HCG Diets: What Makes Them So Controversial?

Extreme, fad diets come into the mainstream every day, so much so that we’re very rarely phased by them. But sometimes diets come into our line of view and really make us take notice. The HCG Diet is one such calorie-restrictive scheme, but this time it involves needles as well. For many people, the stress of daily life and all that that encompasses can become a little much. Our health invariably drops to the bottom of the priority pile and we find ourselves feeling the brunt of many years of neglect. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and for some this means relying on the HCG Diet. The diet itself consists of eating no more than 500 calories a day, then giving yourself shots of human chorionic gonadotropin hormone once a day. The results, supposedly, speak for themselves – curves in all the right places, no extra fat and a glowing complexion. According to studies, HCG levels are at their highest in pregnant women and seem to be extracted through urine or created synthetically. The main focus of the diet is that the hormone forces the body to mobilise fat and use it for energy, much as it does during pregnancy when it nourishes the foetus. And when this is combined with a calorie restrictive diet, it also ‘resets’ your metabolism.

There’s been much discussed surrounding this diet by dieticians, as there is with any new craze. The claims are that eating so few calories would kick-start the weight loss regardless of the hormones, Furthermore, some men experienced side effects such as altered testosterone levels. For those undertaking the diet, the maximum number of days is 45 – after this, the body becomes immune to HCG. This is a solo endeavour, which frightens a lot of people. The concept of injecting yourself in the thigh on a daily basis may seem scary, and it will hurt, but it’s not an unbearable pain. In addition to this, you also inject yourself in the waist with vitamin B12 three times a week to up your energy levels. Once you’ve reviewed the diet plan with your consultant, you’re entirely on your own. But this isn’t always a bad thing. It means that you can be responsible for what you eat and there’s a level of flexibility within that, though not a massive amount.

 

The diet is strict, involving no carbs, dairy, alcohol or sugar. In small portions, you’re entitled to organic meats, fish and vegetables. In the early stages, it’s natural that you’ll crave the sugar for an instant energy boost and you’ll feel drained. But then you’ll start to see the effects – you’ll have more energy, your skin will glow and the whites of your eyes will be brighter. Once a week, you’ll return to the clinic where you’ll be weighed and assessed, with your HCG supply refreshed as well. There are things to remember, as with any diet, and risks to take into account. For example, as you begin to lose the weight, the injections will begin to hurt more as there will be less fat cushioning the needle. Some reports show women losing up to 25 pounds in 45 days, an impressive statistic. However, such a risky diet does require medical supervision and advice beforehand. It’s advised that anyone with health issues or concerns about the possible side effects should consult their GP before taking part in the HCG diet. If you’re sensible about dieting and don’t do this for longer than the 45 day advised, this could be an effective form of weight loss.

Categories: calorie restrictive, diet, Diets, energy, hCG Diet, hormones, levels, weight, Weight Loss

Five Things You Didn"t Know About Medical Weight Loss

When you want to lose weight fast, you need to enlist the help of a medical weight loss program like the HCG diet. This exciting new method of losing weight is one of the fastest ways to lose pounds. Although it is makes the pounds melt off like butter, it is very safe because it is a medical weight loss method. For those unfamiliar with medical weight loss, here are five things to know about the HCG diet.

 

1. Human Chorionic Gonadotropin

The HCG in the HCG diet stands for human chorionic gonadotropin, which is a substance that is produced in the placenta during pregnancy. HCG was first discovered by a British endocrinologist, Dr. A.T.W. Simeon. This substance has been proven by researchers to force the body to burn fat deposits instead of muscle.

2. Way It Works

The injection of HCG into the body of a normal person will send signals to the hypothalamus that the body should begin burning fat deposits as quickly as possible to provide fuel. This is the tool that allows people undergoing the HCG diet to lose weight as rapidly as a pound per day.

3. No Need to Eat

Because the HCG injections tell the body to burn fat deposits for energy, dieters can avoid eating much at all while they are on the HCG diet. In fact, the average person only consumes 500 calories a day while they are undergoing HCG injections, which shows you how just how much of your energy will be coming from burning fat.

