What is the HCG diet
The HCG diet is the diet which is restricted to 500 calories per day. The diet is supplemented with either the daily oral HCG drops or injection of HCG hormone.
In this article, we will look at the fact behind this Very Low-Calorie Diet (VLCD). Every now and then, a new diet shows up with a promise of rapid weight loss with very little effort.
The HCG diet is exactly such a diet. This diet is first seen in the 1950s and later it had the resurgence in the 70s and back again. The diet is already popular in the United States, it is gaining its popularity in the United Kingdom, and we answer the popular question, “What is the HCG Diet?”
What is HCG
HCG (Human Chorionic Gonadotropin) is a hormone which is found in the human body. This hormone is produced by the pituitary gland as well as certain tumors and it can be found in the urine during pregnancy.
How HCG hormone works
HCG triggers your body to move fat stores to bring energy to the growing baby, and this is the part where the supposed loss of weight is found. Also, HCG is gonadotropic, which means that it prompts the development of genitals. As such, the HCG hormone is usually used as a treatment for fertility.
How HCG diet works
The idea behind HCG diet is that the hormone lets your body burning fat stores faster than normal. Instead of losing muscle and bone mass you start losing body fat. The theory is that the intake of low calories allow you to start losing weight, while the HCG drops or HCG injections reduce your appetite and make sure your body is burning stored fat rather than muscle mass. Even though all this sounds great, the is actually no scientific proof that HCG supplementations work.
What you can eat and what you can’t
– You will not eat a lot. The diet lets you have only two meals a day – lunch and dinner. Each meal has to have one vegetable, one protein, one fruit, and one bread.
– You can grill or broil beef, veal, fresh white fish, chicken breast, crab, lobster, or shrimp as long you don’t’ eat any visible fat. However, no eel, salmon, herring, tuna or pickled or dried fish are allowed.
– Vegetable choices include chard, spinach, beet greens, chicory, tomatoes, green salad, fennel, tomatoes, celery, red radishes, onions, asparagus, cucumbers, and cabbage.
– Bread can be one piece of melba toast or one breadstick.
– For fruit, you can choose, an apple, an orange, half a grapefruit or a handful of strawberries.
– The diet also allows as much tea, water, and coffee as you want.
– You can use the substitutes for sugar, but sugar or sweeten drinks are not allowed, just like oils and butter.
The promise
Taking a “natural” hormone which your body makes during the pregnancy and you will lose a lot of weight? That’s the promise of HCG Diet that’s turned into a craze which just won’t stop. The backers of the diet claim that going on an ultra-low-calorie diet can reset your metabolism so you can lose as much as a pound a day without feeling hungry at all.
The science says that any super-low-calorie diet will result in the loss of weight. However, a lot of studies have shown that HCG has nothing to do with it. For 8 weeks the HCG diet limits you to 500 calories a day while taking HCG (Human chorionic gonadotropin), either by taking a “homeopathic” product such as sprays, pellets or oral drops or getting a shot, which you can buy at the store.
Nothing of this is approved by the FDA for the loss of weight. The shots are legal as long as health care provider is giving them to you. But, over-the-counter HCF products are not legal. The FDA warned several companies that market homeopathic HCG products.
Pros of the HCG diet
If you are selling the HCG drops, you will make some money, and that is the only one which can be said for it.
Cons of the HCG diet
– The restriction of calories is way below what is deemed safe by a lot of medical
profession without medical supervision.
– As a part of overall health, exercise is not promoted.
– HCG injection can mask some indicators for early detection of some cancers.
– Side effects of the long term use of this hormone are not fully understood.
Major health concerns
The major health concerns are reduction in the natural levels of the hormone in your body, infection of the injection site, nutritional deficiencies, fertility problems, kidney/gall stones, bad breath, headaches, lethargy and exhaustion, unwanted hair growth, acne, prostate problems in men, male breast enlargement, depression, irritability and mood swings, dizziness, diarrhea, constipation, weight gain and blood clots.