My clients continually ask me about the importance of exercise while doing the HCG Weight Loss Diet. The surprising answer comes from Dr. Simeons’ book, which is summarized in this recent article:
Why No Exercise on the HCG Diet?
Dr. Simeon’s HCG diet protocol calls for no exercise, yet you hear people arguing this point back and forth some in support of exercise and others who follow the HCG diet instructions to the letter. So, let’s take a look at why you are advised to not exercise while following the HCG diet. Yes, it sounds absolutely counter-intuitive to rest while trying to lose a pound a day, but once you understand the science behind these instructions you will no longer argue this point. So sit back and relax while your body re-sculpts itself. Read More Here…
Dr. Simeons was very specific about how HCG benefited young men whose obesity led to feminine features. Bodybuilders have known for quite some time that HCG treatment restores testosterone levels after an anabolic steroid series. (Testosterone levels drop in response to synthetic steroids.)
It is very informative to know that medical treatment for ‘man problems’ caused by low testosterone includes treatment with HCG. The following explanation from the National Medical Clinic Inc. tells you what to expect from a 6-month HCG treatment (at $1,995!).
Purpose of HCG Therapy to Stimulate Male Testes
The hormone HCG is prescribed for men in this therapy to increase natural testosterone production during the course of therapy as a result of the stimulation of the testes by the HCG. No testosterone medication is administered in this treatment. The treatment objective is to cause the male testes to naturally produce a higher volume of testosterone by HCG stimulation of his testes with the result that the patient experiences a continuing higher blood level of testosterone while on treatment. Another treatment objective is to avoid the use of any anabolic steroid and its adverse side effects upon the patient.
HCG Therapy normally increases natural testosterone production by the male testes while HCG is administered to the patient during the treatment period However, HCG Therapy can also result in a continuation of increased testosterone production and a resulting higher level of testosterone in the bloodstream after treatment is completed when the cause of the patient’s low natural LH secretion by the pituitary is not due to the patient’s natural genetics, aging process, injury to or loss of one or both testes; a medical disorder or disease affecting the testes, or castration.
HCG Therapy can result in a continuing higher level of natural testosterone production by the testes after HCG Therapy is completed when the underlying cause of the low LH secretion and resulting low testosterone production (1) is due to the prior use of one or more anabolic steroids by the patient or (2) due to the administration of testosterone in a prior hormone replacement therapy without the required concurrent HCG Therapy to prevent the patient’s endocrine system (hypothalamus pituitary-testes axis) from shutting down the natural production of testosterone by the testes and causing testicular atrophy.
Summary Benefits of HCG Therapy to Increase Natural Testosterone Production
• Increases physical energy and elimination of chronic fatigue
• Improves sex drive
• Improves sexual performance
• Improves mood
• Reduces depression
• Increases lean muscle mass
• Increases strength and endurance as a result of exercise
• Reduces body fat due to increased exercise
• Increases sperm count and therefore male fertility
• HCG Therapy can also result in a higher level of natural testosterone production after HCG Therapy is completed when the cause of a man’s current low testosterone production is the prior use of anabolic steroids that shut down or reduced the pituitary gland’s production of LH and decreased testosterone production.
The Miracle of Hormones
The human body makes more than 150 steroid hormones. It is no surprise that balancing them all becomes more of a challenge when we age, suffer poor health, or gain way too much body fat. Fortunately, HCG is one of the better strategies for helping us do exactly that!
The HCG Diet is really much simpler than people make it out to be.
The science has been known for more than 50 years. Here are the key points that explain this weight loss protocol in a nutshell. Way too many people make the HCG Weight Loss protocol much more complicated than it really is. It is simply a hormone-directed, very low-calorie diet that is ultra-low in fat and carbohydrate. The recent growth in popularity of this protocol, however, has attracted so much nonsense that it is difficult to know what is right and what is wrong.
Way too many people make the HCG Weight Loss protocol much more complicated than it really is. It is simply a hormone-directed, very low-calorie diet that is ultra-low in fat and carbohydrate. The recent growth in popularity of this protocol, however, has attracted so much nonsense that it is difficult to know what is right and wrong.
Whenever I hold a Q&A session in my store, I always start out my presentation by putting everyone on the same page with a summary of the key points that answer most questions before anyone even asks. They are as follows:
HCG (Human Chorionic Gonadotropin) is a complex protein hormone that is produced by pregnant women. Its normal function is to direct the mother to use her own stored fat to nourish a developing fetus.
