I spent time with a teacher I knew from years past the other day. She had lost so much weight I asked her to share her secret. I was positive she was going to say gastric bypass surgery. NOT! She gives herself injections of a hormone called HCG.

She has to order it overseas. She says that she is on it for so 6 weeks and off of it for 3. She said she follows a 500 calorie diet when she's on it and is never hungry.

She told me she got it at the Betabolic Weight Loss Clinic here in town and paid a fortune, but now she orders it herself.

Anyone ever heard of it? She says it's derrived from the urine of pregnant mares.

She has lost 85 pounds and can wear some size 6 jeans. :confused1:

Edited May 23, 201016 yr by KabinKitty

Heard about it and talked to my PCP about it. He advised me the long term side effects had not been determined, and he didn't see it being anymore than another "fad diet" except your injecting hormones into your body.

This diet has been around for years. My mother lost weight on this diet and then paid for me to be on the same program through our family physician's office in 1974. I ate 500 calories a day--and the food choices were strictly dictated. I got injections and weighed at the doctor's office 5 days a week. Supposedly, the HCG helps to mobilize fat stores, and this allegedly helps to reduce muscle loss and reduce hunger.

As someone with many years of dieting experience, I would say that this diet is not any better than any other diet that's available in terms of long term success. I did lose--but who wouldn't on 500 calories a day? I lost about 30 pounds in 6 weeks (165 to 135) and regained about 12 pounds in 2 weeks. I asked to do the program again and lost down to about 125. I was 18 years old at the time and maintained this weight loss for about 3 years through a combination of fasting, eating nothing but lettuce, vigilent calorie counting, and lots of exercise. Even with all that my weight began to creep back up.

This diet did not reduce my appetite..I was hungry the entire time. Even though your friend may feel like this is helping her lose weight, I don't think there is any reason to believe that she will be anymore successful at maintaining her loss than are the other 95% of people who lose weight through dieting. If you want more details on the diet itself, it's easy to find information on the web. Also, there are plenty of other diets that don't involve the medical risks of being injected with the hormones from a cow's or mare's urine.

The long term side-effects of human chorionic gonadotrophin at superphysiological doses are unknown. I would strongly recommend against this method of weight loss.

The irony is that due to some pituitary damage I suffered due to a 1cm prolactinoma on my pituitary, I may need HCG for normal testosterone levels! God only knows what the combination of HCG and VSG will do to me...