What I Know About HCG

HCG, or human chorionic gonadotrophin, is a glycoprotein hormone that your body naturally produces when you are pregnant.  Some believe this is why women experience morning sickness, especially in the early weeks of gestation.  It is designed to repel immune cells and to maintain the metabolism levels in the mother, thus protecting the growing baby in the womb.  Fat calories are released and then used or discarded, as the body needs. 

Used as a tool in weight loss, HCG is thought to help you lose fat without losing muscle.  It is also said to suppress your appetite, which helps since you’re on such a low-calorie diet while you’re taking the injections.

Since it takes two or three days to build up in your system, you may not enjoy the benefits of the appetite suppressant right away.  For me, I swear it took a week.  And I let my doctor have it after I saw the minimal loss on his scale.  "All this work for these kinds of results?!?  And I'm hungry all the time!  Ravenous, even."  That was a bad, bad day!  Now I seem to be doing pretty well with the hunger.

As I mentioned earlier, when you're on HCG injections, you need to be on a very clean, very low-calorie diet.  We're talking 500-600 calories a day.  In this way, the depleted cells don’t take on additional fat.  And in fact, after you complete the injections, you need to eat as if you were still on the injections for three days, to assure that the HCG has worked itself out of your system.

From the Phase I cleanse to the Phase II HCG therapy, I was able to add greater amounts of protein, but the portions are still very small (about 20 grams each).  I have cut back to two cups of vegetables a day.  The fruit is the same, at just two servings per day.  I was also able to add a very small portion of complex carbohydrates a day, a 1/3 cup portion of cooked, brown rice.  I can still use as many spices as I'd like.  The ones I stick with most are garlic, cayenne pepper, and chili powder.  I also use a healthy portion of cinnamon anytime I have an apple.  

The idea for this weight-loss approach started with a British endocrinologist named Albert T. W. Simeons as he treated patients with pituitary problems, but it has come under severe attack by the medical community at large.  Critics say that there are no substantial findings to indicate that you maintain your lean muscle mass or that you successfully lose weight from this regimen.  Yet, my doctor and nutritionist have been working with patients over the last two years and report success in the high 90s as far as percentage goes.  And they measure, not just weight, but a whole lot of other things when you start the 28-day therapy and again when you finish it. 

I’ll keep you posted!  The goal is four to five pounds per week, but all I can do is what I can do.

Enjoy your day.  Enjoy this blog.