The all too popular HCG diet has helped many people who struggle with weight loss lose weight, but do they know what harm they are really doing to their bodies? Probably not, a diet that asks someone to put a hormone only found in pregnant women into their body and then ingest only five hundred calories a day is not the most safe for ones body.
What is HCG?
HCG or the Human chorionic gonadotropin is a hormone that is usually found in a pregnant woman’s urine, it is one of the main things tested for when someone takes an at home or in office urine pregnancy test. HCG is a powerful hormone in and of itself, it causes most of the changes in a pregnant woman. Synthetic versions are used in major cases of infertility, where it is highly regulated and watched for side effects that may occur. It is also injected by a health care professional that knows what to do and how to do it.
What is the HCG diet?
The HCG diet is basically a forty day regimen of drops or shots of the HCG hormone and a five hundred calorie a day diet. The dieter can choose between taking drops orally or having the hormone injected into them, either way it is supposed to work the same way. The HCG causes the body to attack fat cells and the extremely low calorie intake is supposed to ensure that the dieter does not put on anymore fat than they already have on their body.
Side Effects of HCG
Some of the side effects of HCG include Ovarian Hyper stimulation, Early puberty in young boys, multiple birth pregnancies, and some other not-so-serious side effects such as restlessness, irritability, mild swelling or water weight gain, depression, and signs of a false pregnancy such as breast swelling and/or tenderness.
Ovarian Hyper stimulation is pretty much very easy to figure out, the ovaries have more of a chance of releasing more than one egg. This goes hand in hand with the multiple birth pregnancies being there is more of a chance of having multiples because the main use of synthetic HCG is for infertility. Ovarian Hyper-stimulation has a laundry list of symptoms such as shortness of breath, diarrhea, and stomach pain or swelling just to name a few.
Early puberty in young boys is pretty straight forward as well, it causes young boys to start puberty prematurely when used on them. Young boys shouldn’t be put on such a drastic and dangerous diet to begin with, they should be taught how to eat healthier and to go out and get exercise instead of being allowed to sit and play video games or watch television all the time. This two has it’s own symptoms which include but are not limited to deepened voice, and pubic hair growth.
Multiple pregnancies are becoming more and more common in today’s society with the numerous people going in for infertility treatments, and also people injecting themselves needlessly with HCG because they want to lose weight. The HCG in the HCG diet can cause a multiple birth pregnancy.
Even though they list shortness of breath, as a less serious side effect it could be totally serious. Having chest pains is usually very serious meaning that the person having them has something seriously wrong with them, such as a heart attack.
Why is the HCG diet so bad?
HCG a normal every day hormone found in pregnant women has been going around the world as a “miracle” diet saying that people can lose up to thirty pounds in thirty days, which by any standard is not safe, it is quite dangerous to the person or persons on the diet. The fact that while on the HCG diet the dieter is only to take in about five hundred calories a day is enough to make them lose weight, they don’t need to add an unneeded hormone on top of it to make things worse and add to the list of side effects.
Angela Haupt, the author of the article “HCG Diet Dangers: Is Fast Weight Loss Worth The Risk?” states “Though HCG dieters have some leeway in how they spend their five hundred daily calories, they are urged to choose organic meats, vegetables, and fish. dairy, carbohydrates, alcohol, and sugar are all off limits. A day’s meals might consist of coffee and an orange for breakfast; a little tilapia and raw asparagus for lunch; a piece of fruit in the afternoon; and crab, spinach, Melba toast, and tea for dinner. If dieters slip up, they are encouraged to compensate by drinking only water and eating nothing but six apples for twenty four hours. That’s thought to help squeeze out water weight, a psychological boost to help them get back on track.” (Haupt, A. (2011). ) in her article, this quote shows just how dangerous the HCG diet can really be, if a dieter accidentally cheats on the diet they are to only drink water and have six apples for twenty four hours. How is that supposed to curb water weight when the HCG hormone causes potential water weight gain to begin with?
The HCG diet doesn’t teach the dieter how to eat right and choose to eat in a more healthy way, it starves the person to losing weight. Most of the time the people who are on the HCG diet do not look healthy just as a person suffering from Anorexia does not look healthy, both the anorexic and the HCG dieter are essentially doing the same thing, other than the Anorexic does not inject themselves with a hormone they do not need, they just starve themselves just like the HCG dieter starves themselves. When someone starts to starve themselves they don’t just burn fat but their muscles start to go too. Their body starts to eat away at their muscle mass, which is the last thing anyone wants to lose is their muscle mass.
Some dieters are convinced that the HCG is needed for the diet of five hundred calories a day to help curb their hunger being they are pretty much starving themselves being on such a restrictive calorie intake. The only thing the HCG does is cause a whole slew of side effects that could be potentially dangerous to them. “HCG was studied briefly [for weight loss] and found to be ineffective, so we have no idea what its potential risks are,” Cohen says. (Haupt, A. (2011). ).
“It is virtually impossible to meet your nutritional needs for carbohydrates, protein, fats, and fiber with less than 500 calories per day and the diet will most likely result in vitamin and mineral deficiencies.” (Zelman, K. M. WebMD. ). In a normal day a person would have to take in about 12-1500 calories just to satisfy their hunger and fuel just the basic of every day activities, not to mention have all the nutrients they would need to stay healthy. A typical caloric intake is based on a 2000 calorie diet, which is what most serving sizes and dietary information on food products is based off of.
The HCG diet is just like any other crash diets out there it doesn’t help people to lose weight in a healthy way. thirty pounds in thirty days is just not healthy by any standard. Most people who have lost weight by doing the HCG diet are more likely to gain most if not all or more of the weight back, and most of it was or will be all fat. Those who did a more safe and slow weight loss diet that included more activity and less starving themselves, they also were gaining muscle mass and losing fat. Losing weight isn’t necessarily healthy for people, being muscle weighs more than fat more and more people think they are overweight for the sheer fact that they think that on hundred and eighty pounds is all fat when most of it would be muscle.
People should choose a diet based on their needs and their lifestyle. It should be something they can stick to, there are very few people who can stick to a diet such as the HCG diet. The saying “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is” matches this diet completely, there is no “safe way” to lose thirty pounds in thirty days, most health care professionals will state that a person should not lose any more than six pounds every two weeks, otherwise it isn’t really all that healthy for the person to be doing anymore than that, they would have the potential to gain it all back and then some.
The HCG diet can be very beneficial for some people, but for most it is out of the need to lose weight. People who would benefit from the HCG diet the most are those who would possibly die if they do not lose the weight, and lose it fast, but just because they need to lose the weight fast does not mean they cannot lose it safely and learn to eat better and smaller portions of food, not by basically starving themselves. There are other ways to lose weight quickly and not have to put unnecessary hormones into ones body, there is Gastric Bypass, or the lap band, both of which restrict the amount of food one can eat, and can be much more beneficial than the HCG diet.
Experts say “When calories consumed are so low or close to starvation level, your body not only burns fat, but also muscle mass can be used for fuel. The last thing any dieter needs is to lose precious muscle mass, because that is what keeps your metabolism at its best. The HCG diet is very dangerous and no one should put their body through such harm just to be skinny. Being skinny should be worked on, and gained in a healthy way, not forced upon the person by injecting or ingesting an un needed hormone that does absolutely nothing for them. Not to mention they shouldn’t starve themselves of much needed nutrients because they were told that’s what they needed to do.
References:
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/diet-fitness/diet/articles/2011/03/14/hcg-diet-dangers-is-fast-weight-loss-worth-the-risk
http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/truth-about-hcg-for-weight-loss
http://hcgdietinfo.com/hCG-Side-Effects.htm