Who can do the HCG Diet?

Most people who have an overweight problem and seriously want to lose over 20 pounds of fat can do the HCG diet. The best candidates are people in relatively good health who are motivated to lose weight. People in poor health should either not do the diet, or be very carefully monitored if they do it. To be successful, one must be willing to be very disciplined regarding eating.

It is sometimes very difficult to change from eating lots of calories a day to eating only 500 calories a day. I recommend that one should do this diet with a buddy to help give each other support. At my office, I even give a discount to those people who do the diet together to encourage this support. Once the first week has passed, eating the 500 calories a day actually gets easier due to the infusion of nutrients from your abnormal fat into your bloodstream.

It is not a diet for people who want to lose just a few pounds because one must have an adequate amount of abnormal fat to metabolize away. These people would do better on a minimal calorie restriction diet and exercise. These may also consider doing liposuction if their deposits are in areas that their diet and exercise simply cannot seem to dissolve.

Can men do this diet?

Absolutely. Men usually get a better result than women and it is equally safe in men as women and usually no significant side effects are seen. It does not give you man-boobs or estrogen effects as it is not a sex hormone like estrogen, progesterone, or testosterone. It is more like the hormones adrenalin or thyroxine.

If HCG works so well for weight loss, why don’t pregnant women lose weight?

HCG works to mobilize abnormal fat for utilization by the body only when there is a decrease in calories and fat. A starvation state must exist for HCG to work. For pregnant women, this helps preserve the fetus so adequate nutrition is continually given to the fetus for its survival. For weight loss, a very low calorie diet triggers the HCG to help rid the body of fat. Pregnant women could lose weight if they did a low calorie diet, but this is not recommended during pregnancy.

Has this method been used before?

Yes. When first reported in the Medical Journal Lancet in November of 1954, it had been used in thousands of cases. Since then, it had been used in many more thousands of people with great success. References are everywhere on the internet for those who are interested.

Can my overweight children use this program?

No. This program is not advisable for persons under the age of puberty. Please visit your pediatrician for other methods available for these cases. The diet should be used in people over age 16.

Do you guarantee that I will lose weight with this method?

As with any weight loss method or other medical treatment, no guarantees can be made. However, most of our patients have lost an appreciable amount of weight with this program. It is the most effective method we have experienced in weight reduction.

Is the HCG Diet approved by the FDA?

The FDA’s role is to set-up tests and recommends safety of drug related products on the market. As an agency they are not in the medical business. As long as a drug is safe to use then it is up to the discretion of the medical doctor to prescribe it for various conditions that they are “trained to understand and know the application for”.

HCG is FDA approved to treat many various health issues and has been in existence to do so for over 45 years by the medical community. It is considered safe and has few side effects. HCG is used to cause ovulation and to treat infertility in women, and to increase sperm count in men. HCG is also used in young boys with long, slender hands, large breasts, wide hips, buttocks and thighs with striation, knock-knees and underdeveloped genitals, often with undescended testicles. This can be caused by a pituitary gland disorder.* It has been used off label in the U.S. for weight loss since the 1970s when it was introduced from Europe. The doses used for weight loss are miniscule compared to doses used for the other conditions.

The following is a list of conditions that HCG has been used for due to these approvals: Cryptorchidism, Hypogonadism, Infertility, Oligospermia, Ovulation induction, Prepubescent Cryptorchidism, Kaposi’s Sarcoma, Froehlich’s syndrome.

Although there are studies to demonstrate significant weight loss and thousands of case reports regarding weight loss, body contouring and HCG, The following is the FDA’s position:


Indications and Usage: HCG has not been demonstrated to be effective adjunctive therapy in the treatment of obesity. There is no substantial evidence that it 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-restricted diets.

Legal Disclaimer: The FDA has not approved HCG for weight loss. Although not approved by the FDA, HCG has been used for weight loss and this use of it is considered an “off label” use of the hormone.