Anyone heard of HCG drops for weight loss?

One of DPs young cousins had been posting on her FB status about how much weight she's lost using HCG Ultra drops. I don't think they sound particularly healthy, well I don't think any of the quick fix weight loss gimmicks sound healthy, but that's just me. Anyway I don't know anything about these never heard of them until she posted about them so was just wondering if anyone in here knows about them. Would like to hear other's opinions and learn anything about them I can.
This young girl is very image driven, wanted to be a model etc and I worry she may be using a quick fix with out knowing any possible side effects.

Sorry the title is incorrect :doh: it should read HCG not HSG. Mods if you can edit that would be great so I don't look like a complete moron :p

The drops work but probably only because they are paired with an extremely low advisory calorie intake of 500cal a day. Anyone eating only that much a day would be losing, the drops are likely quite irrelevant.

Thank for the edit divvy:)

LOL Shades I just looked at the page for the drops and yeah, 500 calorie intake I really don't think you'd need the drops :lol: I still wonder if they could pose any damage to your system? Mucking around with hormones can't be a good idea.

My girlfriend did this diet and lost a good amount of weight (can't remember exactly but it was just into double figures). She used it as a kick start and she has kept the weight off and looks absolutley fabulous. She felt great while she was doing it recommends it. She has also tried it without the drops and she didn't loose any where near the same amount of weight.

Willow – I was just going to ask about this too but saw your post first. I have a friend at work that has gone on this ‘diet’. She let me read her diet book and it instantly set off alarm bells for me, and I wanted to ask if any one has had any first (or second) hand knowledge of this.

The drops, from what I can gather are suppose to be an appetite suppressant. Or maybe more accurately they are suppose to make your body mobilize your fat stores for energy instead of relying on caloric intake through food. My friend said something about HCG in the drops being the appetite suppressant, which is what initially set off warning bells for me and made me ask her more. HCG being one of the key hormone players in pregnancy and ensuring that the fetus gets enough nutrients. I don’t have much background in actual HUMAN hormones, but I have a lot of knowledge about fish and animals in general (and I can’t imagine it would be THAT different in humans). In fish and other animals HCG actually an appetite stimulant ensuring they have a high enough caloric intake to support reproduction.

When I got to reading the actual diet booklet, I got to worrying about her getting enough nutrients for vital metabolic functions. She isn’t suppose to have any fat at all (which makes me wonder how she will be getting essential fatty acids, which generally don’t get stored as fat as your body often only gets just what it needs to make muscle, blood, cells etc..) Then the food she is allowed to eat. Such a restricted diet. She is suppose to take vitamin supplements, but they don’t give you amino acids...the ‘building blocks of life’ so to speak.

In my mind, it’s basically a starvation diet. And of course you are going to loose weight if you starve yourself. The lowest recommended daily intake of calories for women is 1,200 and this diet recommends 500 cal a day (less then half the LOWEST recommended calorie intake). And I wonder if she’s even getting that given how little she is suppose to eat. From my calculations she’d be lucky to be eating much more then 300 calories a day. And when you ‘starve’ which is what I keep coming back to in my mind, your body ends up using it’s protein (NOT it’s fat) to ensure that you have enough fatty acids and amino acids to produce cells, and often times that can lead to heart problems because your body doesn’t differentiate between vital muscles (diaphragm, heart) and non vital (arm, leg).

So I’m REALLY worried about her. I don’t think it’s healthy. And I am really worried about it’s health risks and wanted to know if anyone had ever done this ‘diet’ and had any adverse reactions (probably the wrong word, but you get what I mean) to it….

Just to clarify - from one of the websites this is how they *claim* it works
"HCG is produced during pregnancy and it presets the brain to use up the stored fat deposits during the early months of pregnancy when a woman feels nauseated to eat too much. HCG will provide vitality to the woman by using the fat deposits as energy even if she only eats less."
Apparently a lot of the cheaper drops contain no hormone and are simply homeopathic in nature. The real drops require a prescription. Still sounds like a load of tripe to me, expensive tripe at best, expensive, dangerous tripe at worst.

Dr.Tal I'm with you it just doesn't sound good!

Shades interesting I wonder if DPs cousin has the prescription ones or just the more dodge website bought ones. Surely a doctor wouldn't prescribe them and condone a diet that low in calorie intake to an 18 year old, who judging by her photos, isn't actually over weight anyway! Looks perfectly good to me. healthy and in proportion, just not the stick she was a while back because she's got a bung knee and doesn't play basketball any more so she's not burning off the crap food and grog!

WOWSERS!! I'm doing a 1200 cal 'diet' (for want of a better word) and if I stick to it, the weight falls off me. 500cals is a ridiculously low amount to be eating... That sounds very unhealthy.