What is HCG?

What does the term "HCG" stand for? HCG is the acronym for human chorionic gonadotropin, a hormone that is usually found in the human body, but it is produced in larger quantities by pregnant women. The main role of this hormone is to the use the fat stored by the body to release calories, needed for the new life developing inside the womb. It is like the ultimate fat burner and it is made by the human body!

As other substances produced by the human body, HCG is complex and its actions are well balanced, to ensure that the mother and the baby remain healthy. Basically, one of its functions is to regulate the metabolism, and this is the secret behind the HCG diet, created by Dr. Simeons in 1954 and published in his manuscript, Pounds and Inches

Hormones are messengers. HCG tells the fat storing cells to transform fat into energy. This is beneficial to a pregnant woman who needs extra calories, and of course is a dream scenario for losing weight.

Reading the above explanation, you may wonder how pregnant women do not end up being overly skinny during the pregnancy. Because while fat cells receive the message to release the stored energy to be used for the baby and its development from the hormone, the cells also continue to store fat from food intake that is in excess of the released fat energy.

This is where the brilliant idea Dr. Simeons had came into play. He realized that if the fat storing cells are deprived of excess energy from the foods the patient eats, weight loss will happen. In his studies, he found that even on a VLCD, muscle mass was preserved and that patients did not experience the negative symptoms that typically occur with low calorie diets.

Naturally, HCG exists only in small quantities inside the human body. Unless you are a pregnant woman, you will not have high levels of HCG in your blood. So you need HCG products to increase the hormone levels to a certain degree (a tiny amount compared to a pregnant woman though). Or there are hormone-free products designed to mimic the result of HCG.

HCG diet drops are a convenient way to increase your weight loss efforts, as they are easy to take, and they are less expensive than injections that require the use of a clinic and specialized personnel. Be careful, though. Purchase your HCG diet drops from reputable companies using FDA-approved labs, to avoid any complications.

We hope the above explanation answers your question about what the HCG diet is all about, and the theory behind it. Read more about Dr. Simeons' and his discovery here.