The HCG diet requires you to take a daily dose of the hormone human chorionic gonadotropin also known as HCG. It’s available in injections, pellets, sprays, oral drops, and pills. The HCG is best known as the hormone produced by the placenta during pregnancy.
HCG consists of 244 amino acids and was first discovered to assist with weight loss by Dr. ATW Simeons, a British endocrinologist, when he learned that it played a critical role in controlling women’s metabolism.
The HCG Diet is a pro-hormone that helps the body produce more hormones. Since a hormone deficiency or imbalance is usually part of the reason for weight gain, whether it’s your thyroid, menopause, or andropause, this hormone can help reverse the effects.
HCG is a hormone in which the body can produce naturally. HCG causes the body’s metabolism to change and triggers the body to burn abnormal fat for energy. The presence of this hormone in the body (combined with a specialized diet plan) can result in a ½ lb to 1 lb fat loss per day.
According to patients, the HCG hormone reduces feelings of hunger. Because this is also a low-calorie diet this allows them to eat very little comfortably. It is believed that the presence of the HCG hormone in the bloodstream takes away your appetite.
HCG Diet and Muscle
One of the benefits of HCG injections, aside from weight loss, is that it keeps you from losing muscle while you diet. By elevating the hormone levels in your body, including testosterone, the HCG hormone creates a muscle-building state which counteracts the muscle-breakdown state.
This sets the HCG diet apart from other weight loss systems because typically during a fast, dramatic weight loss with crash dieting, there is a high amount of muscle that is lost, which the type of weight that you want to lose. Because muscle is heavier than fat, it may look like you have had a dramatic weight loss when in reality all you’ve lost is muscle. When you lose muscle, it sets you bad from your weight loss goals because it’s bad for your body, shape, and metabolism. The metabolism slows so much that you’re at risk of regaining the weight you’ve lost quickly, often regaining all the weight that was lost and then some. It also will take quite a bit of time, effort, and work to build back the muscle that has been lost.
What Can You Eat On An HCG Diet?
Because of the low-calorie intake, the diet substantially restricts fat. It is recommended that you eat some fruits, such as oranges, strawberries, apples, and red grapefruit. For veggies, it is recommended that you eat nonstarchy vegetables, like lettuce, celery, cabbage, cucumbers, onions, and tomatoes. And finally, when it comes to meat it is recommended that you only eat lean meat and fish, this includes chicken breast, lean ground beef, shrimp, lobster, and white fish.
HCG Diet Recipes
Here at Tampa Rejuvenation, we have tons of HCG diet recipes that can help you create wonderful meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner that are healthy, delicious and easy-to-make. Check out our HCG recipes today.
- Pumpkin Protein Pancakes – Check out these amazing tasting pumpkin protein pancakes. These pancakes aren’t just healthy and full of protein, they’re also delicious!
- Zucchini Cakes with Salmon – This HCG recipe is healthy and filling.
- Low Carb Egg Curry – You can’t beat this low-carb HCG recipe!
Additional HCG Hormone Benefits
According to the HCG Diet website, there are numerous additional benefits when you start the HCG diet. For instance, rheumatic pains can decrease within a few days of an HCG treatment and this allows patients to interrupt prolonged cortisone treatment. This interruption is key due to the disadvantages and negative effects associated with prolonged cortisone treatment.
High cholesterol has also been known to decrease with the introduction of the HCG hormone, helping to lower overall blood pressure. HCG usage has been proven to help patients with gout pain, even if levels of blood uric acid are increasing during treatment.
The overall lowering of blood pressure was also a significant discovery when it came to the use of HCG. When a woman with high blood pressure became pregnant, her blood pressure would often drop quickly, before slowly increasing once again after pregnancy. However, studies showed that their blood pressure never got back up to the same levels it was at before pregnancy.
HCG Diet at Tampa Rejuvenation
Remember that results may vary by individual, consult your doctor today or if you have questions about how the HCG diet works, be sure to stop by one of our offices today or give us a call about diets and recipes at 888-865-8370 to learn more! We have tons of resources right here to help you along your weight loss journey.