I read the strangest piece of news tonight. Apparently people are rubbing a cream containing HCG on their wrists and cutting their daily calorie intake down to 500 in an effort to lose weight rapidly. It’s called the HCG diet. HCG is the same pregnancy hormone that is detected by home pregnancy tests. HCG stands for human chorionic gonadotropin. It is first produced by the growing embryo and later by the placenta. The theory is that the synthetic HCG tricks the body into thinking it is pregnant and needs to pull nutrients from the body’s fat stores. It should be noted that the FDA does not approve prescribing HCG for the purpose of weight loss.
Two immediate reactions come to mind. First of all, I think you could rub water on your wrists, and if you were only eating 500 calories a day, you would lose weight pretty quickly. 500 calories is a bowl of cereal and a sandwich. That’s called a starvation diet, and it will likely screw up your metabolism. I believe the HCG acts as a placebo, if anything, tricking the dieters into thinking their appetite is suppressed, when in fact they are probably just more conscious of their true hunger cues.
Second, if HCG causes weight loss, why do most pregnant women begin gaining weight early in their pregnancy (unless they are suffering severe morning sickness, in which case they are not getting enough calories because they are throwing up their food)? HCG triggers the secretion of progesterone. Progesterone promotes appetite and fat storage. Anyone who has ever been pregnant knows that pregnancy makes you hungry, not the opposite. This just further proves that it is not the HCG, but the extremely restrictive diet that is causing people to lose weight on this diet.
What will they think of next?