Different forms of HCG include injectable, oral (sublingual), transdermal (cream), and homeopathic drops. I have no scientific basis for evaluating homeopathic HCG, since it contains no actual HCG. All other forms contain measurable dosages of the hormone.
Native HCG that is isolated from the urine of pregnant women is available under several brand names, including Pregnyl, Follutein, Profasi, and Novarel.
A genetically engineered form of HCG, called Ovidrel, is produced by Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells. It is not identical to the complete native hormone. Nevertheless, it works just as well as the native hormone.
When administered to overweight men and women, low dosages of HCG cause the reduction of abnormal fat when food calories are restricted to no more than 500 calories per day. (This would be an unhealthy starvation diet without the action of HCG to derive calories from fat!)
The diet consists of four components in each of two daily meals: 1) a nonfat protein; 2) a vegetable; 3) a fruit; and, 4) a serving of Melba toast. The program also encourages the intake of plenty of water and allows unlimited amounts of black coffee and tea. Stevia is the only approved sweetener.
Key supplements for enhancing results include green tea, chromium, goat’s rue, cha de bugre, CLA, and probiotics. (See below)
Because HCG is a hormone that “trains” specific brain receptors, it advisable to use the hormone for a minimum of 27 days (the 30-day program) or a maximum of 40 days (the 43-day program). Maximum weight loss during the 30-day program is typically 25 lbs. For the 43-day program it is typically 35 lbs. Further reduction beyond 35 lbs. requires an additional HCG series after a layoff period.
Fat reduction via HCG shapes your body by burning abnormal fat. You will not go below a healthy weight level or become too “skinny” – you will simply look the way you are supposed to look when you are not carrying excess abnormal fat.
According to Dr. A.T.W. Simeons, the discoverer of this program in the 1950s, the bonus benefits of the HCG Weight Loss Diet include restoring steroid hormone balance, slowing or reversing the downhill slide of hypoglycemia and diabetes, re-energizing thyroid and adrenal glands, breaking up arterial plaque, reducing rheumatic pain, and lowering blood pressure.
Lifetime Aftercare: HCG-based weight reduction is only the first phase. You must also follow certain dietary guidelines (i.e., no sugar, low starch) for a 3-week second phase. You must also adopt a sensible diet and lifestyle for the rest of your life. This is when right diet, exercise, supplements, and lifestyle are most important for your long-term weight management and total health.
Lifetime Supplements: This is another topic that has attracted a lot of craziness. Keep it simple! There is nothing simpler or better than what I have already assembled at Doctors Nutrition Center for the HCG Diet Aftercare Supplements.
How Effective is the HCG Protocol?
Dr. Simeons estimated the effectiveness, or success rate, at better than 90%. In my experience, this depends on compliance. If you do not follow the protocol, you will fail. Furthermore, if you do not live sensibly after you reach your target weight, you will gain rebound fat. There are no silver bullets, magical drugs, or miracle surgical procedures that can help you if you do not do the right thing.
You may have heard about the HCG diet from friends or family members, or read about it online at a weight loss site, but you are not sure if the HCG diet programs are for you. If you want to lose weight, get healthy, and do this quickly and safely, then the HCG diet programs are definitely for you.
HCG, which stands for Human Chorio Gonadotropin, is an all natural hormone that is found in the human body. When taken in small doses on the HCG diet programs, it actually triggers the hypothalamus gland to take stored fat cells and use them as energy that the body needs to survive. This means that you can be sleeping and burning fat while you dream away. On the HCG diet, the body uses anywhere from 2,000-3,000 calories from stored fat. Do you know how long you would have to work out to burn 2,000 calories of store fat? You could workout for five hours straight and still not reach that amount of fat cells burned in one day.
The HCG diet is like no other diet. It works to control the balance of the body and restore your metabolism back to normal. So even after you stop taking the HCG doses, you can still burn calories at a resting rate. When you restore your metabolism to where it should be, you won’t have the weight loss plateaus. You can easily reach your healthy goal weight and maintain that weight for many years to come.
One of the key aspects of the HCG diet programs is that you need to consume only 500 calories when you are on phase two of the diet or the HCG injections phase. This has to do with the body using so many calories from fat that you don’t need any more than 500 calories from food on a daily basis. Some people may think that this is a starvation diet, but a starvation diet will actually stop weight loss. On the HCG diet, you will not have weight loss plateaus to worry about. You need to make sure, though, that you follow the diet properly by eating what it says you should and not going over your 500 calories, or at least no eating more than 700 calories a day.
