hcg diet?

Has anyone else heard of this? I know someone who is doing this and it doesn't sound very healthy. Every day she gives herself a shot that contains a hormone called HCG and I think it also has B12 in it. She also takes phentermine and was told to only eat 500 calories a day. I will say she did lose 20 lbs in 3 weeks, but I would imagine that as soon as she is off this diet she will gain it all back plus even more. Anyway if anyone has heard anything, please let me know- THANKS.

I got this from wikipedia...it might help you...

Weight loss

A controversial usage of hCG is as an adjunct to the British endocrinologist Dr. A.T.W. Simeons' ultra-low-calorie weight-loss diet.[7] Simeons, while studying pregnant women in India on a calorie-deficient diet, and “fat boys” with pituitary problems treated with low-dose hCG, discovered that both lost fat rather than lean (muscle) tissue. He reasoned that hCG must be programming the hypothalamus to do this in the former cases in order to protect the developing fetus, and proceeded to use low-dose daily hCG injections (125 mg) in combination with a customized ultra-low-calorie (500 cal/day, high-protein, low-carbohydrate/fat) diet to help obese adults lose dramatic amounts of adipose tissue without loss of lean tissue, at a Salvator Mundi International Hospital in Rome, Italy, clinic mainly for celebrities. After Simeons’ mysterious death, the diet started to spread to specialized centers and via popularization by such as the controversial popular author Kevin Trudeau (search for hCG in that article for more details).

The controversy proceeds from warnings by the Journal of the American Medical Association[8] and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition[9] that hCG is not safe,[8] indeed ineffective, as a weight-loss aid[10] on its own; yet its usage (as cited above) to increase testosterone production contradicts this assertion, since much late-life male obesity is associated with estrogen dominance and deficient testosterone in the mis-named, so-called andropause.[citation needed] Furthermore, in the Simeons protocol, it is, as in any diet, the ultra-low-calorie component (caloric deficit) that results in weight loss, if the protocol is followed strictly.[citation needed] hCG’s role is supposedly to trigger the hypothalamic lean-protection mechanisms Simeons thought he saw, thus promoting mobilization and consumption ofabnormal, excessive adipose deposits, while protecting normal adipose and lean tissue from being consumed, with the assumption that these protective hypothalamic mechanisms exist in males as well as females, to be acted upon by hCG.[citation nee

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_chorionic_ gonadotropin

I would tell your friend that this is very dangerous...and anyone eatting only 500 calories a diet would lose 20 pounds in 3 weeks because they're starving there bodies.  I would also recommend a very good multi vitamin supplement because on that few calories there is no way at all that they are getting the nutrients that there body needs to function properly.  I hope your friend is well...

I actually did the hcg diet. Twice. While I lost 10-12 with each 23 day cycle I did, I plateaued and couldn't lose anymore. I was so tired of eating just about nothing, that I finally just decided to eat clean and exercise more. Honestly, that's working better for me than the hcg did. I know a few people who have ha great success on it, but it's not an easy program to follow and not everyone's body will repsond the same. I worked out almost every day while on it (per my physician) and still couldn't break my plateau.

I'd say the best bet is still diet and exercise. :)

Hi,

I am taking the B-12 shots and the phentermine, but my doctor said to do 1200 because im only 5'0", I don't know how tall is your friend, but I would have serious health concerns by her doing only 500 calories a day. That is way too little food for an adult. I'm loosing about 2 to 2.5 lbs a week, which is ok.