HCG Diet Introduction

It takes years of intense study of the human body to realize the balance of metabolism, fat cells and side effects that can result in weight loss while staying healthy. The HCG diet was discovered quite by accident by Doctor A.T.W. Simeons over 50 years ago as he worked to cure malnutrition in underdeveloped villages.


HCG, or human chorionic gonadotropin is the hormone that Simeons discovered in pregnant women. While observing healthy women during their pregnancy, he noticed that as soon as the child was born, the health of the mother began to deteriorate. There had to be a reason and this is when HCG was discovered. This naturally occurring hormone is created by the body to nourish and protect the fetus by taking the stored fat reserves and changing to nutrition for the placenta. If this new discovery could actually drain fat cells and transform to positive natural energy, it might actually help people with obesity.


It is uncountable how many diet fads have sprung out over the last few years. All of them had promising benefits but did not seem to meet them all. Some of them have even put lives in danger. One diet in South America even made patients ingest worms so the worm would live in the stomach and infest on the food that is being digested. Not only is this diet unhealthy but very dangerous as well. It would actually put the body at risk of having the worm to travel in the digestive system with the danger of it going into the brain. This will induce brain damage or worse, death. But with HCG diet, you will not be putting yourself into that situation because it is highly safe.


People would indeed go the distance just so they can loose weight. With the availability of fast food and junk food, it is definitely a challenge for anyone to fight them off and strictly adhere to the recommended diet. That is why more and more people are getting obese that needs help in getting on the slimmer side. With so many diet programs available, weighing their pros and cons is always advisable. In that note, you should always consult your doctor about it before trying it.


What Is The HCG Diet & Why It’s Good For You

There are three different types of fat found in the body. Structural fat is found nestled between the skin and organs and is necessary as a protective layer. Normal reserve fat is the layer that supplies the body with energy when calorie intake is too low. The abnormal fat is what forms as extra fat in hips, waist, thighs and buttocks and is not used for anything. This is the only fat that is consumed by HCG. Many ask why a low calorie diet would not lead to the same results. The facts are simple. By starving your body of protein and vitamins, it will take whatever is needed from any type of fat, including structural and normal reserve fats. This is why once you stop a low calorie diet, not only are lean muscles destroyed but the weight comes back with a vengeance as abnormal fat. Nothing was really accomplished except for redistributing the fat.


The HCG diet involves the internal storage of fats so getting the doctor's permission in getting into this diet is crucial. The doctor will have to perform a physical assessment of your condition and determine whether your body is fit for a diet such as this. Many people who get into different diets fail to recognize their health conditions prior to trying those diets. A doctor should make an informed decision whether or not you can pursue the HCG diet.


The HCG hormones are given through injection that targets metabolism which then results in weight loss. This is achieved by using up excess weight stored as fat into energy. Burning of these stored fats during metabolism will help you loose that dreaded extra pound over time. As the body undergoes metabolism throughout the day, the hormone continuously works to release fats that are stored in the body. These stored and unused fats make up the excess weight and chunk of fat you have. The continuous burning of these calories can loose about 1 to 2 pounds of weight according to a report. Losing weight with HCG diet is certainly possible.



Benefits of the HCG Diet

There are many benefits found in the HCG diet that are not found in fad diets.



Most people find that by using normal diets, even in combination with exercise, it is a chore to keep useless fats from reappearing. The constant battle of trying to produce energy may lead to diet protein drinks and spending more money just to keep from feeling fatigued and tired. The time tested HCG protocol lets you enjoy naturally induced energy while reaping the benefits of weight loss. Your unneeded fat stores will be released into the blood stream and eliminated without a tinge of hunger.


Effective Fat Loss

Losing fat is the primary objective for all of the people who are looking for ways to lose weight. This is exactly what you will get with this diet. This is accomplished through daily inoculations of the HCG hormone. This hormone was only found in pregnancy. However, it is can now be manufactured in a lab. This hormone speeds up your metabolism.


