Living Fitness

Finding an hCG diet blog that isn’t a thinly disguised shopping cart is even more challenging than finding objective hCG diet reviews or an hCG diet forum that isn’t overrun with spammers. Originally, the plan was to find a half-dozen authority sites on the diet from experts that (1) were extremely informative and (2) weren’t constantly pitching products. Plan A didn’t work out, since, to be completely honest, there was no hCG blog that truly fit the bill. Plan B, on the other hand—to find personal blogs where it was clear that the blogger actually had experience with the diet and could provide some advice—turned up a few good resources.

The Best HCG Diet Recipes. The main site is exactly what the title states: a collection of hCG diet recipes. Whether or not they’re the “best”, they definitely look fantastic. The blog section of the diet is a post-by-post account of the blogger’s progress with the diet, and she’s quite frank about her wins and setbacks, as well as those of her boyfriend, who also is on the diet. While the hCG diet is often touted as being easy to maintain, blogs like this illustrate that resisting temptation on any diet is a challenge. But even with an occasional surrender to cravings, she still managed to lose 22.4 pounds in 27 days. This site by “Dee Lish” (her persona) is a first-rate personal hCG diet blog.

Amie’s HCG Experience. This hCG blog, updated under late 2009, is an absolute must-read if you’re looking for a thorough first-person account of a dieter who logs her experience right from the beginning all the way through Phase 2, Round 2. While she was on the diet, Amie would post a new update every two to four days, and most posts cover stats, events (what she ate, what she should’ve eaten, family issues) and her emotions; a few even include before-and-after pictures. On Round 2 alone, Amie went from 160.4 pounds to 142.8. What the blog lacks in design it makes up for in content—and has no advertising whatsoever.

HCG Blog. A lot of this site has an “Under Construction” feel to it. The link to the hCG diet recipes section, for instance, has no recipes as yet. Many personal diet blogs aren’t as fleshed out as blogs that are more clearly commercial (Dee’s blog is a noteworthy exception). What does distinguish the site is that it’s one of the few hCG blogs to chronicle the blogger’s entire 40-day diet—not each day, but an average of one post a week, beginning from the time of ordering hCG to Day 40. The blogger, Alex, lost 18.4 pounds in total, and her boyfriend, Nathan, lost 19.2 pounds.

Kims HCG Diet Blog. Kims HCG Diet Blog (the apostrophe is omitted in the blog title) was actually updated by Kim’s husband, Jeff, who posted his wife’s verbal accounts of her progress over an eight-week period in early 2009. This isn’t an extensive blog, but a good one to review in a short session. Despite cheating on the diet a few times, she lost 27 pounds between January 5 and February 14. While is doesn’t have a tenth of the posts that Amie’s blog has, it has all the same integrity, full of honest self-assessment, and devoid of advertising.

Most hCG diet reviews come from sites that (surprise!) sell hCG products. It’s a hard task to find any reports from sites that aren’t dedicated to advocating the hCG diet, making their objectivity questionable at best. The following four hCG diet reviews are from sites that aren’t about the diet. Three of them are first person accounts rather than doctors’ theoretical opinions. The fourth is a critical review of the many studies that have been conducted over the years.

The Controversial Diet that Really Works. Erin Flaherty of Marie Claire magazine published Alison Edmond’s account of her experience with the diet. After researching the diet, Edmond remained skeptical of the theory, but decided to take a chance by enrolling in a Studio City weight loss clinic. 45 days and $1250 later, she lost 25 pounds. This is a great resource for anyone considering dieting with the help of a clinic, especially since she seems to reflect the disposition of the average person adopting the diet—cautious, but open-minded.

Simeons Protocol Review – HCG Diet. AnabolicMinds.com’s forum member badfish51581 has written one of the most informed personal case studies of the classic Simeons protocol, distinguishing it from Kevin Trudeau’s adaptation. Badfish lost 31.5 pounds on the diet in 30 days using a 125 IU injection of hCG daily. Meals for each day consisted of one apple, 100 grams of chicken in salad, another apple, then 100 grams of chicken in a broth. He doesn’t rule out possible placebo effects, but he does insist that he has able to distinguish between psychological cravings and actual hunger pangs, and strongly believes that hCG significantly reduced his appetite without suffering from fatigue.