For anybody who has dealt with weight issues, you know that it can be frustrating trying to lose weight and keep it off. With the HCG diet programs, you no longer have to worry about this. If you follow the protocol exactly as it is outlined, you can be healthy and skinny for life.
The HCG diet has been around for awhile, but lately is has been garnering more attention as more people come forward with their weight loss success stories. The HCG diet was researched and developed by Dr. Simeons as a cure to fight the obesity epidemic that we have in our world today. Dr. Simeons wrote a HCG diet protocol in his manuscript called Pounds and Inches, but for many people, this manuscript is not the easiest to understand. If you are interested in the HCG diet and losing weight, here is what you should know about the diet.
HCG, which stands for Human Chorio Gonadotropin, is a natural hormone that is found in both men and women. When you are born, you are born with a certain amount of HCG and the only time that more is made is when a woman becomes pregnant. This hormone works in conjunction with the hypothalamus gland to help regulate body fat, control emotions, and help to develop reproductive organs. The main reason why people need to supplement their body with more of this hormone is because so many of our foods and things in our environment contain toxins that will actually strip the HCG from your body. Such things like antibiotics will remove some of the HCG from your body.
Dr. Simeons founded the HCG diet on the foundation that taking extra amounts of the hormone will help you to regain balance with your body and lose the extra weight you may be carrying. He paired the HCG doses with a specific low calorie diet to come up with a way that a person can easily lose one pound a day while on the HCG diet. The HCG works with the body to burn the stored fat that you have accumulated while maintaining the muscle in your body.
The diet is all natural. As mentioned before, the hormone is already produced by your body, but it may be lacking and needs to be replenished. Unlike other fad diets that claim to help you lose weight quickly, the HCG diet is all natural and does not contain any harmful chemicals. The dose of the hormone can be taken orally with a dropper or they can be injected with a syringe.
The HCG diet is not a fly-by program. It does take real dedication to stick to the proper eating and the daily dose of HCG. Fortunately, most people who have started the program easily saw huge results within the first week, which is great motivation to stick to the plan.
This topic may surprise you. Watch the video, which I posted on YouTube. Then read the full article below that.
Now for Some More Details
This is a 21st century update on what Dr. Simeons said about the HCG diet in 1954. The first item of importance is that cholesterol that is in circulation or in cell membranes where it belongs is important for good health.
Your body normally makes all the cholesterol that it needs and no more. However, when arterial walls become damaged, various components in the blood can get trapped in the damaged areas. Inflammation is the cause of this trapping effect, not high cholesterol. Dr. Simeons incorrectly blamed cholesterol for being the cause of arterial damage.
Plaque Buildup
When enough material (cholesterol, calcium, fibrin, etc.) builds up into a plaque, arteries become clogged. The excess calcium even leads to hardening of the arterial wall. Although modern medicine blames cholesterol on this clogging, that is far from the truth.
Indeed, clinical evidence is very clear that plaque is best eliminated by chelation therapy that removes calcium or by systemic enzymes that remove fibrin. Modern medicine has wrongly targeted cholesterol as the problem, even though it is just a bit player in a complicated mixture of many substances.
Putting Cholesterol on the Move Again with HCG
One of the consequences of high HCG production in pregnant women was long ago observed to be higher levels of free cholesterol in circulation. Free cholesterol, as opposed to bound LDL cholesterol, has much less chance of being trapped into plaque.
Even the miniscule doses of HCG that are administered for weight loss have the effect of increasing the proportion of free cholesterol. This just means that trapped cholesterol has a tendency to be loosened and reintroduced into circulation. This is a good thing.
Short Term and Long Term Effects of Releasing Trapped Cholesterol
The first thing that happens is that blood cholesterol levels shoot up. Depending on how much plaque has accumulated, this number can seem to be frighteningly high. Blood cholesterol spikes are highest in those who already have high levels of cholesterol or who have already been diagnosed with arterial hardening and blockage.
The effect over time of releasing trapped cholesterol into free form is a decrease in arterial blockages and a consequently freer circulation. The clinical indicator of this effect is lower blood pressure.
