hCG for Weight Loss Explained
Why the interest in effective weight management? The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation reports that “more than two-thirds of adults and one-third of children in America are obese or at risk for obesity.” Equally, the fifth annual 2008 F as in Fat report, from the Trust for America’s Health (TFAH), found that obesity rates rose for a second consecutive year in 24 states and for a third consecutive year in 19 states, and “no state saw a decrease” in its rates of obesity. Finally, adding insult to injury, in March 2009, Richard Hamburg, Government Relations Director of the TFAH testified before a U.S. House Committee on Nutrition stating that, “nutritionists are now worried that Americans will put on ‘recession pounds,’ pointing to studies linking obesity and unhealthy eating habits to lowering incomes.”
More and more physicians are turning to hCG and other drug therapies (e.g. B6 and B12 injections, appetite suppressants, lipase inhibitors, etc.), as part of their arsenal in the fight against fat. However, incorporating pharmaceuticals into a tailored Medical Weight Loss Program requires a comprehensive understanding of the myriad of ingestable or injectable interventions that are available to doctors. Furthermore, wading through the proliferation of studies, research, and peer reporting on the use of these agents can take a physician’s valuable time away from treating patients.
So, in response to this growing epidemic, doctors are increasingly being asked by patients for possible pharmacological agents to assist in their weight loss efforts, and physicians are responding to their patients needs. Whereas before the 1940’s, obesity was considered simply the result of overeating, today physicians appreciate obesity is a multifaceted disorder. As a result, physicians are offering patients tailored weight management programs that incorporate pharmacological solutions paired with diet, exercise, cutting edge nutritional intelligence, and the latest advances in weight loss technology. And on the leading, and sometime controversial, edge of the pharmaceutical offerings is the use of human Chorionic Gonadotrophin (hCG) in weight management programs.
The use of hCG has a storied past. hCG is a hormone naturally occurring in the urine of pregnant women, however, today, most hCG on the market, such as Pregnyl, is synthetic. Christmas Jones explains how hCG works. In layman’s terms, hCG is said “to perform a metabolic recovery, where the hypothyroid is said to be reset, boosting the metabolism and increasing the person’s ability to burn fat at a much higher rate. hCG is also said to break down body fat, causing rapid weight loss by mass even before registering on a scale. Simultaneously, it is said to protect the endogenous fat and muscle which the body needs to stay healthy, but also avoiding sagging and loose skin known of excessive of weight loss.” (C. Jones, hCG and The Weight Loss Cure , 2007)
In 1954, with the publication of Dr. A.T.W. Simeons’ study in the British medical journal, The Lancet, hCG was introduced widely to the world as a weight management drug. Dr. Simeons’ study and subsequent publication, Pounds and Inches: A New Approach to Obesity, “discovered that a small quantity (125 to 250 I.U.) of hCG administered once daily for a short period of time (23 to 46 days) in combination with a very low calorie diet (VLCD) consisting of 500 calories, produced an average weight loss of 1 pound per day.” Also, Simeons work with hCG began the dialogue around the issue of obesity. Subsequently, weight management began to be characterized as “a disorder of energy metabolism,” and in response to a growing market for drugs to remedy this “disorder,” by the late 1950’s, the FDA had approved the use of several prescription appetite suppressants to assist in weight management.
There are three main compelling arguments to promote the Dr. Simeons’s program:
- Loss of problem fat (found around the abdomen, thighs), not muscle
- Ability to reset a person’s base metabolism so they can process food more efficiently
- Maintain weight loss
In the Pounds and Inches manuscript, Dr. Simeons’s explains there are three types of fat, and that his program deals only with the third type of fat (the problem fat the body doesn’t need to survive).
Three Kinds of Fat (from the Pounds and Inches manuscript)
In the human body we can distinguish three kinds of fat. The first is the structural fat which fills the gaps between various organs, a sort of packing material. Structural fat also performs such important functions as bedding the kidneys in soft elastic tissue, protecting the coronary arteries and keeping the skin smooth and taut. It also provides the springy cushion of hard fat under the bones of the feet, without which we would be unable to walk..
The second type of fat is a normal reserve of fuel upon which the body can freely draw when the nutritional income from the intestinal tract is insufficient to meet the demand. Such normal reserves are localized all over the body. Fat is a substance which packs the highest caloric value into the smallest space so that normal reserves of fuel for muscular activity and the maintenance of body temperature can be most economically stored in this form. Both these types of fat, structural and reserve, are normal, and even if the body stocks them to capacity this can never be called obesity.
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But there is a third type of fat which is entirely abnormal. It is the accumulation of such fat, and of such fat only, from which the overweight patient suffers. This abnormal fat is also a potential reserve of fuel, but unlike the normal reserves it is not available to the body in a nutritional emergency. It is, so to speak, locked away in a fixed deposit and is not kept in a current account, as are the normal reserves.
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When an obese patient tries to reduce by starving himself, he will first lose his normal fat reserves. When these are exhausted he begins to burn up structural fat, and only as a last resort will the body yield its abnormal reserves, though by that time the patient usually feels so weak and hungry that the diet is abandoned. It is just for this reason that obese patients complain that when they diet they lose the wrong fat. They feel famished and tired and their face becomes drawn and haggard, but their belly, hips, thighs and upper arms show little improvement. The fat they have come to detest stays on and the fat they need to cover their bones gets less and less. Their skin wrinkles and they look old and miserable. And that is one of the most frustrating and depressing experiences a human being can have.
