What Is the hCG Diet? The Facts Behind the Latest Diet Craze
It’s been on the covers of magazines, promoted online, and you’ve heard that some of your favorite celebrities have tried it – but what is the hCG diet? Where do you go to find out more? In this book, you’ll learn all you need to know about the hCG diet.
We’ll start with the basics and continue with how you can maintain the success you’ve experienced. You’ll go from a novice to an expert as you decide if this diet is right for you and what you need to do to get started.
Let’s start at the very beginning and look at what hCG stands for, what it is, and what this diet plan is really all about.
What Is hCG?
hCG is actually a hormone called Human Chorionic Gonadotropin. With a name like that, it’s no wonder it’s been shortened to hCG. This is a hormone that actually gets produced in high levels during pregnancy.
This hormone is produced by the placenta in a female’s body. Once it starts being produced, it takes over the metabolism of the pregnant woman. It tends to be found in high levels in early pregnancy and lower levels as the pregnancy develops.
You may be thinking, “But women gain a whole lot of weight during pregnancy. How can this work to lose weight?” In actuality, hCG doesn’t cause anyone to gain weight. Instead, it helps your body to use stored fat as energy.
Burning the Right Type of Fat
When you think about losing weight, you usually think that getting fat off of your body is the most important thing. But there’s more than one type of fat – and your body needs to keep some types of fat in order to be healthy.
Some fat is in your body as a protection against shock and injury. It helps to protect and cushion your joints and vital organs. You want to leave this fat alone – it has an important job to do. In fact, if you have too little fat it can be detrimental to your health.
Then there’s fat that helps you keep up with your body’s dietary needs. When you eat more calories than you need, your body will store the extra as fat. This is really important if you have a day (or a few days) when you can’t get enough calories.
You need to have some fat storage for energy reserve. The problem is that many people have so much fat stored that it becomes unhealthy. When you have too much fat, the effects can be detrimental.
Excess fat can become wrapped around your internal organs. This is like having too much oil buildup in your car. It slows down the system making it inefficient. It can also alter your metabolism and cause you to slow down the rate at which you burn calories.
Having too many extra pounds around your middle can increase your risk of heart disease and stroke. All that fat has to have a blood supply and it’s taxing to your heart to circulate the blood through extra tissues.
Fat can also become deposited on your arteries and put your at higher risk for a heart attack. A link has also been found between obesity and cancer. Increased unhealthy fat can actually cause your cells to grow in abnormal ways.
When it comes to dieting, you want to burn this type of fat – the fat found in your internal organs and especially the fat that settles in your midsection. The hCG diet targets body fat stores and helps you to burn them for your daily energy.
In a normal diet where you only restrict calories, your body will start to burn the structural fat that you need to stay healthy instead of targeting the unhealthy fat. In fact, your body will only burn the unhealthy fat after you’ve put your body into a starvation mode or during pregnancy.
That’s where hCG comes in. With this program, your body will use the abnormal fat as its first source for calorie burning. Instead of attacking the fat that keeps you healthy, you’ll be targeting the fat that’s harming you.
hCG Releases Fat Stores
Adding hCG to your diet program will help to boost your fat burning powers. The hormone actually causes your body to use stored fat deposits as energy. What that means for you is that you can shed pounds quickly.
You’ll be eating a low-calorie diet, but instead of thinking it’s starving, your body will burn fat. And you won’t even feel hungry because you’ll have plenty of energy from the stored fat.
Where Does hCG Come From?
Now that you know what hCG is, you’re probably wondering how you can add it to your body. If people produce this during pregnancy, is it possible to take it when you’re not pregnant? While hCG is a hormone produced in pregnancy, there are a few options for adding it when you’re not pregnant.
It can be taken in the form of injections or in sublingual (under the tongue) drops. These supplements typically come from synthetic sources – not from humans or animals. When you decide to get started, you’ll need to decide between drops and injections.