Even though Dr. Simeons admitted that a spike in cholesterol levels seemed scary at first, the net result a few months after the HCG diet was a normalization of cholesterol levels and blood pressure.
One Caution About Trapped Cholesterol
When plaque gets out of hand and leads to nearly complete arterial blockage, it has more than likely gone too far to benefit from the effects of HCG. Cholesterol-lowering drugs would also have very little effect on thick, calcium-filled plaque. (These drugs, in fact, only inhibit the synthesis of new cholesterol.) Other treatment modalities such as chelation therapy and systemic enzyme therapy would be more appropriate starting points.
The HCG diet program is a fast and safe way to lose weight. On the diet program it is possible to lose up to two pounds a day for as long as you are following the diet and taking the HCG doses. Some people are skeptical of the HCG diet program, but once you know how it works then you can be sure that weight loss is possible on the diet.
First of all, HCG is a natural hormone that is found in the human body. It is made in large numbers by pregnant woman to help protect their unborn baby. In fact, when a pregnancy test is taken, HCG is what is tested for. Some HCG doses are made synthetically in labs and some are actually taken from the urine of pregnant women.
The way that the doses of the HCG work on the body is that it triggers the hypothalamus gland to start using excess fat reserves in the body as energy. With exercise and diet alone, it can take a person to exercise for over an hour before they reach this fat burning zone. The HCG also works to naturally restore balance in the body and raise a person’s metabolism. With the HCG diet program, a person will lose fat but will not lose any muscle since the HCG only triggers the use of fat cells in the body.
To lose weight on the HCG diet program one must simply follow the protocol that was set forth by Dr. Simeons. A short synopsis of this protocol involves eating 500 calories a day of certain foods that are listed in the protocol. Also, these foods must be organic as the diet aims to detoxify the body, which is why the person is overweight to begin with. The 500 calories a day is only followed in the main diet phase or Phase 2 of the program. This is done in conjunction with regular doses of HCG via oral drops or injections into the body. The program lays out how much of the HCG should be injected or taken at once and on what type of schedule.
Even the HCG diet program may appear to be a starvation diet, it is far from it. There is no way that a person could lose a pound a day on a starvation diet. The body is using so many calories from the stored fat reserves that it does not need any more than 500 calories. If more than the allotted 500 calories are eaten, it may be possible to not lose any weight or to actually gain weight.
Follow the HCG diet program exactly as it is defined in the protocol and it is possible to finally lose the weight in a quick and safe manner.
The HCG diet program is a fast and safe way to lose weight. On the diet program it is possible to lose up to two pounds a day for as long as you are following the diet and taking the HCG doses. Some people are skeptical of the HCG diet program, but once you know how it works then you can be sure that weight loss is possible on the diet.
First of all, HCG is a natural hormone that is found in the human body. It is made in large numbers by pregnant woman to help protect their unborn baby. In fact, when a pregnancy test is taken, HCG is what is tested for. Some HCG doses are made synthetically in labs and some are actually taken from the urine of pregnant women.
The way that the doses of the HCG work on the body is that it triggers the hypothalamus gland to start using excess fat reserves in the body as energy. With exercise and diet alone, it can take a person to exercise for over an hour before they reach this fat burning zone. The HCG also works to naturally restore balance in the body and raise a person’s metabolism. With the HCG diet program, a person will lose fat but will not lose any muscle since the HCG only triggers the use of fat cells in the body.
To lose weight on the HCG diet program one must simply follow the protocol that was set forth by Dr. Simeons. A short synopsis of this protocol involves eating 500 calories a day of certain foods that are listed in the protocol. Also, these foods must be organic as the diet aims to detoxify the body, which is why the person is overweight to begin with. The 500 calories a day is only followed in the main diet phase or Phase 2 of the program. This is done in conjunction with regular doses of HCG via oral drops or injections into the body. The program lays out how much of the HCG should be injected or taken at once and on what type of schedule.
Even the HCG diet program may appear to be a starvation diet, it is far from it. There is no way that a person could lose a pound a day on a starvation diet. The body is using so many calories from the stored fat reserves that it does not need any more than 500 calories. If more than the allotted 500 calories are eaten, it may be possible to not lose any weight or to actually gain weight.
Follow the HCG diet program exactly as it is defined in the protocol and it is possible to finally lose the weight in a quick and safe manner.
