terms of a healthy or ideal range, rather than one magic number. Most measurement standards recommend a range, rather than a number. I am a woman, 5' 10.5" tall. Most of the "standard" tools recommend a range of 139 to 174 lbs for me. However, a nutritionist and fitness expert who works at the fitness institiute at a local hospital, after running a body composition test on me suggested my ideal weight is closer to 185 to 195 lbs. He pointed out that my wrist circumfrence is 7.75 inches -- thats larger than a lot of men. I have a big frame, so I need to adjust accordingly.

So, I hope you are reconsidering the injections. If you are really serious about being healthy and losing weight is a part of that, I urge you to do it in such a way that your body can sustain the weight loss and maintain or build optimal health. Good luck, and make sure you let us know how things are going!