Keeps Muscle Mass Despite A Faster Metabolism

When the metabolic rate speeds up, it is most likely that you will lose muscle mass. The hormone prevents this from happening. This is another quality of the hormone. You will not lose muscle mass when the diet takes its course. This means that you will have more muscles to develop after.


Stronger And Healthier

Because you do not lose muscle mass, you will not feel like an empty shell. Instead, you will feel stronger and healthier. This will give you more room to sculpt your body to what you have always wanted. This is what the HCG diet can do and not many diets can.


Will Not Make You Crave For More Food

This diet is not in any way food restrictive. You can eat the food you like. The only thing you have to look out for is food that is high in calories and food that is high in carbohydrates. You can eat these foods, but in small amounts. The food that you can eat more of is food rich in protein, which is not hard to find.


Averting The Effects Of Obesity With The HCG Diet

Obesity is now a major health concern that plagues many individuals around the world. This is why there are a lot of people in search for a cure for being overweight. Thankfully, the HCG diet is now here. This diet will be your salvation from the hazards that obesity comes with.


There is a huge reason why people fear the effects of obesity. It is the cause of almost all of the serious diseases that a human being can contract. These diseases include heart diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes, and worst cancer.


These diseases can leave you permanently debilitated, or can even be the cause of your demise. There are a lot of diets out there that turn out to be nothing but scams.


This diet is one of the safest and easiest diets to use. You never have to worry about dealing with harmful side effects after use. The HCG diet makes use of a hormone that was originally found only in pregnant women. Now, they can now be produced in a lab.


This hormone will speed up your metabolic rate. This means that you will absorb nutrients from food in a much faster rate and quickly flush out the fat. However, when the metabolic rate is faster, there is a large possibility for you to also flush out muscle mass. This is where the hormone takes weight loss to another level.


In addition, the hormone prevents muscle mass from being flushed out of the system. It keeps it in, and prevents you from turning into an empty shell. With daily injections and the prescribed diet, you are sure to burn fat more efficiently and retain muscle mass.


This diet effectively burns off fat, keeps muscle mass despite a faster metabolism, makes you stronger, makes you healthy, and will not make you crave for more food. This is why more and more people are choosing to use this diet. These are the benefits of the HCG diet.



Dangers or Side Effects?

The HCG diet plan has actually been around for approximately 60 years after being developed by Dr. A.T.W. Simeons. It is completely safe to do with very little to no side effects. There are two ways to do the diet either by HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) injections that are administered by a health care professional or by using homeopathic drops that you can easily do yourself. The injections need a prescription while the drops do not. The injections are a much higher dose of HCG while the drops are a very minute amount compared to that. Therefore, with the injections you’re bound to have more side effects than with the drops. They do work as effective as one another and research has found you need very little of the HCG hormone to aid in this diet.


Some side effects that are most common are headaches, leg cramps and slight muscle aches. You may feel slightly weak and light headed at times but most of these symptoms go away after your first week on the diet. The headaches are a result of your body detoxifying after eating years of junk food. As your abnormal fat cells are released so are those stored toxins in the fat cells that cause the detox effect. Some people will get a light rash while this is happening as well but it usually goes away quickly. All the side effects can be easily treated with mild over the counter medicine for the headaches and a potassium supplement for leg cramps if they continue. Most people never need the potassium supplement and you will experience more of the side effects with the injections versus the drops.


As most of you, I was introduced to this diet by a friend who actually completed the diet and lost about 36 pounds in 40 days. I was amazed on the result and the time it took her to lose it. At this point I am sold on the idea and was interested in doing the HCG Diet. Like any smart consumer, I began to search online for any information on the HCG Diet.


I have spent countless hours researching this and looking for side effects to this diet. There are way more success stories than complaints. What I did find curious was that the people who frown the HCG Diet are individuals who have not even tried the program. I don’t think this type of complaint is very reliable.


As the owner of a site I receive a ton of feedback on the HCG Diet. 2 out of 10 posts or comments are negative and they all are pretty consistent. Below I will list the top side effects I have received (these are not in any type of order).