The HCG diet has been around for over 30 years, but yet there are plenty of people who don’t know what the exact HCG diet plans are and how they can help a person lose weight and cure the obesity epidemic. The HCG diet plans are laid out in Dr. Simeon’s HCG diet protocol. They were developed by the doctor after extensive research done on HCG and the hormone’s effect on weight loss. Here are some key aspects of the HCG diet plans.
Regular doses of the hormone HCG must be taken during the second phase of the diet. The HCG will trigger the body into taking stored fat cells and using those fat cells as energy for the body. The body only uses those stored fate cells and will not take away muscle cells from the body. This is why it is possible for people to lose one to two pounds a day on the HCG diet when they properly follow the HCG diet plans.
Only organic food should be eaten on the HCG diet. This works in conjunction with the HCG doses to set the body’s metabolism back to normal. Normal food, especially processed and food from fast food restaurants, is loaded with toxins and chemicals that knock a person’s body out of balance. This is why people are overweight and obese–the toxins altered the person’s body to not burn fat like it should and to actually crave the bad food. When you only eat organic food, you are ridding your body of those toxins and your body and use these nutrients since it recognizes them as actually food and not poisons.
Lastly, when on the second phase of the diet, which is when HCG doses are taken, a person is to only consume 500 calories. This is by no means a starvation diet, but only 500 calories is needed a day since the body is using 2,000 to 2,500 calories from fat as energy. If more than 500 calories are consumed, then the body gets overloaded again and you may not lose as much or you may actually gain weight if you eat too many calories. Once you are on to phase three of the diet, or the maintenance phase, you will be able to eat as many calories as you want, as long as the food abides by the HCG diet plans guidelines.
The HCG diet plans have been shown to aid curing obesity in people. It is not simply a diet, as it works to restore the balance in the body and keep the weight off for good while making the person much healthier than ever before.
For more information on HCG Diet Direct or HCG Diet Direct tools and resources contact Jenny Boynton at info@HcgDietDirect.com or by phone at: 1-602-330-7655. Or visit HCG Diet Direct online at www.hcgdietdirect.com ulverston
HCG diets are not exactly new, but they are becoming more and more popular as they people continue to report success stories of weight loss from following the diets. HCG sales have taken off online as well in doctor’s offices across the world. More and more people are getting interested in actually losing their weight and they are turning toward HCG diets.
What is HCG?HCG is an acronym for Human Chorionic Gonadotropin, which is a natural chemical that is made in humans. Both men and women have HCG in their tissues, but it is most prevelent in pregnant woman. It is the hormone that causes a woman to register pregnant on pregnancy tests as it is found in the urine. People are born with HCG in their body and it helps to develop the reproductive organs, but is also works with the hypothalamus to help regulate a person’s body fat.
Why HCG Diets For Weight Loss?A British endocrinologist named Dr. Simeons came up with a low calorie HCG diet that he found to be effective for weight loss and controlling obesity in people. While studying pregnant women and overweight boys in India that were being treated with a low dose of HCG for pituitary problems, he noticed that they were losing fat, not muscle, on the diet. He came up with the medical conclusion that the low doses of the hormone were enough to help the hypothalamus regulate the burning of stored fat cells in the body. He came up with a 500 calorie diet that goes along with regular doses of HCG that significantly showed great results for weight loss when followed properly.
The way that HCG diets work is that the low dose of the hormone stimulates the body to burn the stored fat cells that are hard to get rid of with exercise and healthy eating. Normally, without HCG supplements, the body will use the food that was just eaten for energy for the body. When HCG is taken, it used the stored fat first, making it possible to lose weight rather quickly. Dr. Simeons study showed that people could easily lose one to two pounds in a day on HCG diets.
Just like any other diet, before starting a HCG diet talk to your physician about your weight loss. If you really want to learn more about HCG diets, find doctors in your area that approve and endorse these types of diets. Then you can have all the information that you need to buy your HCG supplements and start your journey of losing weight with HCG diets.
For more information on HCG Diet Direct or HCG Diet Direct tools and resources contact Jenny Boynton at info@HcgDietDirect.com or by phone at: 1-602-330-7655. Or visit HCG Diet Direct online at www.hcgdietdirect.com
Scientific research and explanations for weight gain and obesity reach back more than a century. Based on this research, modern advice on how to combat fat gain is almost entirely wrong. Diet and exercise are ineffective, no matter what your doctor or other uninformed experts tell you.
