hCG Diet

Published:March 20th, 2011

The hCG diet is a diet combining injections of the hCG hormone and a daily limit of 500 calories. HCG is the human chorionic gonadotropin, available through doctors or drugstores in a diluted form. Nutritional supplements stores also provide the diluted form. The human chorionic gonadotropin can make fat in the body become available to nourish the fetus and is present in pregnant women.

This diet fad has been around since the 1950s, and today people can find hCG in different forms such as sprays, liquid drops or creams. The hCG diet was firs popularized by Dr. Albert Simeons in 1971. In his book, “Pounds and Inches: A New Approach to Obesity”, Simoens, a British born endocrinologist, revealed that small doses of HCG given to people who were overweight could make them loose inches around the stomach area very fast. It was assumed that the hormone can help metabolize abdominal fat, reduce the appetite in a natural way by working on the hypothalamus gland which controls satiety.

The FDA never approved the hCG diet and has repeatedly issued warnings that hCG has not been proven to promote weight loss.

However, the FDA never banned doctors from prescribing the hormone for quick weight loss.

Proponents of the hCG diet claim to lose up to 30 pounds in a month, but due to the heavy restrictions of just 500 calories per day, the results are not unexpected. In addition, when you lose weight fast, you are more likely to gain it back faster. Slow and steady is a healthier way to achieve long term results.

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