HGC Diet Has Anyone Tried It??

I've never tried it, but I don't trust any diet that includes taking pregnancy hormones when you're not pregnant. And 500 calories a day is dangerously low.

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Essentially, it's a starvation diet. ANYONE will loose weight doing this, but as soon as the diet changes back to normal...the weight comes back. Often, even more comes back. It's nothing more then a fad diet, and they don't work for a reason. Restricting calories that low adversely effects organ, body, and brain function. Many respected doctors (Dr. Oz being one) have spoken out against the diet.

http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/fitness/weight-loss-chal...

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/hcg-diet-fact-vs-fiction

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How about an answer from someone who's NOT trying to sell it to you??!! I have not tried this diet, but I know people who have, and as someone who has worked in the nutrition field, this is a horrible thing to do to your body! Of COURSE you will have "good results" when you are only eating 500 calories a day--you are starving your body! Unless you plan to eat like that forever--and that is pretty unrealistic--this is a short-term solution to a weight problem. As soon as you start eating food again your body will store it as fat because you've starved it in the past. Please consider a healthy lifestyle instead of an extreme diet--you will much better off in the long run!

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My mom, sister and father have done it with excellent results. They all got on board from my mom's friend who lost 30 lbs on it and has maintained the weight loss now for over a year. I will consider doing it if they can maintain their weight loss for over a year. but they all say don't do the drops, get the injections. Keeping liquid under your tongue for 15 min is a bigger pain in the a-- than it sounds.

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I haven't tried it but my family and I were all going to get on it. I would never do the drops. The drops don't have enough of the actual HCG to help any and would cause you to actually feel hungry. With the shots (you would need a doctor to get this) you get everything that you need. Also the reason why you need the right amount of HCG, is because it's what is telling your body to eat the fat and not muscle. When your body starves, it goes straight for muscle and not fat.
There was an episode that the doctors did on HCG, I would highly suggest watching it before starting this diet. It gives you tons of fact, people that used it and their reactions to the HCG and to the 500 calories. What he also said is that if you are on any kind of calorie restrictive diet like this one, you HAVE to be under doctor supervision. Which is one of the reasons why the drops ares so popular. They can be bought at the mall.
Oh one more thing against the drops. They can be produced anywhere, and from any animal. With the shots, they are made synthetically in a lab. Sterile lab. No some person's basement in India.
When you start the diet it says a high fat diet for like a week. Don't do potato chips. Do real healthy fat, like in avocado's and other healthy food. If you do the junk food, then you are setting yourself up to fail. Start getting your self accustome to only a few foods. Don't start the 500 calorie diet without the HCG, but start only eating chicken that has been grilled with a few HCG diet approved herbs, Eat tons of fruits and veggies. Because that is all your allowed to eat. There are a few other things, but not much lee way. Oh plus some people don't do their research and think that all you have to do is only eat 500 calories. Nope, you can't eat certain food, certain make up (it absorbs through your skin and I'm guessing can react with the HCG)
Talk with an EXPERT on this diet before ever starting it. It's much more limited than most people think. If you want, I can scan and email you the "guide book" that my doctor gave me. Personal message me and I can send it to you. Most doctors only know a little about it, but I would talk with someone who has detailed knowledge about it.
**Sorry it wasn't The Doctors, but Dr. Oz,

1 mom found this helpful

I have not tried this but to only eat 500 calories per day is not enough for anyone. You can lose weight by moderate exercise and eating multiple small meals per day. good luck

