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HCG & Weight Loss: Fact or Fiction?

Jun 29, 2011 | By M. Gideon Hoyle

Human chorionic gonadotropin, commonly abbreviated as hCG or HCG, is a hormone that naturally forms in women's bodies during pregnancy. Certain marketers and health advocates promote this hormone as part of a diet designed to promote significant weight loss. While high doses of HCG may result in weight loss, they also put you at risk for potentially life-threatening health problems.

HCG Basics

During pregnancy, HCG forms in the cells of the placenta, which acts as a source of nutrition for a fertilized egg and developing fetus. Levels of the hormone are first detectable roughly two weeks after conception and reach their highest point about six to nine weeks later. U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved uses of HCG-based products include infertility treatment in women, treatment of low sperm count in men and treatment of undescended testicles in young boys. HGC is not approved for use as a weight-loss aid.

Weight Loss

HCG has a chemical effect that's similar to that produced by a substance called thyroid stimulating hormone, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. This hormone, which comes from your body's pituitary gland, sends chemical signals to your thyroid gland and tells it to produce more if its two main hormones. In turn, increased thyroid activity results in increases in your body's metabolism, or rate of energy usage. If you take high doses of HCG for extended periods of time, it can also trigger increases in your body's metabolism and lead to unusually rapid weight loss.

Thyrotoxicosis

The level of HCG needed to produce weight loss also triggers a dangerous overstimulation of your thyroid gland called thyrotoxicosis, Philip A. Mackowiak, M.D., of the University of Maryland School of Medicine explains. This condition, which is accompanied by symptoms that can include an irregular heartbeat, abdominal pain, lowered mental alertness and fever, represents a rapid worsening of the overactive thyroid disorder called hyperthyroidism. If you develop thyrotoxicosis, you can die suddenly from a heart attack. For this reason, people with this condition require prompt hospitalization and medical treatment.

HCG Diet

Lower levels of HCG use are a common feature of the HCG diet, a program that combines oral or injectable forms of the hormone with calorie restrictions that fall well below common guidelines for recommended nutritional intake. MayoClinic.com reports, however, that any weight loss associated with this type of diet comes from reduced intake of calories, not HCG. Apart from nutritional deficiencies and the increased risks for gallstones associated with any form of rapid weight loss, potential HGC-related effects of the diet include irritability, headaches and fatigue, as well as abnormal breast enlargement in men. Speak with your doctor before you consider taking any amount of HCG or start an HGC diet.

References

Article reviewed by Libby Swope Wiersema Last updated on: Jun 29, 2011

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