4. Benefits of Medical Weight Loss

If people try to undergo a low-calorie diet like the HCG diet without medical supervision, they will usually end up burning muscle more quickly than they burn their fat deposits. It is very important for dieters to be smart when they want medical weight loss. They need to enlist the help of a qualified HCG diet Chicago facility like Fullerton Drake Medical Center.

5. Those Last Stubborn Ten Pounds

One of the great things about medical weight loss with the HCG diet is that it is perfect for every dieter’s needs. Whether you have hundreds of pounds to lose or are just looking to lose those last stubborn ten pounds of belly fat, the HCG diet will make the pounds melt off of your body like a snowman in the spring sunshine. When you are looking for a powerful, safe means of weight loss, give the HCG diet a try.

Categories: chorionic gonadotropin, diet, hCG Diet, hcg injections, human chorionic, Lose weight, loss, Medical, medical weight, pounds melt, weight, Weight Loss

Five Absolutely Ridiculous Diets You’d be Stupid to Try

Whenever you’re in a moany mood about your weight, there always seems to be a trusty friend or colleague nearby who comes out with “Oh, there’s this new diet you have to try!” However, before you take their advice, stop and think about what that fad diet is doing to you wellness. We’ve compiled a list of six disaster diets that, if you have any regard for your wellbeing, you should avoid like the plague.

 

 

1. The Raw Food Diet

The raw food diet is rich in all plant-based foods – including fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, and sprouted seeds, grains, and beans – so you may be wondering why it has made it onto a list of diets to avoid. While any dietician is likely to agree that it’s good to eat minimally processed foods, processing sometimes boosts the bio-availability of several key nutrients and inactivates some of the unhealthy compounds. This diet is going to involve a lot of complicated food preparation, which is just impractical if you’re as busy as most of us are these days.

 

 

2. The hCG Diet

On this diet, you eat 500 to 800 calories per day, and supplement with injections of the pregnancy hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). The problem with this diet is that eating anything below 1,000 calories a day is really unsafe, and of course you’re going to lose weight even if you inject yourself with liquid chocolate. The hCG injections raise a lot of red flags among wellness experts, who don’t know if it’s safe to inject, and all that speedy weight loss is just going to come back with a vengeance once you realise that only a Barbie doll could survive on so few calories.

 

 

3. The Master Cleanse

According to Karla Campbell, MS, RD, a dietician in Long Beach, California, this diet involves “cleansing” your body with a concoction of squeezed lemons, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper, which you drink several times a day for 10 days. Then, with the aim of cleaning out you GI tract and bowels, you down a nightly herbal laxative tea, as well as a quart of salt water first thing in the morning. Not only is there no evidence to support the effectiveness of this diet, but it lacks so many key nutrients that you’d be hard-pressed to find a dietician who would advocate the master cleanse. Campbell adds, ‘Dieters who try it end up losing lean body mass, and then when they are “cleansed” and go back to their old ways, they gain fat. They end up being a fatter version of their old selves.’

 

 

4. The Cabbage Soup Diet. 

A lot of people believe this diet is recommended by the American Heart Association (AHA), but the health organisation – and others – has made it very clear that this fad diet is to be avoided at all costs. It involves a seven-day cycle based on all-you-can-eat “fat-burning” cabbage soup, which is a mix of cabbage, carrots, celery, tomatoes, peppers, and onions. The one saving grace of this diet is that it provides plenty of liquids and nutrient-packed veggies, but there’s no way you can sustain this lifestyle if you cherish food, or living, at all. The cabbage soup diet restricts too many food groups, which means you’ll be back where you started before too long.

 

 

5. Breatharian Diet

Words cannot describe how ridiculous this diet is. Literally, you live on air alone, with no food or water – that’s it! Call me crazy, but I’m pretty sure you’d die if you went a few days without water, or a few weeks without food. Enthusiasts for this diet say that your body aligns with the universe, or some such mumbo-jumbo, and you won’t need water or food. I’m thinking those enthusiasts are sneaking cheese burgers in between all that Universal alignment.

