I’ve been hearing a lot of rumbling lately about this diet so I wanted to summarize the truth for those who might be wondering. Lets begin by stating that HCG is NOT a diet. It’s the acronym for a hormone called Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin. This hormone is only naturally occurring in pregnant females. The idea of the “HCG diet” is that an injection of HCG will suppress appetite so that you can eat 500 calories per day with minimal hunger. There is absolutely no scientific evidence proving that injections of HCG will suppress appetite or, as some web sites claim, increase the uptake of body fat as energy. Plenty of double blind studies were done where placebos were given to half the participants and hcg to the other half with no differences in appetite or fat loss occurring on the same 500 calorie diet. HCG injections are only available by prescription (about $800) and tongue drops sold on the internet only have trace amounts of HCG and ingested forms of HCG that can’t survive the digestive system anyway. So any source of HCG that doesn’t come from a doctor is a scam on top of a scam.

So DUH, of course 500 calories per day is going to yield weight loss. But here is the problem. Eating such low levels of calories subjects your body to hardships that will result in health problems you want to avoid. Weight loss DOES NOT NECESSARILY EQUAL HEALTHY! The idea to losing weight is actually to lose FAT. The problem is on a 500 calorie per day diet you will also lose muscle and deprive your body of the nutrients it desperately needs for normal healthy function. You cannot make up the difference with bodyfat alone. The ADA (American Dietetic Association) does not recommend anyone go lower than 1200 calories per day. Most people burn more than 500 calories when they are asleep at night! The fact of the matter is that most people who try 500 calorie per day diets suffer many problems such as fainting, headaches, hair loss, loss of energy and mood drops. Yes I understand there is a small minority of people who can go on 500 calories per day and not have side effects, but I’m willing to bet that if those people had a full medical checkup and blood test they would indeed see problems what were not apparent otherwise. There is plenty of information on the web about this silly excuse for a diet and I encourage anyone interested to seek it out. But a word of caution; many of these sources of information are bought and paid for by companies trying to sell HCG.

So my recommendation is don’t do this diet unless you really don’t care about your health. There is a much better way to achieve proper body composition with healthy habits like exercise and the proper nutritional support.