HCG Weight Loss Diet Plan

If you’re looking to loose weight fast, you’ve most likely come across the ‘hCG Weight-loss Diet Plan’.  Weight loss is a dynamic process that should be accomplished through healthy nutrition and proper physical activity rather than by taking pills, extreme dieting, or hormone injections.  At Lucas James Personal Training, we believe it’s all about creating a healthy lifestyle based on maintaining a consistently balanced diet and exercise program.

The HCG diet relies on the use of human chorionic gonadotropin, or HCG, a naturally occurring hormone made by cells that form in the placenta during pregnancy.  Normally, hCG helps to maintain the womb during pregnancy, but has previously been implemented with directing fat distribution and allocation during pregnancy.  In terms of its effectiveness for weight-loss, while HCG clients do typically lose weight, once they stop taking injections and return to a normal diet, their weight gain return and losses are typically gained back within one to three months.

The controversial use of hCG for weight loss purposes was created as an adjunct to British endocrinologist Albert T. W. Simeons‘ ultra-low-calorie weight-loss diet.  Simeaons’ diet was part of a research study where patients consumed less than five-hundred calories daily in conjunction with HCG injections.  The India-based study focused on pregnant women consuming a calorie-deficient diet and over-weight male adolescence with pituitary problems. The preliminary results showed both groups lost fat rather than lean muscle tissue. The reasoning was believed to be due to hCG injections, where fat allocation in the body was limited based on the functions of the hCG hormone.

Under the hCG diet,  low-dose daily hCG injections are paired with a ‘customized’ ultra low-calorie diet to promote fat loss while maintaining muscle tissue.  Recently, the diet has surfaced at specialized wellness and weight loss centers promoting alternative weight loss therapies and treatments.

A primary problem with the hCG diet is that extremely low calorie programs neglect to provide our bodies with the energy they need for normal growth, development and even function.  In terms of nutrition, it is impossible to maintain a five-hundred calorie diet. In fact, such a low calorie diet is typically indicative of restrictive eating and eating disorders.  More so, the Journal of the American Medical Association and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition have both warned that hCG is neither safe nor effective as a weight-loss aid.  Recent efficacy studies found that studies that do support hCG for weight loss are typically poorly implemented and conclude, not only a lack of evidence supporting the notion that HCG is effective in the treatment of obesity, but furthermore that it does not bring cause weight-loss or a favorable redistribution of fat.  Even more important current studies suggest hCG does not even reduce hunger.