As women we talk a lot about weight loss and how to get back to our pre-baby body or at least something that might closely resemble it.
Recently the hot new fad diet is based on injecting your body with HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin)… You know, the pregnancy hormone. The hormone that burns belly fat to feed the baby when a Mom isn’t getting enough nutrients during pregnancy.
Running a cool $1000 per session, women who aren’t pregnant and men (also not pregnant) are giving themselves this hormone while restricting their daily calorie intake to only 500 calories. Thus tricking the body into starvation and making it think it needs to feed a baby. HCG signals the area of your brain that affects the metabolism to mobilize fat stores. During pregnancy, this helps your body bring nutrients into the placenta, fueling the fetus with the energy to grow
HCG is not approved by the FDA for this purpose but many people say it is effective, while some Doctors argue that it’s not the hormone causing the weight loss but the restricted calories that cause the dramatic, short term weight loss. Which makes sense. Wouldn’t we all drops some pounds if we restricted ourselves to only 500 calories per day? We might be irritable and short tempered, but hey! We’d all be skinny!
The FDA even requires all marketing of HCG to include the following: “HCG has not been demonstrated to be effective adjunctive therapy in the treatment of obesity. There is no substantial evidence that it increases weight loss beyond that resulting from caloric restriction, that it causes a more attractive or ‘normal’ distribution of fat, or that it decreases the hunger and discomfort associated with calorie-restricted diets.”
Some known negative side effects you may experience: “Headaches, mood swings, depression, blood clots, confusion, and dizziness. Some women also develop a condition called Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome (OHSS); symptoms of this include pelvic pain, swelling of the hands and legs, stomach pain, weight gain, shortness of breath, diarrhea, vomiting/nausea, and/or urinating less than normal.”
So, what do you think? Is this another extreme, too good to be true fad? Or would you try it if money was no issue?
My mom lost over 50 pounds on hCG and she has successfully kept it off. I’ve done it once, and I lost 21 pounds in 4 weeks. The only side effects we experienced were decreased appetite and weight loss! It’s only about $100 for 4 weeks when you order online and do it at home.
It seems pretty extreme … I wouldn’t do it. If I were going to spend a lot of money for something that might harm my health, I’d be more likely to hit up one of the bariatric weigh loss clinics for some prescription speed. Just sayin.