Interestingly, appetite suppressants and hCG protocols flourished in parallel during the 1960’s, and then in the early 1970’s, following a series of unfavorable studies refuting the effectiveness of hCG in weight loss, hCG use fell from credibility. Equally, the use of appetite suppressants in the class of amphetamines also fell from favor. Proponents of hCG in weight management, such as Dr. Daniel Belluscio, cite the excessive proliferation of disreputable “fat clinics” and the over prescribing of this agent, which resulted in an increased rate of clinical complications.
Today hCG is experiencing a renaissance. According to the editor of the hCG Diet Info website, their “traffic levels have gone from a few dozen hits a week to several thousand a day.” hCG is the hottest topic in online weight loss chat rooms and in doctor’s wait rooms.
However, hCG is not without its detractors and its controversy. The FDA only approves the use of hCG for the treatment of certain problems of the male reproductive system and in stimulating ovulation in women who have had difficulty becoming pregnant. The FDA is adamant that “no evidence has been presented, however, to substantiate claims for hCG as a weight-loss aid.” Moreover, the FDA requires all labeling and advertising of hCG used in a weight management program, to include the following notice:
“THESE WEIGHT REDUCTION TREATMENTS INCLUDE THE USE OF hCG , A DRUG WHICH HAS NOT BEEN APPROVED BY THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION AS SAFE AND EFFECTIVE IN THE TREATMENT OF OBESITY OR WEIGHT CONTROL. THERE IS NO SUBSTANTIAL EVIDENCE THAT hCG INCREASES WEIGHT LOSS BEYOND THAT RESULTING FROM CALORIC RESTRICTION, THAT IT CAUSES A MORE ATTRACTIVE OR “NORMAL” DISTRIBUTION OF FAT, OR THAT IT DECREASES THE HUNGER AND DISCOMFORT ASSOCIATED WITH CALORIE-RESTRICTIVE DIETS.”
Equally, the endorsement of hCG in Kevin Trudeau’s controversial book, The Weight Loss Cure they don’t Want You to Know About, drew venomous attacks from medical researchers who challenge the efficacy of hCG in weight loss. These clinicians concur with the FDA, that hCG is not effective in weight loss, and caution patients about the possible side effects of the use of hCG, ranging from blood clots to ovarian hyper-stimulation. Kevin Trudeau shot back saying “There is absolutely no documentation or substantiation backing up and proving these negative statements are true.” He also accused the researchers of not following the Simeons protocol exactly as instructed by substituting food which was not on the original protocol.
It is absolutely true that hCG taken on its own will not result in long term weight loss, it is critical that hCG is taken while following a strict dietary protocol. According to Dr. Simeon’s there are 3 phases of the protocol, all which must be followed exactly in order to (1) lose weight (2) reset your base metabolism, and (3) maintain weight loss.
In the end, both proponents and critics alike are in agreement that hCG is not “a magic wand.” Proponents emphasize that a “daily injection of hCG gives optimum results only when used in a rational weight reduction program, including a VLCD, and strict observation to the complete protocol is mandatory” for success.
Before starting a hCG based program and diet, it is very important you do so under the direct supervision of a physician who is experienced at providing this type of diet to their patients. Some physicians do not understand the Simeons hCG weight loss protocol, so you certainly don’t want them as your guide. My second piece of advice is that please remember hCG is only available by prescription from a physician, Do Not buy hCG from the internet or from someone who says you do not need a prescription. You have no idea where that hCG is coming from, there seems to be a lot of hCG (and other prescription drugs, like Botox) coming from questionable facilities in China. Any hCG you receive should be from a Federally licensed compounding pharmacy located here in the USA (or Canada). I really don’t think the little money you will save is worth the potential health risks (or reduction in hCG potency) by buying it from an internet site (or a weaker homeopathic version that doesn’t even need a prescription).
The original protocol is based on injection, but you can now take hCG sublingually The only research paper we’ve found was completed by the Oral hCG Research Center: “Oral hCG (human Choriogonadotropin) for obesity treatment: a Double-Blind study: Recent findings on hCG oral preparation and photographic results.” However, when taking it sublingually, you need to take the hCG in higher amounts twice a day to compensate for the lack of absorption. One item to note is when taking hCG sublingually, it must be kept refrigerated to maintain its potency.
I must remind you that it’s critical to have medical supervision while following the hCG diet protocols (or any weight loss program). Prior to prescribing hCG, your physician will do a complete medical history and order some lab tests and an EKG. As with any weight loss program, there are potential health risks involved, and the reason you are loosing weight should be for the health benefits (not risks). As well, some of the original protocols should not be followed without the advice of your physician, for example Dr. Simeons says “no medicines….may be used without special permission.” This advice should not be followed unless instructed by your physician.
As part of the IAPAM’s commitment to educate physicians on the latest aesthetic procedures, they have developed a comprehensive medical weight loss program, which also includes hCG. For more information, please visit the hCG Weight Loss program web page for more information, training dates, and program registration.
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