Facts on the HCG Diet

The HCG diet is proof positive that fad diets of the past can come back for an encore. In November 2009, the "Los Angeles Times" published an article announcing the renewed popularity of a diet that had been discredited by numerous clinical trials. People who want to lose weight fast continue to try the HCG diet, but if you hope to join them, you may want to get the facts about the HCG diet before committing yourself to a weight-loss plan with such a poor track record.

Identification

One of the more interesting facts about the HCG diet is the substance that purportedly makes it work: human chorionic gonadotropin, the hormone produced by pregnant women. HCG is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a weight-loss treatment, notes MayoClinic.com. In fact, the FDA has approved only a scant number of medications for weight control. Most of these oral drugs --phentermine and sibutramine being the most commonly prescribed -- act as appetite suppressants and are used for only a few weeks, states the Weight-Control Information Network. As a prescription treatment, HCG is used to treat female infertility.

History

The HCG diet is decades old. The "Los Angeles Times" states that A.T.W. Simeons, a British physician, was contemplating HCG as a weight-loss treatment as early as the 1930s. Children with Frohlich's syndrome, characterized by obesity and delayed sexual development, were treated with HCG injections.

In the mid-1950s, Simeons took HCG to the next level by experimenting on overweight adults. Simeons theorized that HCG injections caused fat to melt off certain areas of the body, such as the hips, stomach and buttocks. The Simeons weight-loss treatment, which he used on patients for about two decades, was coupled with a rigid 500-calorie-a-day diet. Dieters received an HCG injection each day and consumed two meals made up of lean meat, leafy vegetables, fruit and a single piece of crispbread.

In the Press

Subsequent to Simeons' use of HCG, the treatment was studied in numerous clinical trials in the 1960s and 1970s. Not all of these studies were well-designed. Of the studies that were, participants exhibited significant weight loss while dieting, but there weren't any differences noted between various treatments groups -- those who received a placebo compared with those who received HCG injections -- with respect to body proportions and diminished appetite.

By December of 1974, "Time" magazine had published an article about the fad diet, noting the American Medical Association's concerns about HCG as a sham weight-loss treatment. At the time, Simeons had made the HCG diet even more profitable by opening a chain of weight-loss clinics across the United States.

Considerations

The most important fact to know about the HCG diet is that it's not the HCG itself that makes you lose weight; it's the near-starvation diet that accompanies it. According to MayoClinic.com you get only one-fourth to one-half of the calories you'd normally consume. Any time you cut back on food consumption so drastically, weight loss is a given.

Expert Insight

Once you go off the HCG diet, you'll gain back all the pounds that you lost, unless you make changes to your lifestyle and eating habits. As the Weight-Control Information Network notes, fad diets that promote quick weight loss are not only unlikely to result in permanent weight loss but also can also be dangerous, putting you at risk for gallstones. Diets that give you less than 800 calories a day, like the HCG diet, can also cause fatal heart rhythm abnormalities. A more sensible goal is losing a half-pound to 2 lbs. a week. Eat healthy foods in the right proportions, and add exercise, for weight loss that sticks with you in the long run.