FATTENING DIETS TO THE RESCUE
To address the promise of the title of this article, fattening diets are instructive because they tell us how people get fat when they want to. This means that, theoretically, you can do the opposite and get slim. Of course, nothing is that simple. Nevertheless, this will point you in the right direction. I will first explain how to get fat, and then I will suggest how you can use this information to lose fat and never get fat again.
FATTENING DIETS OF SUMO WRESTLERS
Champion sumo wrestlers of Japan have to get fat and stay that way. They attain a typical weight of more than 300 pounds by their early twenties. The most comprehensive English-language research article on this topic was published by Tsuneo Nishizawa in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 1976.
Nishizawa reported that the elite group of sumo wrestlers consumed on average almost 5,500 calories worth of pork stew every day. This stew consisted of 780 grams of carbohydrate, 100 grams of fat, and 365 grams of protein. The second tier of wrestlers averaged 5,120 calories per day – based on 1,000 grams of carbohydrates, 165 grams of protein, and 50 grams of fat. This second group weighed as much as the first, although they were significantly fatter and less muscular.
The elite group averaged 57 percent of their calories in carbohydrates and 16 percent in fat. The second group averaged 80 percent of their calories in carbohydrates and 9 percent in fat. Regarding fat, both are considerably below what most public health authorities in America would refer to as a low-fat diet.
The message is that pathological obesity in young men in their prime is caused by a very low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet. Now ask yourself, does this resemble anything like your diet?
FATTENING DIETS OF AFRICAN ROYALTY
This goes back much further into history. In 1857, European explorers reported that Abysinnian nobility in West Africa followed the custom of fattening their wives to such an extent that could not stand upright. A typical beauty would reach immense size, measured as a 52-inch chest, 24-inch arms, and 30-inch thighs.
On hindsight, the fattening diet of these women consisted of at least 1,000 extra calories per day in carbohydrate, and often more. That’s it. Think about this for a moment regarding dietary habits of modern Americans. What would it take to add 1,000 extra calories per day of carbohydrates if you just consider bread, tortillas, bagel, cookies and cakes, crackers, chips, and sodas? One and half Big Gulps alone would be 1,000 calories!
THE OBVIOUS TAKE-HOME LESSON
Avoid carbohydrates unless you WANT to get fat!
Specifically, avoid carbs that come packaged in nutritionally-deficient foods. Avoid white foods in general. This does not mean fruits and vegetables. It means starchy or processed foods that give you carbs and almost nothing else. The negative impact of these foods is huge.
By the way, diet foods and drinks that are sweetened with artificial sweeteners do not help. Some are so toxic that they should never have been approved for human consumption. That’s a topic for another day. I suggest you do some serious research on them, and I strongly recommend that you avoid them completely. Sugar-free sweet foods and drinks will kill you faster than a high-carb diet will.
WHY THIS IS SIMPLE-MINDED ADVICE
Fine, avoiding high-carb foods will keep you from getting fat. However, if you are already fat, it is more than likely that this strategy will not be sufficient for slimming down and staying slim. The main reason is that, once you are fat, you have already developed a tremendous imbalance in several kinds of hormones. The most important ones are the steroid hormones (specifically estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone – for men and women alike) and the protein hormones that include human growth hormone, leptin, and insulin, among others.
The fundamental reason that weight loss diets have such a high failure rate is that they do not address the underlying hormone imbalance that keeps you fat and that gets you fat again on the rebound from prior weight loss. By the way, exercise will also fail for the same reason. Once you have a fat person’s metabolism, you will continue to have a fat person’s metabolism – even if you have lost weight – when your hormones are imbalanced.
Review”Dr. Braverman identifies the missing component of addictive eating—imbalances in your brain chemistry. His program corrects the problem and makes it possible to stick to his and other great dietary programs for thinness and your health.” —Nicholas Perricone, MD, FACN, Assistant Clinical Professor of Dermatology at the Yale University School of Medicine, and author of the bestsellers The Wrinkle Cure and The Perricone Prescription “Dr. Braverman has done it again. With his k (more…)
Review
“”Physical perfection isn’t just about pumping iron.” Men’s Body Sculpting” combines the right exercises with the right nutrition in the right order to pack on muscle, burn calories, and define your look. Nick is living proof that his methods work!”" Robert Kennedy, executive editorMuscleMag International
Achieve breakthroughs in size for the lean, muscular look you?ve always wanted! Bodybuilding expert and MuscleMag International columnist Dr. Nick Evans presents a proven (more…)
Dr. A.T.W. Simeons outlined his protocol more than 50 years ago, using injections of the hormone HCG as the key for burning fat. Thousands of patients succeeded in losing weight when the hormone was accompanied by a specific, calorie-restricted diet. It is now a reputable weight loss program that has helped people lose weight permanently and more easily than any other program.
