HCG DIET

Louisville Center for Weight Loss is proud to be participating with other physician members of the American Society of Bariatric Physicians to study modifications to the HCG diet, different administration routes of HCG, and its use with other medications as part of a multi-center research project.

HCG is Human Chorionic Gonadotropin, the pregnancy hormone. It was first described by Dr. A T. W. Simeons in his book “Pounds and Inches, A New Approach to Obesity” in 1954, over fifty years ago, and has remained very popular over the years. His original diet was 500 calories a day. We do NOT recommend this diet, and do NOT recommend eating less than 1,200 calories a day. If you choose to follow the Simeon’s diet we suggest you TRIPLE the portion sizes to ensure adequate protein intake, and take a multi-vitamin. We recommend that you eat smaller portions of the foods you enjoy, and increase your exercise. We will discuss this with you at the time of your visit. Click here to download a full copy of Simeon’s book.

There are a number of other points we disagree with in his book. We feel that it is fined for you to take any medications with the HCG, including appetite suppressants, thyroid medication, and any other medications you have been prescribed. When Dr Simeons wrote his book fifty years ago, modern diet medications had not been discovered yet. At that time the only medications were amphetamines, which are no longer used. We recommend you take your appetite suppressants with the HCG, and all the patients who did well in our study took both. Thyroid medication is only replacing the natural thyroid hormone when your body is not making enough. He also recommended against the use of cosmetics, perfumes, lip stick, and body oils, which have are not now believed to have any effect on weight loss. He recommended against exercise. Exercise is a key component in losing weight, and maintaining weight loss. Our patients who have done extremely well on the HCG all report that they exercise regularly. He also recommends against massage, which while can be therapeutic, has no effect on weight loss one way or the other.

Our HCG is pharmaceutical grade and available only from the prescription of a physician. It is supplied as a purified dried powder we mix with sterile water. Once mixed it must be refrigerated. There are many people selling bogus “herbal” HCG on the internet and elsewhere which does not contain real HCG. If you are not getting it from a physician, or if it is not refrigerated it is not real.

It is available as a small tablet that is absorbed under the tongue.

We offer many other FDA approved diet medications of proven efficacy and safety, and do not recommend taking HCG by itself. Click here to see a list of other prescription diet medications.