HCG diet?

[RB3232]

Has anyone done this? Ive been researching it online but haven't found solid information on it.

[NOSUPERMODEL]

I have not done it. But it requires you to only have 500 calories a day. You can only eat certain foods also. You will just lose muscle and when you get off you will balloon back up because you won't keep the 500 calories a day up plus you lost a lot of muscle which will slow down your metabolism.

One of the nurses at my doctors office did it. She gave me a printed out sheet of what all she was allowed to eat during the day. It was ridiculous.

[RB3232]

Ive heard about the 500 cals, anyone have a link to a solid site explaining it im curious

[JohnnyVegas]

It is hard to find legitimate info on it because the search results are full of sales sites. Of course, they all say great things. I searched for it a few months ago for my wife and found several articles that say the same thing: the claims are not supported by science. I like the info I found at the Mayo Clinic:

Answer
from Jennifer K. Nelson, R.D., L.D.

Because the HCG diet combines injections or supplements of the HCG hormone along with severe calorie restriction, you may lose weight — at least for the short term. But it's the calorie restriction that causes the weight loss, not the HCG. In addition, the safety of HCG for weight loss is uncertain, and the hormone hasn't been approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a treatment for obesity or weight control.

HCG is human chorionic gonadotropin, a hormone produced during pregnancy. As a prescription medication, HCG is used mainly to treat fertility issues.

Proponents of the HCG diet say that HCG can help you lose weight, burn fat and redistribute fat away from your buttocks and stomach. On the HCG diet, you either receive injections of HCG or take HCG supplements. The HCG diet also requires you to drastically cut your calorie intake, typically consuming just 500 to 800 calories a day — about one-fourth to one-half of the standard calorie recommendations. The HCG diet is typically offered through weight-loss clinics that say they will provide medical supervision.

Although researchers have studied the HCG diet for years, no high-quality studies have shown that the hormone itself helps weight loss. Following any very low calorie diet is likely to result in weight loss, regardless of taking HCG. And the HCG diet can have drawbacks. Severe calorie restriction can make it hard to meet all of your nutritional needs. And rapid weight loss can lead to gallstones. Also, HCG can cause side effects, including headache, fatigue, irritability and male breast enlargement. And be careful about buying HCG products on the Internet — they might not be what they say they are.

Once you stop the HCG diet, you're likely to regain any weight you lost. The key to permanent weight loss is developing healthy eating and exercise habits — not following fad diets.