I Started the HCG Diet. Beauty Bets blogger Elizabeth Dehn made three blog entries about her experience with the diet immediately after starting it. While this hCG diet review isn’t particularly extensive, or even complete (it trails off after the second week), it’s noteworthy for its candor and its real time reporting of progress rather than retroactive assessment. While she did lose four pounds in the first seven days, she attributed this to the calorie restriction rather than the hCG itself. She experienced more hunger and fatigue than most hCG dieters would admit, and increased her calorie intake from 500 to 800 (which “slowed down the weight loss process to a screeching halt”). The final entry, concludes with her giving into cravings and, presumably, ending the diet.

HCG Diet An Evidence Based Review. Rather than go on the diet himself, Joe Cannon of Supplement-Geek.com decided to review nearly 50 years’ worth of scientific studies, providing a synopsis of six individual studies and two meta-analyses. The individual studies included anywhere from 20 to 202 patients each. One meta-analysis compiled and analyzed data from 358 patients between six individual studies, while another meta-analysis reviews an unreported number of patients between 24 studies. Only one of the individual studies concluded that dieting with hCG performed better than dieting with a placebo. Homeopathic hCG drops are handled in a separate research based review with even more negative conclusions—again, not a first person account, but well-vetted third party data. Not everyone wants to read negative reviews of the hCG diet, but everyone can benefit from multiple perspectives.

Dr. Albert T. Simeons’ hCG diet protocol, published in the widely available manuscript, Pounds and Inches, remains the definitive version of the diet pioneered by the endocrinologist in the Fifties. Many custom protocols have competed with the Dr Simeons Protocol, most notably from Dr. Daniel Belluscio and most controversially from Kevin Trudeau. Regardless of which protocol you adopt in the end, the best practice is to study the canonical version first to establish a frame of reference, then look up an hCG diet forum to compare and contrast different facts and opinions on other protocols.

Dr. Simeons’ HCG Diet Protocol

The Simeons Protocol is as simple as it is restrictive. Without hCG, the protocol would be too restrictive to be sustainable, since no more than 500 calories are being consumed on any given day. With hCG as an appetite suppressant and metabolic regulator, most dieters manage the hCG protocol without hunger.

HCG Injections

The standard protocol calls for a regimen of 125 IU daily hCG injections (pure hCG, as opposed to homeopathic hCG) over a maximum of 40 days. For those who only need to lose 15 pounds or less, a 26-day program is recommended, where the dieter receives 23 days’ worth of injections followed by three additional days on the Very Low Calorie Diet to prevent weight regain.

Prohibited Items

While excercise is allowed, massage of any kind is not. Aspirin and birth control pills are forbidden. No sugar, alcohol, oil, butter or dressing are allowed. Eggs are generally not allowed, but those who don’t eat meat may substitute eggs, eating the whites of three eggs for each whole egg eaten.

The diet prohibits the use of oil-based and cream based cosmetics, which can alter the effectiveness of the hCG hormone by entering through the skin. Traditionally, only lipstick, eyebrow pencils, and powder based makeup are allowed; but a search on “hCG makeup” will turn up many allowable products.

Daily Meals

Breakfast. Breakfast is limited to any amount of unsugared tea of coffee. These beverage may be sweetened with saccharin or Stevia—the latter being preferred, since it doesn’t affect the body’s glycemic index.

Lunch and dinner. The protocol for either meal is the same—i.e. for dinner, repeat the following instructions used for lunch. Each meal consists of four items: one lean meat, one breadstick, one type of vegetable, and one selection of allowable fruit.

• Meat and fish. 100 grams of meat or fish, weighed prior to cooking, with any visible fat stripped away. Forbidden fish are tuna, herring, eel, salmon, or any fish that’s pickled or dried
• Vegetables. Any one selection of the following: asparagus, cabbage, chard, celery, beet greens, cucumbers, green salad, onions, tomatoes, chicory, red radishes and fennel
• Breadstick. Breadsticks are sometimes called their Italian term, grissini (with grissino being the singular). A single grissino is allowed, or a slice of Melba toast as a substitute
• Fruit. Any one selection of the following: one half-grapefruit, one handful of strawberries, one orange or apple—a single apple, not two small apples

Allowed seasonings and condiments: salt, pepper, garlic, thyme, parsely, mustard powder, vinegar or marjoram. Foods may also be flavored with the juice of a single lemon per day.

Between lunch and dinner combined, no more than 200 grams of fresh meat or fish should be consumed on the hCG diet protocol, nor any type of food exceeding 500 calories on any given day.