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I lost 50 lbs on it, I just finished my 23 day lock in after the diet. LOVED it. I had no trouble losing it. This actually was my second try though. I did it last spring and only lost 23 lbs and I did that in the first few weeks and then kept trying for 2 months and plateaued and nothing. And I gained it all back and then some, but that was medicine related. So this time I did better, I drank more water. Both times I did it my will power was strong. But also last time I had lots of weddings and birthdays and holidays and so it was difficult that way because there was always a cheat day and an apple or steak day to make up for it. This time I didnt cheat. I started Feb 1st. The weight just fell off. I drank alot, I wasn't hungry. I wasn't tempted when the kids wanted ice cream. (shocking) I wasn't even tempted when they brought home candy. I ate lots of apples and veggies and thought this time I'd do tiny portions of what they ate at night even if it wasn't on my diet, but during the day stick with just the diet. That way I would be used to eating after the 'diet' wa over. No going back for seconds, no soda even before I started the diet, I had decided that New Years Eve and had lost 6 lbs before I started the diet.
I think it is amazing! Well worth it. My friend who I bought it from did it last year and lost 113 lbs and has only gained about 10 back.
L. D

While it kind of is a starvation thing, they do outline the reasoning for it and how it will not harm you. The normal guideline of 1200 calories minimum is based on the idea that there is no way to get all the nutrition you need in fewer calories. That really isnt true - depends on what you eat exactly. And it is extremely strict on what you eat. The other concept is that the HCG causes your body to release calories (i.e. energy) from your "brown fat" stores, so really you are "using" 1200 calories a day, just getting 700 of them from fat in your body instead of new food. Its also why you are not supposed to be physically hungry despite so few calories (phsycholoically hungry is a different story!)

I did try this from a friend who sells them and does really well when she does it. I made it less than one day the first time :) and about a week the second time. I did lose 9 pounds that week and wasnt really hungry. But all it takes is one night you have to go out to eat or break down and you kind of ruin it. So if you try it, make sure nothing special coming up and you can make your own food during that time. You are also supposed to come off it a very specific way in order to avoid regaining. That guidebook someone mentioned goes through all the requirements.

The people who i have seen make it through the 21 or 40 days do lose a lot of weight (like 25-30 pounds) and it does come off differently than just regular dieting - their shape REALLY changes overall. But its very difficult to do. Lets face it - if I could restrict my eating that well, I probably wouldnt be overweight in the first place. My friend justified it because she has no trouble sticking to a diet, and she gets a lot of exercise, it just seems like nothing she does will take it off normally. Almost like having a thyroid condition or something. But when she does this diet it just melts off her. So if you have stuck to other diets successfully and just didnt lose weight like you thought, this might work for you. If you cant stick to other diets, you probably wont make it through this one either!

Good luck!

It's best to talk to a respected doctor who is licensed to distribute this. We(husband & I) are doing this now w/ homeopathic drops under the care of our chiropractor. We have cheated a little, yes it's very hard to do the restricted diet, but I wanted to give it a try since weight does not cone off easily! I don't care what sone of you may say "it's easy, just cut your calories & exercise"! If that alone worked for me, I would have lost the weight 4 1/2 years ago after my second son was born!! Try losing w/ hypothyroid(even on medicine) & blood work shows that my cells don't metabolize the way they should! The HCG reprograms your cells to metabolize the way they should! It also burns about 2,000 calories/ day, so your body doesn't need as many calories!! Get the facts before you start bashing it because of the 500 calories/day! We haven't felt sluggish at all! We have actually ate more fruits, veggies, fish & lean chicken breast than ever! When you eat almost a whole bagful of spinach, you get full! When we do cheat, our bodies let us know that they're not happy about it. We feel sick to our tummies! There is no side effects w/ this though! So far I have only lost 8 lbs. in 4 wks, but like I said we haven't always stuck to the 500, more like 700 cal/day! I have lost about 1-2 inches every where they measure though!

Hi J.,

This diet, the way you described it to me, seems very unhealthy. The body needs nearly far more calories a day to stay healthy. Reducing it to one fraction of this will have consequences of poor nutrition.

I found a calorie calculator online. You can plug your own numbers into it and see how many calories you need for healthy, gradual weight loss:

http://nutrition.about.com/library/bl_nutrition_guide.htm

If it's any reference, I'm about 140 lbs right now and as short as hobbit. Using the calculator and asking it to adjust my caloric intake to lose weight, I was 'allowed' 1200+ calories a day, and would lose one pound per week.