Caution on Oral HCG
The popularity of the HCG weight loss diet has fostered variations that are hard to keep up with. One of the variations is the use of an oral form of HCG instead of the original injectable form. This is a major shift in concept for introducing a complex protein hormone into the body. Proteins of all kinds taken orally only end up being digested in the mix of acids and protein-digesting enzymes of the stomach.
The take home lesson is that oral HCG, when swallowed, has very little chance of being effective before it is digested.
Sublingual HCG to the Rescue
An alternative oral form is also widely available for sublingual use. This just means that the HCG is placed under the tongue for a few minutes. The mucous membrane of the mouth is very efficient at absorbing all kinds of substances, including proteins.
The key for a sublingual HCG product to be effective is that the amount absorbed must mimic the effects of the injectable form exactly. Reputable companies have figured this out and provide directions that give you the expected results.
Comparing Injectable vs. Sublingual HCG
Both forms have to be mixed with sterile water. The similarity ends in the way they are used. The injectable form must be mixed in a vial whose lid can be penetrated by a needle. Administration requires drawing the appropriate volume into a syringe, then injecting it into your body once per day.
The sublingual form is administered from a dropper bottle, usually 5 drops twice per day. Variations depend on different products with different concentrations of HCG and different volumes of liquid per drop. It is common to mix 15 milliliters of sterile water into 12,000 I.U. of HCG, which will yield 5 drops twice per day for 27-plus days.
Injectable and sublingual forms of HCG are equivalent in their effects when used appropriately. The main reason for choosing one over another is simply a matter of personal preference or convenience. I have found that many more people are now willing to consider the HCG weight loss diet because they don’t have to self-administer the injections or go see a doctor daily to get injections administered to them. People who have objected to the need for injections now have an alternative.
What to Watch for When Buying Oral HCG
Most of the online HCG that is easy to buy is homeopathic HCG, which contains no HCG at all. Please make sure that you are getting legitimate HCG that has a clearly labeled concentration of several thousand I.U. If you see a label with 30x or some such indication of strength, this means that it is homeopathic.
The reason that I caution you on homeopathic HCG is because there is no scientific research behind this form of the hormone yet. The jury is still out.
The research by Dr. Simeons was published in 1954 in his book, ‘Pounds and Inches’, which is widely available at no cost on many websites. He designed his protocol to be very precise regarding the amount of HCG required for injection, for the number of calories and the types foods allowed, and for the optimal duration of the program. He also published a brief synopsis of his program in the British medical journal Lancet (vol. 2, pp. 946-947, 1954).
This weight loss program has attracted considerable attention from the medical community and from people who have undergone treatment. Its popularity is one reason why so many people, including medical doctors, have decided to offer opinions on whether it works. The success of HCG for weight loss has been so great that it has attracted negative attention from the FDA.
Before I go further, I want to note that the FDA is not an agency that serves human health. It is an agency that serves the financial interests of pharmaceutical companies. Negative attention from the FDA almost always means that the health benefits of the treatment in question might undermine drug profits. Indeed, seeing the statement that HCG is not approved by the FDA for weight loss is, in my opinion, support for the effectiveness of this protocol.
Medical Studies
The government’s PubMed database lists more than 18,000 journal articles on HCG, with less than a few dozen of these having anything to do with weight loss. Most of the research on this hormone involves fertility, pregnancy, and the detection of cancerous tumors. What I want to do is call your attention to just three studies as examples of the confusion that is rampant in the medical literature on HCG and weight loss.
1963 Study
This study was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (vol. 12, pp. 230-234, 1963), at the height of popularity of the HCG diet plan in the U.S. In my reading of this article, it looks to me as though the researchers behind this study, from the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, followed the Simeons protocol to the letter. There was one exception: the consumption of a baked potato each day, which is not on Simeons’ list of allowed vegetables. The main result of the study was an average loss of 6.5 pounds in the HCG-treated group, compared with an average loss of 8.8 pounds in the untreated (control) group. The authors concluded that the hormone did not cause weight loss.
