A Word about HCG

The use of the hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) as a weight loss aid was already controversial at the time I began using it in autumn 2009.  It has become even more so during the intervening 3 years, with the FDA declaring it to be “unproven, dangerous, and illegal” in December 2011.  In fact, it has become quite difficult to obtain HCG.

I am no doctor.  I am no scientist.  I am no researcher.  I am not employed by the FDA.  I can only share my own experience, which has been fully documented in this blog already.  If you decide to try the HCG diet for yourself, be sure to arm yourself with as much knowledge as you can and proceed with caution and common sense.  It’s your life and your health.  

The FDA, in its infinite wisdom, has determined that “there is no scientific evidence that HCG is effective in the treatment of obesity; it does not bring about weight-loss or fat-redistribution, nor does it reduce hunger or induce a feeling of well-being.”

 

On the other hand, the FDA gave its blessing to Lexapro for treating adolescents (ages 12-17) for depression despite studies showing suicidal side effects in children.  The FDA approved Seroquel to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, even though it’s been linked to diabetes, cholesterol and triglyceride abnormalities, sudden cardiac death, suicide, and several other deadly issues.  They okayed the anti-inflammatory Vioxx, which quadrupled the risk of heart attacks.  And let us not forget Fen Phen, the weight loss drug that caused potentially fatal pulmonary hypertension and heart valve problems.

Forgive me if I choose to do my own research and make my own decisions regarding my health rather than relying on the FDA, who often seems to give a “thumbs down” to any product that doesn’t make big money for pharmaceutical companies.  With far less documentation proving ill effects than those available on the drugs they do green light, I might add.

They say HCG does not bring about weight loss.  How, then, did I lose 77 lbs. in 6.5 months while using HCG, after years in which no other diet would budge the scale?  (In fact, I only used the HCG and followed the diet for 5 months during that time; for 7 weeks I took a break, maintaining the weight loss, but not losing, by doing Atkins.)

They say HCG does not redistribute fat.  I suppose that topic is very subjective.  For me, I was stunned at the changes in my body during the diet, even when I hit a plateau for a week.  How can a 55-year-old woman lose 77 lbs. in 5 months and not have flabby skin sagging all over her body?  Yet I didn’t.  Without any exercise, my skin stayed toned and tightened throughout the process of losing all that weight. 

They say HCG does not induce a feeling of well-being.  Again, this may be subjective, but my husband would strongly dispute this statement.  While I have thus far been unable to recreate my long-term success on HCG, that hasn't stopped me from trying, over and over again.  Each time I start taking the HCG drops, my husband expresses his amazement at how it improves my mood, giving me a sense of peace and health.  No other diet has ever made me feel like that right out of the gate, not even Atkins.  I call it a feeling of well-being.  Coincidence?  I think not.

They say HCG does not reduce hunger.  Hmmm.  Let me tell you what I know about the hunger reduction aspect of HCG:

My second child was born in 1991, about 8 years before I heard of Atkins.   More than a year after his birth, my weight had ballooned up to its highest point yet and I was desperate to get it off, but eating "healthy" in the traditional American way wasn't working.  The low-fat message was in its heyday, with everyone offering low-fat and no-fat products.  Figuring that the "experts" knew what they were talking about, I decided I just wasn't trying hard enough.  So I plunged right in.

 

I restricted myself to 800 calories per day and subsisted on fish and chicken breasts, while choking down dry bread, fat-free pasta, plain celery sticks, and cooked vegetables without butter.  It was a miserable diet and I was starving.  Despite the painful hunger pangs, like the Alien baby was clawing his way out of my belly, I was unwavering.  I lost the first 5 lbs. fairly quickly, but then the weight loss stopped.  And then, worse, the numbers on the scale started going back up.  On 800 calories per day, with no fat.  I lasted for about a month before I realized this simply was not going to work for me, and I resigned myself to being fat.  For 7 more years, until I found Atkins.

You see, I had discovered that the body really does go into "starvation mode" and hang on to the fat.  And that 800 calories make Mary a very cranky, hungry girl.

 

July 4, 1994: A family hike on the Mogollon Rim Trail. 

That's me on the far left, 2 months before my 40th birthday. 

Fat, fat, fat, and nothing I could do about it.  Or so I thought.

 

So, to the critics who say that you only lose weight on the HCG diet because "anyone will lose weight on only 500 calories per day," I say: Hogwash!  If I couldn't lose consistently on a strict daily intake of 800 calories—and even began to gain weight back—then clearly caloric intake isn't enough in and of itself.

To the critics who say there is no evidence that HCG suppresses hunger, I say: Have you never heard of empirical evidence?  I have many relatives and friends who have reported the same results.  Many thousands more report the same in their blogs and in chat rooms.  If I could barely withstand the hunger I experienced on an 800-calorie diet, how do you explain lasting as long as 7 weeks at a stretch on a mere 500 calories per day, with barely a tummy rumble?  If the results shared in these anecdotal reports are only "in our heads," an example of collective hallucination, so what?  It works!  

Let me also add that my blood pressure always drops below 120/80 within the first week of starting the drops.  My arrhythmia also responds well to the HCG, almost completely disappearing.  In fact, my cardiologist okayed the diet for his staff and brought in a nutritionist to oversee it, and that's how I was first introduced to HCG.  

Quite simply, HCG changed my life for the better.  Dispute that, FDA.