HCG for Weight Loss

Take a "natural" hormone the body makes during pregnancy -- and lose a lot of weight? That's the promise that's turned the hCG Diet -- named after that hormone -- into a craze that just won't quit. If you also go on an ultra-low-calorie diet, backers claim, hCG can “reset your metabolism” so you lose as much as a pound a day without feeling hungry or weak.

Here's what the science says: Any super-low-cal diet will result in weight loss. Most studies have found that hCG (stands for human chorionic gonadotropin) has nothing to do with it.

The hCG diet limits you to 500 calories a day for 8 weeks while taking hCG, either Labels
by getting a shot or by taking a “homeopathic” product, such as oral drops, pellets, or sprays, which you can buy at the store.

What You Can Eat and What You Can't

You won't be eating much. The diet lets you have two meals a day, lunch and dinner. Each meal has to include one protein, one vegetable, one bread, and one fruit.

You can broil or grill veal, beef, chicken breast, fresh white fish, lobster, crab, or shrimp as long you don’t eat any visible fat. No salmon, eel, tuna, herring, or dried or pickled fish are allowed.

Vegetable choices include spinach, chard, chicory, beet greens, green salad, tomatoes, celery, fennel, onions, red radishes, cucumbers, asparagus, and cabbage.

Bread can be one breadstick or one piece of melba toast.

For fruit, you can choose an orange, an apple, a handful of strawberries, or half a grapefruit. The diet allows as much water, coffee, and tea as you want. You can also have up to 1 tablespoon of milk per day.