This study is remarkable for a couple reasons. One is that, in spite of following the Simeons protocol for 40 days, neither the treatment group nor the control group came close to the amount of weight loss that is expected. A starvation diet alone (i.e., 550 calories per day) should have caused more weight loss than reported. In fact, one subject on HCG even gained weight. The other reason that this study is remarkable is that the number of study subjects (i.e., 10 in the treatment group, 9 in the control group) and the variability of the results within each group provided insufficient statistical power to explain anything at all! Indeed, this study offered no comparative statistical analysis of weight loss. In other words, the results did not support any conclusions whatsoever.
Nevertheless, one or more factors are not obvious in this study. Generally when a study has such insignificant results, the subjects were not compliant – i.e., they did not follow the protocol very well. The researchers offered no comment on this possibility, so we will never know why both the treatment group and the control group underperformed.
1973 Study
This study was published 10 years later, also in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (vol. 26, pp. 211-218, 1963). The researchers who conducted it, at the American Society of Bariatric Physicians Research Council, studied about twice as many subjects as the 1963 study above. The final result was an average loss of 19.96 pounds in the HCG group and 11.05 pounds in the control group. More importantly, the statistical analysis supported this difference as being significant. The conclusion of this study was that HCG did cause weight loss.
1995 Meta Analysis
Meta analysis refers to a comparison of multiple studies on the same topic. This meta analysis was published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology (vol. 40, pp. 237-243, 1995) by researchers at Vrije University, Netherlands. They evaluated 16 studies and observed that most of them were of ‘poor methodological quality’ (meaning, bad science). Only one of the 12 articles of acceptable quality showed an effect on weight loss by HCG. The researchers concluded that ‘there is no scientific evidence that HCG is effective in the treatment of obesity’.
Meta analysis studies have become very popular in medicine because of the notion that a trend over multiple studies shows the truth. Unfortunately, the basic rules of statistics invalidate any such comparisons. Moreover, when even one study stands out against the majority, it is wrong to ignore it completely as these researchers have done. It would be much more valuable to figure out why some studies give contradictory results to one another.
This meta analysis also reveals what I call the dirty laundry of medical science – i.e., most research is so flawed that it is almost useless for saying anything at all with certainty. In fact, this is kind of a scary thought, isn’t it?
Take Home Lesson
Human subject research is the most difficult kind of study because of so many variables that are out of the control of the experimental design. Determining cause and effect is almost impossible. Nevertheless, we can see from some research that HCG can and does drive weight loss. My view is that studies that show this result are better in terms of sticking more closely to the Simeons protocol in the experimental design, then having the study subjects adhere closely to it.
What I conclude regarding HCG and weight loss is based on what I have seen for myself. This includes many, many people who have had the same results that Simeons documented based on his clinical experience with thousands of patients. I have also had the same results for myself. There is nothing like personal experience! The key to my experience, however, was monitoring my body fat composition. Weight loss is almost irrelevant by itself. My result was a reduction of 20 pounds AND of 6% body fat in less than 30 days. Reduction in body fat is supposed to be the main effect of HCG.
Medical researchers are apparently going to argue the merits of HCG and weight loss until the end of time, citing whichever research results support their arguments. As a scientist myself, I have no doubt whatsoever that Simeons was right and that my body changes occurred because of HCG.
One More Thing
Early studies on lab animals are now beginning to show that HCG interacts with the hormone leptin. Leptin is the new master fat hormone that has been known only since 1994. Like HCG, leptin also carries a signal to the hypothalamus. I predict that the more we find out about the interaction between these two hormones, the more we will understand how ingenious the Simeons protocol really is.
Don t give another nickel to the $60 billion weight-loss industry until you have read this book For decades the weight-loss industry has bombarded us with a torrent of confusing and contradictory information about the cause and treatment of overweight. That way, when their diets fail, they can claim it’s all our fault. And fail they do. Scientific studies repeatedly show that more 95% of dieters gain back any lost weight often overshooting where they started. After more tha (more…)
My clients continually ask me about the importance of exercise while doing the HCG Weight Loss Diet. The surprising answer comes from Dr. Simeons’ book, which is summarized in this recent article:
Dr. Simeons was very specific about how HCG benefited young men whose obesity led to feminine features. Bodybuilders have known for quite some time that HCG treatment restores testosterone levels after an anabolic steroid series. (Testosterone levels drop in response to synthetic steroids.)