Categories: Breatharian Diet, cabbage soup, diet, fad diet, food diet, hCG Diet, key nutrients, master cleanse, nbsp nbsp, raw food, Raw Food Diet, soup diet

Pregnant Women’s Urine or Rat’s Urine? Your hCG Choice

With the recent surge in popularity for the hCG diet, you may think it’s a fairly innovative and modern new take on weight loss wellness. However, this diet was in fact invented in the 1950s by a British endocrinologist, Albert T.W. Simeons. So, did they get it right 60 years ago? Or have we simply run out of fad diets to offer the misguided public, and so have started dusting off the old wisdom?

Your body produces Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) during the first trimester of pregnancy. In fact, hCG is the fateful hormone that your standard pee-stick pregnancy test is looking for. According to the brilliance of Simeons all those years ago, if you weren’t pregnant, but you injected yourself with hCG, your brain would be fooled into thinking you had a bun in the oven. This would then make your brain give the command to your body to start burning up all your fat to protect a nonexistent developing foetus. Plus, on this diet you eat something on the order of 500 calories a day – but this is totally incidental, of course. Any weight loss you experience will really be down to the brain-rewiring power of the pregnancy hormones you’re getting, right? No; it’s the 500 calorie thing.

There are several reasons why the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) isn’t too keen on the hCG diet. Firstly, depending on factors like age, build and activity level, the FDA recommends that your diet consist of 2,000 calories per day, give or take a few. However, they really don’t love the idea of women using hCG, which is approved as a fertility treatment, for weight loss, because of the involvement of urine. Yep, you read that correctly! The hCG diet practitioners extract the wellbeing-boosting hormone from the urine of pregnant women.

While hCG diet websites are all very careful to explain that this pee is really thoroughly cleaned before they give it to you, this only means that, instead of injecting yourself with the pee of knocked-up women, you’re just injecting yourself with PART OF the pee of knocked-up women. However, there’s always synthetic hCG, which doesn’t use the wee of pregnant women. It does, on the other hand, use the urine of pregnant rats. Which would you prefer?

Categories: diet, hCG Diet, loss, pregnancy, Pregnant, Pregnant Women, Urine, Weight Loss, Women

The HCG Diet: Weight Loss Tool or a Colossal Waste of Time?

Thanks to a lot of celebrity endorsement, the HCG Diet is more popular than ever, but is it actually beneficial to your wellbeing? Let’s explore the controversies surrounding the HCG Diet.

 

What is it? Human Chorionic Gonadotropin, or HCG for short, is a hormone found naturally in the urine of pregnant women. Yep, people are injected with the same hormone found in pregnant women’s urine in order to lose weight. The theory goes that the hormone causes your hypothalamus to release fat reserves, which it then uses to fuel your body.

 

What are its claims? The HCG promises a quick fix for weight problems, but considering any wellness expert will tell you that there is, in fact, no quick fix for weight loss, this promise falls a little flat. Users assert that they have lost as much as 10kg in 30 days, as well as stubborn fat that hasn’t previously responded to diet and exercise. However, as the weight loss programme also involves a very low-calorie diet, since the reserved fat is what fuels the body’s energy needs and excess caloric intake is not required, it’s more likely this element – rather than the injections – that causes weight loss.

 

What’s the science? Although there is a plausible theory behind the HCG diet, there is no scientific research to back it up. According to a research analysis published in The British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology in 1995, HCG has absolutely no benefits for weight loss, but rather it is the dangerously low 500 calorie diet that users follow, and this has harmful repercussions. All clinical trials have concluded that HCG is ineffective and pointless, while a 2009 report from the American Society of Bariatric Physicians stated that HCG isn’t recommended to any obese person for weight loss.

 

Is it approved? In short, no. The Federal Trade Commission and the FDA issued strict warnings in December 2011, telling almost seven companies that their product didn’t have the necessary FDA approval and the claims they were making were not backed by research or examination by experts.

 

What are the side effects? The low calorie diet will cause vitamin, mineral and fat deficiencies, as well as headaches, loss of muscle tissue, stomach ulcers, hormone imbalance, and blood sugar imbalance. Plus, any weight you lose will always come back, and this time as all-fat instead of the fat-and-muscle combo that you lost.

Categories: calorie diet, dangers, Evidence, hCG Diet, loss nbsp, Pregnant Women, Weight Loss