It is estimated that over a third of Americans are obese and that certainly seems to be a trend that is being repeated over most of the developed worl...
It is estimated that over a third of Americans are obese and that certainly seems to be a trend that is being repeated over most of the developed world. Along with those frightening statistics come those that associated conditions that are on the increase and closely linked with the obesity rates, like heart disease, diabetes, strokes and high blood pressure. It has been stated by some medics that obese people are around 40% more susceptible to an early death than a person of similar age of normal weight. Given those sort of figures it is no surprise that many people look at dieting as a way of losing their excess weight.
There are many popular diets that have stood the test of time and the new kid on the block is the HCG diet. This article discusses what it is and whether it might work.
There has been a lot of TV coverage recently about the HCG diet. HCG actually stands for human chorionic gonadotropin, which is in fact a hormone secreted by pregnant women to aid the development of the developing foetus. One of the side effects of the hormone appears to be the aid to weight loss and it has in fact been prescribed by many doctors for those patients seeking to lose large amounts of weight. Whilst the FDA has not approved it for weight loss, just for fertility, many doctors attest to its efficacy. They believe that the hormone does act as an appetite suppressant and that coupled with a fairly strict dietary regime in the early stages does seem to work. Whilst there has been some suggestion that the it is the reduced calorie intake doing most of the work, doctors point to the fact that users do not tend to be tired or hungry; the side effects of a strict diet and point to HCG as a valuable appetite suppressant.
In fact the idea of using HCG as an appetite suppressant was first mooted by a Dr Simeons in the 1950s who had found some success with trials on some of his patients and many of the foundations around the use of the hormone stem from that time. The hormone seems to work by communicating to the brain that it should be burning fat not protein which helps to cut down calories, thus ensuring that the user takes up the fat stores for energy and the HCG suppresses the appetite allowing the user to eat a much reduced diet.
Traditionally the hormone has been injected and that is still very much in use but there are now available HCG drops which make it much easier to use and less frightening for the user who may be reluctant to use a needle.
