It’s been said to cause weight loss in both women and men, but is the HCG diet, or the pregnancy diet, fact or just another fake?
The treatment
HCG is a hormone used in fertility treatments. It is also found naturally in the bodies of pregnant women and helps ensure that a developing baby is provided enough calories in the womb.
According to some US doctors, if you take the hormone and there's no baby to feed, it will simply burn fat - even if you're a man.
The diet requires you to consume small amounts of HCG by applying it directly to your skin or injecting it over a six week period, at a cost of about $400.
You also have to stick to a strict diet of specific foods and no more than 500 calories a day.
HCG is only available on private prescription in Australia and is widely used by fertility specialists, but isn't widely generally advised or prescribed as a weight loss technique.
Dr Ric Gordon is especially sceptical of this drug and says he can't find any solid scientific evidence which proves that it works.
According to Dr Ric
- The reason it works it's because it's effectively a starvation diet - anyone who sticks to an intake of 500 calories a day is going to lose weight.
- There's little scientific evidence to suggest what part the HCG actually plays in the whole weight loss process.
- One study injected some people with HCG and another group of people with salt water to see if there was any effect in weight loss, and the results were the same ... There was no difference between the two groups.
- This diet can be dangerous for pregnant women and pre-pubescent boys. In extreme cases it could result in multi-pregnancy and other complications.
