Human Corionic Gonadotropin is a hormone produced by a human fetus as it develops in the woman's body. The purpose of hCG is to keep the production of progesterone flowing, which is another hormone necessary for embryonic development. It has also become a popular weight loss supplement.

Original hCG Diet

In the 1950s, Dr Simeons noticed that people in India on a restricted calorie diet who also had high levels of hCG, such as pregnant women, seemed to burn fat but maintain lean muscle weight. This was an interesting effect, because restricted calories can obviously help people lose weight but have the side effect of burning protein and important body organs as well.

As a result of this discovery, Dr Simeons wrote a book and began promoting the idea of taking hCG along with a weight loss plan involving severe restriction of caloric intake, down to around 500 calories per day. Almost overnight, it became one of the most popular weight loss supplements on the market. Diet clinics were giving hCG injections regularly, and paying doctors to write the prescriptions.

Effectiveness Not Demonstrated

A few early studies did seem to show a slight improvement in weight loss among those using the supplement, but subsequent studies have not been able to reproduce this effect. A 1976 study used 51 women on a diet exactly like the ones that had been used on earlier studies, and gave some of them hCG injections and some a placebo. Neither the women nor the researchers knew which was which. No difference was found in amount of weight lost between the two groups.

Revival

In light of the mounting evidence that hCG is not effective for losing weight, it gradually fell out of favor and disappeared from popular discourse. In 2007, alternative therapy popularizer Kevin Trudeau revived interest in hCG with his book The Weight Loss Cure They Don't Want You to Know About.

Trudeau made all sorts of outlandish claims and additions to Simeons' original diet plan, and then sold the repackaged plan in the form of his book. He was fined by the FDA for making claims about his plan that you can eat whatever you want, that it's easy to do, and that it can be done at home. Clearly, none of these things are true. The diet is not easy (500 calories per day is a quarter of what most people eat), and it can't be done at home because it involves daily injections of hCG, which will be very difficult to acquire because most health care providers and doctors are not willing to prescribe it for weight loss.

Recommendation

Ultimately, it seems unlikely that hCG will lead to greater weight loss than without it, and it doesn't cause weight loss all by itself. It also requires you to go on a very difficult to maintain low calorie diet. In addition to all of that, you will be very unlikely to find a doctor willing to prescribe and inject regular hCG for the purposes of weight loss. The only illness it is prescribed for is Frohlich's syndrome, a disorder that involves the pituitary and results in obesity and mental retardation.

A better weight loss plan would be one that can be implemented on a permanent basis and will not drive you nuts and cause you to give up. Hormone injections such as hCG with unknown long term side effects are not recommended.