I looked around regarding this diet, and unless someone was trying to sell me something, all other information said the same thing: not really healthy, not safe, an old fad come back. HGC was formerly injected; now it's available as a 'homeopathic' remedy. (ack. I'm sure there are NDs frowning at this.)

And this kind of rapid weight loss is likely to bounce right back on later on.

If you are looking for a more effective diet plan, I'd suggest The Zone Diet, which deals with insulin regulation to help a person stay healthy. I had gestational diabetes and used this diet during pregnancy to regulate it. I looked *fabulous* after giving birth. Too bad that 4 years later, it's all back on. This is my fault, as I didn't stick with it. (I like beer and fries at the pub a little too much.) However, I had NO ill effects when on the diet and my energy was great, and I had enough calories per day to keep me going.

This HGC diet just seems like it's going to leave a person feeling run-down, with poor nutrition and low energy. Bet that'll make parenting *really* fun.

Take care and let your friend be your guinea pig. I'd steer clear of this one, tho.

My sister is on it and is doing great. I think she's lost 40 something pounds. She said her goal was 50 by the end of this month. She started Jan. first. She is doing great. She gets her stuff from our brother in law who is a chiropractor.
She hardly has any will power and she is really doing great. I know that she has slipped sometimes but she made allowances for it.

If anyone has tried this and liked it alot---could you please pm me the link or name of the specific product you bought? I just did a search and it came up with a ton of websites--I don't know which ones are reputable. Thank you--I really want to try this!

M

I did it and liked it, and lost 15 lbs before I got pregnant, and plan to do it again after the pregnancy. I don't think I was super strict and I definitely ate more than 500 calories. I did not crave sugar and junk like usual though so I think the drops helped! :-) I know a few other people who did it and liked it.

To those people who are saying 500 calories is completely unhealthy - YES that is true if you are NOT taking HCG, your body would go into survival mode, it would think you are starving itself - and everything you eat would be stored as fat, and you will ruin your metabolism doing this....

BUT - when taking HCG this is completely different. Your body is releasing 2000-3000 calories a day by taking the HCG, your body doesn't realize that you are hardly eating anything - because it will think you consumed 2500 calories, but actually your fat (stored energy) is being released, therefore you do not feel hungry - as you are fooling your body.

I did the HCG diet. It can be done via injection, sublingually, or homeopathically. I lost 20 pounds, but after the 43 days when I stopped to go into the next phase - I had a difficult time with it and during the holidays screwed up - and now gained it all back. I have thought about doing it again, but to be honest with you - the thought of doing it again -- I just cannot bring myself to do it again - it was very difficult. I also know by some of the side effects it is not too healthy on my system - as this is so low fat (you cannot use a drop of oil in cooking) my gallbladder through all of this took a beating, had pain there etc.

I need to lose a lot but have decided to try another approach - as I cannot bare to do it again. I am going to do the Dukan Diet - I am waiting for the book from amazon to show up - I want to eat real food and lose weight, and the French women seem to know how to do it - so think I will go that route.

I think the HCG does work, but the person doing it needs to research it thoroughly, and read cover to cover Dr. Simeons book 'pounds and inches' available online for free. You have to follow it 110% to have results - and need a lot of willpower to make it through the first week.

http://hcgdietinfo.com/HCG_Diet-Dr-Simeons-Manuscript.htm

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hollywoo...

http://www.amazon.com/Dukan-Diet-medical-solution-permane...

My mother has been on this diet for a while now and has had great results. She does not follow the diet very well and is losing weight slower but in the long run I think this will be healthier. When she did have to take a break from it she did gain some weight back but not much. She has had no side effects that I know of. It has been about a year for her I think. She likes and has had real results. She lives in Phoenix, but if you want her doctors info I am willing to pass it on. I met her doc and think she is really great.