The HCG Diet may be the most popular diet of the moment and with good reason. If you are
driving in your car, you might pass several signs advertising HCG weight loss. Or you might
hear an ad on the radio or television. It seems like it’s everywhere.
This diet is a bit controversial, due to the use of a hormone, and because of the low calorie
restrictions. The HCG diet requires both the HCG supplement and specific types of food. Let’s
take a look at how it all is supposed to work, so that you can make a more educated decision.
Typically, this diet is done for a period of 3 weeks and it may be monitored by a health care
professional. If you do the diet with the help of a weight loss clinic, you might opt for
injections or drops. If you do the diet yourself from home, you’ll be using homeopathic drops.
HCG stands for ‘Human Chorionic Gonadotropin’, a hormone that is present during the early
phases of pregnancy. The benefit for its use in weight loss? The HCG hormone in a pregnant woman stimulates the body to mobilize and burn extra fat cells for the increased energy demands.
Dr. Simeon, the diet’s creator, found that HCG can temporarily stimulate the body to burn fat cells, while on a very low calorie diet (VLCD). This fat burning effect was found to work for both women and men at his weight loss clinic in Italy.
HCG Diet Basics
The basics of the HCG diet are an extreme reduction in calories (either 500 or 750 per day) -
by eating lean protein, lots of vegetables- and daily use of HCG. Yes, this sounds
extreme, until you understand fully how the diet works. Someone doing the diet correctly
can burn upwards of 3000 calories per day from fat stored on their body! The HCG drops,
combined with the specific foods and portions, are the catalyst for the fat burning.
Homeopathic oral drops are readily available online, and may cost as little as $50. Be
careful to buy from a reputable website or supplier so that the drops are fresh and potent.
The recommended foods for the HCG diet include: fish, turkey, chicken, beef, celery,
asparagus, spinach, tomatoes, onions, strawberries, grapefruit, oranges, apples, cantaloupe,
blackberries and coffee or tea. You may also have limited quantities of melba toast or ’35 calorie wheat bread’, found at most grocery stores.
Exercise is actually discouraged while on the diet, because it will increase your hunger far
too much for the calorie intake. You can take walks, but nothing too strenous. Of course, you
want to exercise before and after the diet.
For the best possible chance of success with the HCG diet, it’s important to understand what to eat, when to eat it…and why. There are numerous books and ebooks available that will explain the phases of the HCG diet, how to prepare for the diet and how to choose your meals.
