I’ve heard about it recently on the radio.  Oral HCG is the next big thing, because to be honest, nobody likes injections.  I don’t like injections, because needles don’t come with the best connotations.  But of course, we like to believe that HCG is the next big thing in weight loss, because it’s the pregnancy hormone!  And after all, the pregnancy hormone helps you to lose more weight!

Okay, so before we really get started, I have my own issues with HCG in general.  And while they may be obvious, and they really should be obvious, I still have to point them out.  Since when have pregnant women been known for being particularly skinny!  Most women gain somewhere around 30 pounds, sometimes more in certain women and less in women who exercise like fiends or starve themselves, which ultimately results in miscarriage or at least you would think so.  Anyway, realistically speaking, when pregnant, women gain weight.  So why again is it that we think that a pregnancy hormone would promote weight loss?

So how does HCG work?

Well that’s really the question of the day, isn’t it.  Frankly speaking, they make all of these claims about losing up to a pound of fat per day, of finally achieving the body you want, etc.  Do you want to know why people lose weight with HCG?  Because they don’t eat anything!  Well, they don’t literally starve themselves.  But you are limited to 500 calories per day of nutrient dense foods such as lean proteins, vegetables, fruits, etc.  In a healthy diet, you should be consuming around 1200 calories for a normal individual.  And despite claims of some individuals, they also tell you to exercise.

As you can imagine, many who use HCG tend to be overweight to obese.  At a relatively healthy weight, I can easily burn off 500 calories or more in the space of an hour depending on the exercise.  How many calories do you think someone who is obese can burn off in the same space of time and with the same exercise or even a less intense form of exercise? So while the diet works with the rule of burn off more calories than you are taking in, what is it exactly that the hormone does?  And while it is literally impossible to burn off a pound of fat in a day as one pound of fat in volume would be about a gallon, people report typically losing about 1 pound per day.  With that kind of diet combined with an exercise program or even if you didn’t exercise, should be promoting a substantial amount more than that.

What makes Oral HCG different?

I would say so far nothing.  I have studied the HCG diet before, obviously.  But one of the things that was always made clear was the fact that there are different types of HCG delivery.  In short, right from the beginning, they had powders, pills, mixes, and shots, all choices allowing you to use whatever you were more comfortable with.  The difference is that they are now focusing more on the oral option.  And no, it’s not any different in price either.  Typically speaking, you pay about $100 for a 2oz bottle of Oral HCG.  If you use it every day, you can figure out about how long that 2oz bottle will last you.

The Bottom Line On Oral HCG

Oral HCG is a joke.  I’ve never personally been a big fan of HCG, not only because of the obvious fallacy of associating pregnancy with weight loss, but because of the flat out lack of results.  I always knew about the fact that they offered different methods of delivery.  But the simple fact is that while people are losing weight, it’s because of an extreme diet, and as you would expect with a pregnancy related hormone, they are actually losing less than they should be considering the extremes of the diet.  I even suspect that if you were to follow a healthy 1200 calorie diet plan, you might actually gain weight.  This being said, there are plenty of other reasonable and real diet plans out there.  Any time you see extremes, you should run the other way, especially when they are asking you to pay hundreds of dollars to get it.