HCG is BAD!!!

I just talked today to someone who was using the drops. I fully sympathize with someone who cannot lose weight any other way, but I'm still puzzled about why the HCG is necessary. Eating only 500 calories a day I think would result in weight loss no matter what. She also told me she has to drink a gallon of water a day (that means a lot of bathroom breaks?). I know that fasting (and that's what it sounds like) creates problems for me with low blood sugar, no energy, and headaches. There is no easier way for me after 40+ years of trying to lose and maintain weight loss and no substitute for self-control and forming new eating habits (sigh).

Im so sorry to hear about your loved one. Praying for a speedy recovery.

That may be the worst of all the fad diets....I think you even get more cals on the cabbage soup one than that. They pray on people's desperation and it's sick. Hcg....give me a break.....if they ever come out with a "miacle cure" to shed fat trust me, the government will be shouting it from the rooftops, trying to give it to anyone they can our obesity is so out of control! you won't be hearing about it on an 90 second tv ad or from dr. Oz

That sucks!

Unfortunately there are no magic injections!

Have you considered your weight loss is due to the extremely low calories and not actually taking the hormone?
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My thoughts exactly!

Agreed...my mom has tried the drops several times, I keep telling her that she is loosing the weight because she is only eating 500 calories not because of the drops. The thing that gets her on it is that the ones she has are supposed to suppress your appetite or whatever, basically not make you feel hungry all the time. I keep telling her that she needs a REALISTIC diet, that 500 calories a day is not realistic for the rest of your life. That of course going from 500 calories while on the drops then back to even a normal amount of food is going to make you gain at least some of the weight back. I'm no expert, but it seems like common sense to me. She has lost 30-50 pounds each time she has done it over the last few years, but she has gained it back everytime. And she doesn't eat awful, not perfect and healthy all the time, but by all means not crap all the time.

I've never heard of HCG before..what is it?

It's a pregnancy hormone (it spikes in a woman's body when she is pregnant). It's what pregnancy tests measure.

I agree, horrors stories to EVERY THING! I know many who have had great success this way! 40 days of 500 calories is not going to kill you, the idea is when done you resume adding to that in healthy amounts! People do cleanses all the time which are even more restrictive! Bottom line is it is 40 days! Not a life time of low calories!

Just an fyi for all of you who want a 'quick fix' with HCG injections. My niece has been using it, with her Dr's blessing, has lost a lot of weight, looks awful and is now in the hospital, seriously ill. She is peeing 'black stuff' and may have kidney damage!
Your health and your life is more important than getting a quick fix. Please, please, do not use this stuff or any other 'fad' diets. You won't be able to maintain your weightloss and learn the right way to be healthy unless you do it right, with MYFITNESSPAL!

What about the liquid drops they sell at drug stores? Is it the same thing?

I agree, horrors stories to EVERY THING! I know many who have had great success this way! 40 days of 500 calories is not going to kill you, the idea is when done you resume adding to that in healthy amounts! People do cleanses all the time which are even more restrictive! Bottom line is it is 40 days! Not a life time of low calories!

You know what you don't hear many horror stories about? A balanced diet with proper nutrition while getting a moderate amount of exercise! How novel!
The HCG diet is designed to make money off of people who are frustrated with weight loss by promising them fast results through a synthesized hormone that the consumer doesn't actually understand. When these people finally see results (mostly from the fact that they've lost more muscle than fat through the 500-calorie diet) they think they've discovered the magic cure. Then they go back to eating normally and their metabolism is now slower, so they gain it back. Then they have to do the HCG diet again, and the vicious cycle begins.

40 days of this CAN do serious harm to your body, not only because of the hormone itself but because a 500-calorie diet does not give a human being the nutrients it needs to function, especially if said human being is also exercising. It also causes your metabolism to slow, making your maintenance level of calories even lower when you go back to trying to eat normally. And starting the HCG diet once often leads to repeat use, causing more and more harm.

Eat good clean food, get plenty of protein, consume naturally-occuring vitamins and minerals, drink water, and move your body from time to time. These things will make you feel good and look good. The HCG diet just makes you feel like crap and then you've wasted all your money on a fad diet.

Yes. We know . I'm sorry about your niece.