HCG Diet

I was reading one of my favorite blogs, http://celebrityfitnesstrends.com and saw a post on something I wasn't aware of ... The HCG Diet.

Apparently, JWOWW from Jersey Shore's uses it to lose weight and sells it on her website ... hmmmmmmm ...

Read the post here: http://celebrityfitnesstrends.com/index.php/2010/01/jersey-shores-jwowws-diet-secrets/

So, I did a little detective work on what exactly this HCG diet is.
According to http://health.howstuffworks.com/health-illness/wellness/physical-fitness/weight-loss/hcg-diet1.htm:
HCG is a hormone found in pregnant women's urine and is actually one of the first signs of pregnancy. This is what pregnancy tests are based on.
HCG stands for "human chorionic gonadotropin" and is the hormone responsible for making sure a fetus gets the nutrition it needs regardless of the caloric intake of the mother.
It does this by releasing fat stores in the body.
Although JWOWW is selling homeopathic HCG drops on her website, traditionally the hormone is injected for a cycle of 26 to 43 days.
Dieters are instructed to consume only 500 calories of high protein, low carbohydrate foods. Allegedly, no hunger is felt at this extremely low caloric level due to the fat stores being released.
Um ... 500 calories?

My immediate reaction is that this is nothing more than a dangerous starvation, crash diet. I mean, consuming 500 calories a day - hungry or not - will lead to weight loss regardless of hormone supplementation.

Plus - the "G" in HCG stands for "gonadatropin" - meaning it causes genital development. I don't know about you, but I don't really want any further genital development ... that would be a scary price to pay for losing a little weight.

Additionally ... I'd be a little concerned with where exactly the HCG comes from that I was putting in my body.

Make your own judgement on this one ... but, HCG is one diet craze I'll be skipping.

(picture from: iStockphoto.com/TommL)