  1. Headaches the first couple of days on the diet. This is the most common complaint. I have read many blogs and forums and once again this is an opinion based on my research. The main reasons for these headaches is due to sugar withdrawal, low calorie intake, not eating enough, not taking a vitamin during the diet, etc.

  2. Constipation. Individuals have suggested to take a mild laxative and that usually resolves that issue.

  3. Nausea. This is somewhat related to complaint #1.

  4. The diet did not work for me. (There could be a bunch of reasons for this.)

    a. Some individual did not drink enough water during the diet. The body releases the fat and toxins through your urine and fecal matter. So guess what, if you don’t go to the bathroom and do your business you will not lose the weight.

    b. Did not stick to the low calorie diet. This is the hardest part of the diet. If you don’t change the way you eat you will not succeed in this diet or any diet.

    c. The HCG Drops. Either you’re not taking the sufficient amount for your body or you bought some fake HCG. The only HCG available on the market without prescription is Homeopathic HCG. This formula is made with a small amount of HCG in it. Make sure your buying from a reliable supplier and follow the instructions on the dosage and stick with it. It is extremely important that you do not miss a single dosage.

    d. Not everybody is the same, it is possible that the HCG will not have an effect on your body or weight.

    e. Etc.

  5. A 500 Calorie diet is dangerous! This is true. Your body should be consuming approximately 2,000 calories per day. The HCG Diet claims to consume the remaining 1,500 calories from your abnormal fat and that is the reason for the fast weight loss. You should also include a Vitamin B-Complex vitamin to the diet so you will stay energetic. (I still think it is a bit dangerous!)

  6. Very hungry. This is another that is very common. Most individuals feel hunger the first week and then it goes away.

  7. I gained weight! Like mentioned before keeping to the diet is the hardest or maybe the diet is not simply working for you.

  8. Hairloss! This is a very rare side effect. I think it had to do with the hormonal effect on your body or the low calorie intake.

  9. I gained the weight back. This is up to the individual. Some people believe this is a license to eat whatever you want once you complete the diet. WRONG! You will always gain weight if you eat crap!

  10. Here are few extremely rare cases, I mean 1 out of thousands of individuals. Fainting, Dizziness, Fast heart rate, heavy period...


To read a more in-depth article of HCG Diet Dangers, click here.



Diet Plan

How does the HCG diet plan really work? Will it work for you? The answer is that it’s a very simple diet and YES it will work for you, even if you’ve tried every diet out there and failed. If you merely follow the directions strictly then you will succeed. It’s as simple as that.


Basically you take 15 of the HCG drops three times a day; morning, noon, and evening under your tongue. The reason you’re placing it under your tongue is for rapid absorption of the drops into your blood stream. People take the HCG drops because anecdotal evidence shows that the drops help to curb your appetite and cause your hypothalamus to function the way it should. You will follow a very strict eating program from a list (see below) of foods you can find at basically any grocery store. The foods will consist of a protein, vegetable, fruit and Melba Toast or Grissini bread sticks. The choices on the food list are very specific and you must not stray from those choices that you are given. These foods have been researched and found to be the best for providing optimal results.


Each day you will have coffee or tea for breakfast and you are able to have 1 tablespoon of milk per day. For lunch you’ll have a protein and either 1 cup or 2 cups of vegetables depending on which vegetable you choose, a fruit and either 1 Grissini or 2 Melba Toasts. Many people will save their fruit and Grissini or Melba for a snack in between lunch and dinner or as an after dinner snack. Spreading your food out like that often helps with minimizing cravings and any hunger you might have.


We DO NOT count calories simply because the food is measured and that is good enough. Counting calories only makes it more complicated and gives some busy people reason to say “forget it”. You will measure your vegetables either in 1 cup or 2 cup portions based on which vegetable you choose and your protein will be measured in grams or ounces. That’s all the measuring you need to do. This makes it simple to follow and simple to stick to. You don’t need to keep detailed records or charts so anyone can do this and it won’t take a lot of time out of your day to do so.


