The HCG diet is the big talk on the internet right now. In short, it’s a diet composed of 500 calories combined with HCG injections or drops to help fight the hunger pangs and energy loss that would regularly come with such a low calorie consumption.
What’s with the recent popularity?
The HCG diet is not new; it has been around since the 1950s. Just like diet pills, people think this it is completely safe. The HCG diet is being touted as a healthy way to lose a lot of weight, have more energy and especially lose inches, all in about 3 to 6 weeks.
Since HCG is supposed to help pregnant woman keep up their energy and support the growth of a healthy baby even when the mother cannot eat because of morning sickness, the thought is that HCG helps the pregnant women utilize fat and turn it into healthy food for the baby, it will do the same for any of us.
The promoters of the HCG diet claim that the diet will suppress your appetite, burn the stored bad fat like belly fat and redistribute the fat. The claim is, you will lose the fat and not lose muscle on such a low calorie diet, all because of the HCG injections.
The 500 calories per day comes from a very strict diet that you have to adhere to. The theory is that the HCG will get the rest of your 2,000 or so needed daily calories from your bad fat.
What do I think?
There have been many studies on HCG but none of them show concrete evidence of its effect on appetite suppression. What about the weight loss? Well put anyone on 500 calories a day and they will lose weight. Heck put them on the cardboard diet and they will lose even faster. Here is a Meta-study that was done to assess the use of HCG for obesity.
Conclusion
This is another fad diet that’s pointless. There’s no shortcut to sustaining a healthy body, accept it and get on the treadmill.