Men and the hCG Diet
Because hCG is a hormone associated with pregnancy, many men are unsure of its safety. However, men are just as responsive to the hCG diet as women. Men have just as much success on the hCG diet as women. In fact, they generally have fewer side effects from the hormone.
Don’t let the fact that this hormone is associated with pregnancy scare you. While this hormone is found in higher levels in pregnant women, it’s found in both men and women at low levels. Adding hCG to your regimen is not going to affect your gender.
How Much Weight You Can Expect to Lose?
When it comes to weight loss, the hCG diet stands out among other competitors. With a typical diet where you restrict calories and add exercise to your lifestyle, you can expect to lose about 5-7 pounds the first week and then 1-2 pounds per week after that.
The hCG diet will introduce you to a whole new rate of weight loss. Typically, a person following the plan will lose an average of 1-2 pounds per day. That means in 30 days you could lose 30 pounds.
And what’s even better, that weight loss will come from actual fat loss. Instead of losing only water weight and muscle mass as most diets do, you’ll actually lose only from your fat stores. You’ll begin to have the body you’ve always dreamed of.
You may have heard that this type of rapid weight loss is not safe. However, with the hCG diet, those fears are unfounded. Because you are only burning excess fat, you won’t fall to the normal weight loss pitfalls including muscle loss, bone loss, and vitamin loss.
Instead of worrying about malnutrition, you’ll just need to worry about how you’re going to plan for your new wardrobe! With the hCG diet, you’ll lose fat and maintain your good health. This is a plan for those who don’t want to wait for slow weight loss methods to work.
Drops vs. Injections
There are two different delivery methods – injections or sublingual drops. There are pros and cons to each. One of the first big decisions you’ll need to make is which of these you’d like to try.
Injections of hCG hormone are given only by prescription from a physician. You’ll have to go to the doctor to get these prescribed and you’ll continue to be monitored by that doctor. Your health insurance isn’t going to cover this product, so you’ll have to pocket the expense.
For some people, it gives peace of mind to go to a doctor and to know that they will be monitored carefully. However, some people object to the idea of taking a shot every day – and even worse giving themselves a shot.
Injecting yourself with a shot takes a bit of practice and, obviously, it hurts. In addition, you’ll have the added expense of syringes, sharps containers, alcohol swabs, and bandages. For some people this is a deterrent while others don’t have a problem with it.
Sublingual drops, on the other hand, are available without a prescription from homeopathic suppliers. You can purchase them online or in some natural products stores. They are drops given daily under the tongue.
While you can certainly have your physician monitor you while on this diet – and in many cases that’s a good idea – you aren’t required to have a physician write a prescription. That makes this diet more accessible for people who don’t want to bother with going to the doctor.
Taking drops under the tongue is a very efficient delivery method for supplements – it’s a pathway directly to your bloodstream. In fact, there are many medications that are given sublingually instead of through injections.
This method is less invasive, less painful, and less intimidating. You’ll have to make up your own mind about what’s right for you. And before you start any diet program, it’s a good idea to speak with your healthcare provider and get the okay to begin.
Ready to Find Out More?
Now that you know the basics of hCG and what it does in the body, you’re probably anxious to find out more about the diet plan. In this book, you’ll learn all about the diet plan and what you need to do to follow it. You’ll also learn what side effects you may want to watch out for.
In addition, you’ll learn how exercise can affect your progress on the hCG diet and how to set an appropriate goal weight for your diet program. You’ll even get information on how to beat plateaus that threaten to slow down your success.
The hCG diet is a program for people who want to lose as little as 10 pounds and even for those who have more than 100 pounds to lose. As you read, you’ll learn how to properly lose the fat for good.
Anyone can lose a few pounds for a special event or to fit into that dress they’ve always wanted to wear. But are you ready to lose weight and keep it off permanently? If you’re looking for a plan that will allow you to totally reset your metabolism and burn fat, the hCG diet can deliver.