You may exercise on the diet but it’s suggested that you minimize it to walking or lightly jogging one to two miles per day. This is because you’re not taking in very much food and if you exert too much energy into more vigorous exercising your body will put itself into “starvation mode” thinking it’s not getting enough fuel for that type of exertion. Again, keeping the diet very simple and easy to follow and accomplish successfully. You do not need to exercise on the diet to lose weight. You will still lose at a rapid rate even without adding in the walking or light jogging. It’s not a required part of the diet, it’s simply there because many people have been drilled into them that they need to exercise in order to lose. Not true on this particular diet, although it does help if you can do a little walking.


That’s basically it, simple and easy to follow. If you stick to the instructions you will see that you will lose between an average of a half a pound a day up to two pounds a day. Each person is different but at the very least you’ll lose a half pound per day, most times MORE.


To read a more in-depth article of an HCG Diet Plan, click here.



Recipes

The most challenging part when getting into a weight loss program is complying with the diet requirement. Most dieters lose their focus in their goal of losing weight because of the food selection that their diet programs require. The best way to deal with this is to select a diet program with a structured diet requirement so you won't lose track of what to and what not to eat while trying to shed some weights off.


The diet program designed with a structured diet requirement is the HCG diet. The HCG diet is ideal for those overweight individuals wishing to lose weight. It is effective for both males and females so there is no need to worry if it only works for a specific gender. It also aims to help those with weight problems through four important phases that has prearranged diet requirements. This will make it easier for you to keep track of what foods you need to watch out for while chopping a couple of weights off.


The HCG diet makes use of a hormone that helps in the metabolism of excess fats and muscles. This hormone is the Human Chorionic Gonadotropin hormone that is produced by the placenta. When these fats reserves are burned up, the result is reduction in weight. That is why it is effective in helping obese individuals lose weight. The effectiveness of the HCG hormone was discovered by a British doctor sixty years ago. That doctor is Dr. Simeons who also tested and established the HCG diet. However, it was the book "The Weight Loss Cure They Don't Want You To Know About" by Andrew Trudeau that popularized the HCG diet.


The HCG diet is a strict diet program that includes four phases with specific structured diet requirements. But before you can take on with this kind of diet, a physical check up with a doctor or nutritionist is required. This is to see if you are fit to undertake the HCG diet treatment. This might include blood tests and other exams to endure safety pre, intra, and post the HCG diet treatment.


The first phase of the HCG diet treatment includes two days of eating high fat. This means the diet to be taken while on this phase is only foods with very high fat such as cheese, avocados, and heavy cream sauces. This is the diet required because it will test the body to be alert when there is extra fat or calories that needs to be burned. In addition, it helps relieve hunger and other discomfort in the first week of the diet.


The second phase also has a specific diet requirement of 500 calories. This very low calorie diet mostly includes seafood, fruits and vegetables. Banana, berries, grapes, guava, lemon, mango, nuts, orange, papaya, pineapple, and tomato are some of the fruits included in the diet. The purpose of this diet along with free HCG diet recipes is discussed in a short overview "Pounds and Inches" by Dr. Simeons. Along with this diet is the onset of the HCG hormone treatment in the second phase. HCG hormones can either be introduced in the body through HCG shots or oral HCG drops. The shots are relatively higher in dose compared to the drops and can only be taken in an HCG clinic. The reason for this is that a nutritionist or doctor is present so bleeding or blood clot problems can be avoided. The right dosage of the oral drops should also be strictly taken sublingually at least 20 minutes before a meal for full effectiveness. The HCG hormone treatment last up to 20 or 40 days depending on the amount of weight you desire to lose. However, the very low calorie diet continues for another three days.


The third phase or the maintenance phase has a considerably lifted diet restriction and food choices compared to the second phase. However, all starch and sugar must be avoided. The third phase takes three weeks to complete. Another "round" begins after by going back to the first phase. When the third phase is reached again, another week is added.


