Easy Come, Easy Go: The Truth About the hCG

   Dieting trends come and go. One year, the Atkins Diet is all the rage, while the next year it’s all about the South Beach Diet. This year, the diet of choice is the hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin). Instead of portion control, eating healthy foods and exercising, the hCG diet is about messing with hormone levels and drastically cutting calorie intake.

What is hCG

hCG is a hormone produced by women during pregnancy. When on this program, a person needs to inject themselves frequently with hCG and eat little to no food. hCG is used for dieting purposes due to the belief that it reduces hunger and will help the body get rid of fat in specific areas like the arms, thighs and stomach. Many people – women in particular – are very interested in this program, which supposedly can help you lose up to one pound a day without having to suffer through pangs of hunger. Women across the country are flocking to doctors’ offices and shelling out thousands of dollars to get started on this program.

Side Effects of hCG

Sounds good, doesn’t it – losing all the weight you want in all the right places with a minimum of effort. However, the Food and Drug Administration has something to say about this fad. Using hCG to lose weight is not a new idea – it’s been around at least since the mid 1970’s. Although prescribing hCG for weight loss is legal, the FDA has reissued and recently released the same warning they gave everyone in the past – there is no evidence that the use of hCG promotes weight loss either in general or in specific parts of the body, or reduces hunger.

In fact, preliminary evidence suggests that hCG can cause gallstones , headaches, breast tenderness or enlargement, hair loss, headaches and depression. Many doctors and dietitians also express unease about the fact that the hCG program strongly resembles anorexia and does not promote healthy long-term eating habits. With little evidence in its favor, why has the hCG program become so popular? Some doctors suggest that is has to do with the fact that it’s only available by prescription. Because of that, hCG seems quite reputable – you have to make an appointment and talk to a real doctor, not some quack, to get it. People tell themselves that if hCG didn’t work, then it wouldn’t be available, and certainly not promoted by respectable doctors who supposedly know what they’re talking about.

hCG Bottom Line

For those looking to lose weight, keep in mind that easy comes, easy goes. If you don’t make healthy changes to your lifestyle in the areas of diet, nutrition and exercise, the weight you lose will all come right back when you stop a program like hCG. Losing twenty pounds in a month may do the trick for that wedding you want to attend, but in the long run it won’t help and may even harm you.

Whether you are trying to find a safe, comfortable and healthy way to lose weight and keep it off for life, or trying to maintain your current weight, and increase your energy level and overall Health, I would like to show you how simple this journey can be. Please use the following link to leave me a comment regarding your needs, and I will get right back with you. “Contact John”

Thank you.

John Cardinal

Copyright Healthy Weight Loss for Life 2012