The HCG diet

The HCG diet is now considered the insider tip for losing weight. Especially the Hollywood divas Britney Spears or Catherine Zeta-Jones flaunt their slim figures in public after this successful hormone diet. Even shortly after pregnancy, the Holywood stars shine again in their top bodies as if nothing had ever happened. The magic bullet for a slim body is the four- to eight-week Hollywood Hormone Diet (HCH), invented by English physician Dr. Albert T. Simeons in the 1950s. This form of diet consists of injections or drops of the hormone "human chorionic gonadotropin" in combination with a reduced calorie intake, which must not exceed 500 calories per day. Below we will take a closer look at this new hormone diet and see if this form of diet actually does what it promises.

What is HCG?

As already mentioned, the basis of the HCG diet the pregnancy hormone "human chorionic gonadotropin" (short: hCG). HCG is produced in the placenta during the first weeks of pregnancy. The hormone HCG stimulates the mucous membrane cells in the uterus, acts on the female sex hormones and supports pregnancy. Almost all common pregnancy tests consist of the indicator HCG as a detection factor for pregnancy. HCG is also injected into women who wish to have children, so that ovulation can be triggered and it is easier for the fertilized egg to implant. However, HCG is also produced by tumor cells, for example in testicular or ovarian cancer, so the presence of HCG in non-pregnant women in particular can indicate a cancerous tumor. The ovaries are then particularly frequently affected. The exact effect of HCG on body weight has not yet been empirically proven. According to the inventor of the HCG Diet Dr. Simeon, the hormone in combination with a greatly reduced calorie intake (500 Kcal / day) should lead to no cravings attacks. In addition, HCG is said to boost fat burning without losing valuable muscle mass. The HCG diet is intended to attack especially the fat pads in the abdominal and thigh area, which can not be expelled even by intensive exercise and and a low-fat diet. HCH also ensures that the unwanted drop in performance and the often emerging depression during a diet can not arise. Some participants of this diet even confirm that they were able to engage in sports activities without any problems despite the low calorie intake.

Maximum 500 Kcal per day!

An important component of this form of diet is the extreme reduction of daily calorie intake. The nutrients fat and carbohydrates, as well as sugar and alcohol are not allowed in the diet phase. The daily calorie intake must not exceed 500 Kcal. This target corresponds to about one third of the basal metabolic rate of an adult woman and about one quarter of the daily basal metabolic rate of a man. The basal metabolic rate is generally defined as the daily calorie requirement of the body for the functioning of the organism at rest. The basal metabolic rate can be calculated with the formula [body weight in kg] x 24 x 0.9. If a person works additionally, the basal metabolic rate is multiplied by certain activity factors. For example, if a person works in an office, the basal metabolic rate is multiplied by the factors 1.3 to 1.6. A HCG diet is set to a maximum of eight weeks and should not take place without medical supervision, which is understandable given the prescribed criteria. The necessary HCG products for the diet are not yet approved in Germany. Product offers from the Internet are very expensive, such as a three-week syringe cure, which is offered up to 1,000 euros retail price.

Conclusion: Not recommended

A weight reduction with the HCG diet promises a quick success and weight loss of several kilograms in just a few weeks. This radical weight loss is certainly important for an actor who is strongly in the public eye, but for Otto Normalverbraucher rather harmful to health and very costly. A sustainable weight reduction with the HCG drops is not empirically provable until today, because it is unclear how the HCG drops are actually composed. Many doctors even claim that the HCG is completely inactivated in the stomach or intestines after ingestion and thus cannot act at all in the organism. Also many studies proved in the meantime that HCG is not able to diminish fat pads or to suppress an arising hunger feeling. Nutrition experts are now in agreement that the strong weight loss in the HCG diet is produced solely by the extremely reduced energy intake in combination with the exercise. It is also particularly noted that the significant caloric intake in combination with HCG can cause mineral deficiency and menstrual disorders. To date, there are no findings on side effects of HCG products, therefore it is not known whether HCG possibly promotes the development of cancerous tumors. Doctors recommend that especially women after pregnancy do not take HCG diet, as the reduced calorie intake burns the fat cells and their stored harmful substances, which in the long run can be dangerous for a mother and the breastfed child. In addition, a radical diet upsets the metabolism, which can lead to gout attacks and cardiac arrhythmias. The HCG diet can therefore in no case be recommended by us as a healthy diet form.