Comments on OBESITY PANACEA: Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) for Fat Loss: "...

Ok- I fell into this trap. I wanted to loose weigh...

2010-09-06T12:46:23.150-04:00

Ok- I fell into this trap. I wanted to loose weight and a co-worker (a nurse,at that) did it and lost 20 lbs. So I thought, "why not". Yes, I have been losing a pound a day,(6,so far)but I find myself hungrier now than I was before I started this diet and I definately do not have a "feeling of well-being" as sights have suggested I would. I find I have less energy now than I did before. Also, the diet states that you SHOULD NOT exercise. Well, I miss my 4 mile walks and walking my 2 labs. So, I have made the decision to go off this diet and just start making smarter food choices and get my butt back out there walking.

I ask this out of ignorance as much as anything el...

2009-07-07T17:44:04.231-04:00

I ask this out of ignorance as much as anything else - do bariatric physicians commonly give their patients high doses of thyroid hormone and amphetamines?

As a non-physician, that doesn't sound like the ideal treatment strategy.

HCG injections were popularized by Simeons startin...

2009-07-07T16:47:08.789-04:00

HCG injections were popularized by Simeons starting in the early 1960's. All data shows that it is an expensive placebo. Remember that placebos can be effective. People getting saline injections and told to follow 500-calorie diets also lose weight.
HCG injections have continued because they are profitable for bariatric physicians. They are relatively harmless, at least, compared to other treatments used by bariatric physicians such as high doses of thyroid and amphetamines (especially phentermine), often in combination.

no wonder manny ramirez used this .. hehehehe

2009-05-07T16:50:00.000-04:00

no wonder manny ramirez used this .. hehehehe

Okay so this lady i work with is taking hcg and wh...

2009-04-21T11:11:00.000-04:00

Okay so this lady i work with is taking hcg and when she told me i listen to what she had to say then on my own started researching hcg. So, what i have come up with is that hcg pretty much is a scam and very unhealthy i have read nothing but bad reviews on hcg. I told her that she could get the same results from exercise and dieting or just eating healthier food but of course she don't listen. Also when i tell her that its unhealthy she gets very offensive i have given up on talking to her about it i guess when people are just stupid. She's lost like 25 pounds so far but i beleave she could have taken sugar pills and 500 cals a day and did the same.

People who have lost weight on HCG are falling int...

2009-04-19T12:26:00.000-04:00

People who have lost weight on HCG are falling into a trap-- they believe that the falling number on the scale tells them everything they need to know.

Not so.

I was very skeptical about HCG when my sis-in-law did it and lost weight. I told her rapid weight loss will cause you to lose muscle. All she cared about was what the scale said.

So I became a guinea pig, and tried the HCG Diet.

I documented EVERYTHING on my blog daily, including body fat percentages.

http://fatlosschronicles.blogspot.com

Yes, I lost almost 20 pounds. However, 41% of that weight lost was from lean body mass! That is a starvation diet percentage.

Just because the scale tells you that you lost weight does not automatically equate to losing fat.

The HCG Diet is not what it claims.

Event Planning,

First, I find it rather in...

2009-04-08T13:01:00.000-04:00

Event Planning,

First, I find it rather interesting that you’d resort to criticizing studies for being “funded by pharmaceutical companies” when clearly you have vested financial conflicts of interest with regards to your stance on the (in)effectiveness of HCG diets.

Second, decisions in science and medicine cannot be based on subjective anecdotal interpretation but on rigorously performed scientific research. We are, after all, in an era of evidence-based medicine. What you propose should be used as an indicator of treatment efficacy may have been acceptable some centuries ago, but not today. As such, decisions regarding associations between risk factors and disease outcomes, as well as efficacy of various treatments, etc. are based on the PREPONDERENCE of available high-quality evidence. Hence, a ratio of null-to-significant findings of 100:1 for any given treatment would lead to the conclusion that the treatment is ineffective. Hence, given that the PREPONDERENCE of high-quality research does not indicate any usefulness of HCG protocols, it is appropriately deemed to be useless. Any alternative interpretation is simply erroneous.

Hi Event Planner,

That's an interesting tak...

2009-04-08T12:23:00.000-04:00

Hi Event Planner,

That's an interesting take on the evidence. You suggest that since one study by Asher and Harper showed HCG might be effective, more research is needed? Well nine well-controlled studies were performed after the Asher and Harper study, and none found any benefit of HCG beyond diet alone.

It doesn't take any magic number of studies for me to believe something is effective, but I need to see it reported by more than one well-controlled study, especially when 9 others show it to be completely infeffective. The balance of evidence clearly shows that HCG has no effect on weight loss.

In the end, I do agree completely that the HCG diet results in dramatic weight loss. I would expect nothing less when individuals are consuming only 500kcal/day. However, they don't lose any more weight when they are injected with HCG than they do on the diet alone.

Travis

To answer the question why so many people buy into...

2009-04-08T11:54:00.000-04:00

To answer the question why so many people buy into it: Because it works. Period.

All of the people losing tons of weight on HCG have read those same studies (many funded by Pharmaceutical companies) and it doesn't change the facts - 100's of thousands of people have done this HCG diet successfully, kept the weight off long-term, and had no side-effects.

The only people that poo-poo the HCG diet are the ones that have never tried it and just regurgitate the same studies. Also, all websites promoting the HCG diet are required to put the FDA notice on their site because of those same studies.

How many studies would it take proving it DOES work? There are already several showing the efficacy of HCG for weight loss. The study you cited that shows a link between fat loss and HCG clearly shows more research is needed.

A physicians clinical observations are often discounted and referred to as anecdotal evidence, however if the physicians experience is consistently observed, it is often referred to as positive clinical outcome studies.

I suggest that this is a more effective method to measure efficacy than the outmoded and ineffective double blinded, double crossover, placebo controlled study.

Thanks for the comment Blake. I just read your ow...

2009-04-07T16:19:00.000-04:00

Thanks for the comment Blake. I just read your own post on the topic, which was very nicely done. It's nice to see that we're not the only ones calling out that BS!

For anyone looking for Blake's post on the topic, head to this URL:

http://blakehagen.com/2008/12/hcg-injections-for-weight-loss-nope/

Thanks for this. I wrote about this awhile ago. ...

2009-04-07T13:44:00.000-04:00

Thanks for this. I wrote about this awhile ago. The HCG diet is complete garbage. Still not sure why so many people buy into it.

Comments on OBESITY PANACEA: Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) for Fat Loss: "...

Ok- I fell into this trap. I wanted to loose weigh...

I ask this out of ignorance as much as anything el...

HCG injections were popularized by Simeons startin...

no wonder manny ramirez used this .. hehehehe

Okay so this lady i work with is taking hcg and wh...

People who have lost weight on HCG are falling int...

Event Planning, First, I find it rather in...

Hi Event Planner,That's an interesting tak...

To answer the question why so many people buy into...

Thanks for the comment Blake. I just read your ow...

Thanks for this. I wrote about this awhile ago. ...

Event Planning,

First, I find it rather in...

Hi Event Planner,

That's an interesting tak...