The last and final phase is when the HCG diet is completed. This means the desired weight has been achieved. However, most of the dieters that have reached this phase fail to maintain the weight they have lost. Majority of them regain the weight due to reset metabolism, lifestyle changes and other factors. This is preventable when diet restrictions are followed as well as weight maintenance guidelines.


The success of losing weight can only be achieved through hard work and determination. But with proper knowledge, you will go a long way and eventually to your goal weight with the help of the HCG diet.


To read a more in-depth article about HCG Diet Recipes, click here.



Reviews

Toni makes this comment

HCG Diet - Know the Facts

Tuesday, 06 December 2011

I started Hcg-14 and this is my Fourth day it gives me a lot of energy not really sure its suppressing my appetite. If you go over 500 calories is it still affective?



chi-chi makes this comment

hcg questions?

Friday, 02 December 2011

hi ! i have been doing a lot of research and i see people lossing like 5 -9 lbs a week . I'm on my 5th day of the hcg diet , but i dont see any extreme results .. i wana know how did people lose so much weight ? but i feel better , but i have a lot of headache and i feel hungry most of the time and i'm a ... does that affect the results of the hcg diet ? also, is it bad to excersize the first week ? an I going to feel more hungry ? thank u =)



Nycole007 makes this comment

HCG Diet - Know the Facts

Tuesday, 29 November 2011

I just started the diet so this is my first day on it. I really haven't felt hungry since starting but I will keep everyone posted on my progress. My goal is to lose 20 lbs ... Hopefully, this hcg diet along with exercise will take me there quickly!!! ;-)



Shelle makes this comment

Thursday, 08 September 2011

Hello again I am on my 12th day and I am 14lbs slimmer and feeling very well



TRENTIS BRANTLEY makes this comment

IT WORKS IF YOU WORK IT!!

Tuesday, 06 September 2011

I HAVE HAD GREAT RESULTS FROM THE HCG DIET I FIRST LOST 40 POUNDS IN MY FIRST ROUND BUT WENT BACK TOMY OLD EATING HABITS AND GAINED MOST OF IT BACK.IT WORKS BUT THERE MUST BE A CHANGE IN EATING HABITS.



Jessica makes this comment

hcg drops

Thursday, 25 August 2011

so I have been dieting for the last 2 weeks and lost 10 pounds :) I have only eaten 500 calories a day but I am not taking the drops, so I know I dont need them to lose weight. I just want to know what they do for you?



Safeh makes this comment

Results

Thursday, 18 August 2011

Today is my last day for drops (30th day), I am happy to report I have lost 19.2lbs. I had to do a total of 4 apples days due to 4 off and on stall days. ... IT DOES WORK! Go thru the frustration but do not quit.



Dianne Lynn Rabano makes this comment

It works

Wednesday, 17 August 2011

I started the drops and lost 5 pounds in the first week,as did my daughter,we are doin it just to lose like 10lbs,i know several people on it and all are happy,Id say by listening to people i know and my experience on it is its all about fallowing directions,its really not hard! If u had bad eating habits like fast food,chips ect.it could be hard!



Renwell makes this comment

HCG works

Tuesday, 16 August 2011

For those of you who are wondering if this works it does! I did the injections which was much more expensive and saw a doctor during the 40 days, I lost 28 lbs. I gained most of it back because of poor eating habits ... But that was my fault. Any low carb diet works, I have lost 11 lbs in a month just from cutting out carbs. I miss the quick weight loss on HCG so I am going to try the drops!



Stephanie makes this comment

17 pounds in 7 days

Saturday, 13 August 2011

I'm NOT kidding. I got the drops and vitamins from a friend who distributes and have followed the diet to the letter. I've lost 17 pounds in 7 days and have not exercised!! Starting weight 197.2 as of this morning, 180.1. 2 years ago I had lost 65 pounds on the Medi-weight loss program, but gained it all back. I do suggest for anyone doing it that they get the scale that also provides your body fat % and water %. ...


To read a more in-depth article about HCG Diet Reviews, click here.