Back in February 2011, Dr. Oz featured an in-depth investigation on the HCG diet as part of his show. He invited lots of special guests on to the show, including many people who had lost huge amounts of weight after following the HCG diet, and as a result of the resultant publicity, internet searches for HCG diet products and related information went through the roof almost immediately. However, because some of the discussion about the HCG diet was slightly unfavorable, we feel it is important to address some of those concerns.
One of the many HCG topics that arose during the Dr. Oz show was safety. Unsurprisingly, there are lots of people (including Dr. Oz himself) who are concerned about the possible safety implications of using the homeopathic HCG diet to lose weight, but as long as you purchase your HCG diet products from a reputable source, you are 100% safe.
Does the HCG diet work?
This was the crucial question posed by Dr. Oz during his show. He suggested that HCG drops contain so little hormone as to be largely ineffective, but when homeopathic HCG diet is bought from a reputable source, the product contains more than enough hormone to be extremely effective for the HCG dieter.
What were the other concerns raised by Dr. Oz during his show?
Permanent weight loss: most extreme dieters lose weight because of a simple mathematical formula—they expend more energy than they consume and therefore the weight falls off quickly. However, although dieters following the HCG diet will also lose weight quickly, the diet encourages you to adopt fundamental changes in your lifestyle, which in the long term will help you keep the weight off permanently. At the end of the HCG diet, your metabolism will have altered and you are unlikely to find junk food so attractive, so overeating is less of a problem.
Weight loss results: Dr. Oz pointed out that anyone following a diet of only 500 calories per day will lose weight, but the HCG diet enables far more fundamental changes to take place within the metabolism. The hormone instructs the hypothalamus to burn fat deposits, so although you are only eating 500 calories per day, your body has access to several thousand more calories from mobilized fat stores, which is why HCG dieters are easily able to lose 1-2 pounds per day.
Legality issues: Dr. Oz stated that HCG drops and injections are illegal because the product is not regulated by the FDA, but as long as you purchase homeopathic HCG, you are perfectly safe. This is because homeopathic medicines ARE regulated by the FDA and can be purchased without a physicians’ prescription, as per the law passed by Congress in 1938.
Cost issues: one bone of contention from Dr. Oz was the cost of some HCG diet products currently on the market today. However, whilst there are undoubtedly many unscrupulous companies selling HCG diet products for obscene amounts of money, as long as you buy your HCG diet from a reputable source, you can expect to pay significantly less than several hundred dollars for the privilege.
Despite some of the negative comments made by Dr. Oz on his diet show, millions of people have lost weight successfully using the HCG diet, and with so many coming forward to tell their stories, there is no doubt that the HCG really DOES work as long as you follow the guidelines to the letter!
