Pieter Cohen, M.D., of the Cambridge Health Alliance at Harvard Medical School debunks some of the common HCG claims:
Although you will lose weight on the diet, you won’t keep it off.
“Decades of research have demonstrated that if you diet by eating only 500 calories a day, you regain a lot of weight after the diet ends… These crash diets lead to no more weight loss after one year than if you modestly reduce calories and increase exercise,” said Dr. Cohen.
- HCG injections don’t work. “Every single well-done trial showed that the HCG injections were no better than injecting a saltwater placebo,” said Dr. Cohen.
- Very low-calorie diets lead to health issues down the line. “The Centers for Disease Control has already investigated over a dozen deaths linked to these very low calorie diets as far back as the 1970s… Of course, most people won’t die from the HCG diet, but many will develop other health problems like gallstones — a painful condition that often requires surgery.”
- HCG is a placebo for weight loss. “When it comes to hunger,” said Dr. Cohen, “humans are very suggestible. When we want to believe that a shot, whether it’s saltwater or hormones, will make our hunger go away, our hunger sometimes does go away.” HCG does have FDA approval, but not for weight loss — only as a fertility treatment.
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