8 Facts about the HCG Diet You Should Be Aware of ...

By Jennifer

8 Facts about the HCG Diet You Should Be Aware of ...

When I ran into a friend last week, I had to do a double-take. He had lost 30 pounds since the last time I saw him, and it had only been a matter of weeks. He looked great; I was floored. His secret? The hCG diet. I did a little research online and found out there’s a lot of misinformation out there, so I got together with my afore-mentioned friend to help get the facts straight. Here are 8 facts aobu the hCG diet you should be aware of.

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1

It’s Been around for Decades

It’s important to know this little fact about the hCG diet — it’s nothing new. The diet’s been around, in one form or another, for decades, since a British-born physician, Dr. Simeons, released his detailed diet to the public in the early 1950s in a book called “Pounds and Inches.” His inspiration? He noticed that women who lived in famine-struck Africa were delivering healthy, well-nourished babies, and that they themselves were healthy while pregnant. The secret, he found, was a hormone, called hCG.

2

HCG is a Hormone Related to Pregnancy

What exactly is hCG? Its “real name” is human chorionic gonadotropin, a hormone related to pregnancy. It’s this hormone that Dr. Simeons believed enabled pregnant women to deliver healthy babies, even when they were on an extremely calorie-reduced diet.

3

There Are Various Ways to Consume the HCG

So aside from being pregnant, how else can someone get hCG? There are several ways to get hCG for your diet… depending on how you feel about needles, you can get it by injection. But for the rest of us, the ones who don’t like needles or injections, there’s an oral spray.

4

You’ll Reduce Your Caloric Intake… a Lot

Now into the nitty-gritty facts about the hCG diet. While you’re taking the hCG, you’ll be drastically reducing your calorie intake. How drastically? You’ll be consuming about 500 calories per day. This is about ¼ of the calories of a regular maintenance diet… and that’s where the hCG comes in, preventing the starving feelings you’d get from such a reduced-calorie diet. My friend did use the spray, and though he only consumed 500 calories a day, down from the estimated 2,800 per day he used to eat, he wasn’t hungry. Ever.

5

You’ll Follow a VERY Specific Meal Plan

Where do those 500 calories come from? You’ll follow an incredibly specific meal plan, all day, every day, for months. Be prepared to give up almost everything you eat and enjoy right now (including mint tea), and get ready to eat a lot of apples.

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6

Exercise is Not Recommended!

This is another important fact about the hCG diet — because your calorie intake is so dramatically reduced, strenuous exercise is not recommended. Once you’ve lost the weight you want to lose, you should add exercise, but during the weight loss phase of the hCG diet itself, you shouldn’t exercise.

7

There Are Lots of Scams out There

I’ve seen kiosks at the mall, books at the store, ads online, all promising the amazing results of their own version of the hCG diet. Beware, as most of these are costly scams. It’s best to stick to the original Simeons diet, or a modern update, like the one Daniel Millen describes in his journal entry here. getridofmyweight.com

8

Bottom Line: It Works

After reading all these facts about eh hCG diet, you’ve got to be wondering: does this weird diet work? The answer is, yes. If you find a legitimate source for your hCG, and if you stick to the meal plan, you can lose up to 50 pounds in just a few weeks. Like any other diet, you must stick to it, and like any other diet, it does require maintenance after the fact. But if you follow the diet, and use the hCG, you can lose weight. A lot of weight. Quickly.

Now that you’ve seen these facts about the hCG diet, are you curious to learn more, or even to give it a try? What surprised you on this list? Or is there another fact about the hCG diet you’d like to share?

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Where Thoughts and Opinions Converge

dont take it! my dad found a WAY better alternative. Its called CR500 and its identical to the HCG except it doesnt use pregnant women hormones! hes lost SO much weight and he has had a nuritional awakening because he truly realizes all the crap he used to eat was TERRIBLE for him

I would not recommend anyone lose this much weight in a matter of weeks because of all the lose skin you'll get from this dramatic weight loss. You'll end up more miserable than before!

I find it a little bit disgusting that you're even promoting such a reckless and dangerous diet. The ONLY safe way to lose weight is eating properly and exercise. And this is recommending no exercise? Severely restrict your calories? Great idea to promote a sedentary lifestyle, restricting calories and damaging organs. A better article would be highlighting the dangers of such a diet.

Hi everyone! Just wanted to share mine and my mother's experience on this diet! For me, it was not the right fit, I only went for the shortest time recommended, which I believe is 26 days. However, In less than a month I did lose almost 20 lbs.! It was one of the hardest diets I have ever gone on and you'd have to be a person who has an incredible willpower and self restraint to completely succeed on this diet. That being said, people like my mother can be extremely successful on the hCG diet as since October 2011 she has been on the diet on and off over the time cycles they recommend and has currently lost almost 90 lbs.! She is so happy and is almost at her goal weight and she looks absolutely fabulous! Anyone who can have strength to complete the diet, like my mom, can have great success on the diet! However, I wouldn't recommend this to people who are on the opposite side of things like me. Also, we didn't use the injections or oral spray, rather the drops that you take every couple of hours. Hope anyone considering and going on this diet has as much success as my mom and has more willpower than me lol! And P.S. Thanks to All Women Stalk for showing the benefits and downsides to this diet!

I love All women stalk because they dont sugar coat anything, thank you for being an honest and un bias resource even when others find it uncomfortable!!

Not a fan of this diet, have had clients come to my clinic after this diet and their hormones were all messed up, and their health was declining. Hey they lost the weight though.

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