About The HCG Diet Plan

Dr Simeons HCG Diet

Dr Simeons and The HCG Diet Plan

So what is all the excitement and interest in losing weight with the HCG Diet Plan? What is hCG and where does it come from? Is it just another passing phase or here to stay? Are there any HCG diet dangers I should know about? 

These are great questions and lets see if we can help clear up confusion. The HCG Diet dates back to the 1950s when a British endocrinologist, Dr. ATW Simeons, pioneered the theory of the hCG diet to help people lose abnormal fat. hCG is actually the abbreviation for Human Chorionic Gonadotropin, which is a protein hormone naturally produced in the placenta during pregnancy at extremely high levels. 

Since Simeons' research from the 50s, newer research has proven that hCG is also found in other organs of the body and "hCG-like" materials are even found in our plant kingdom. So the question has arisen whether hCG is actually a hormone or not and, if not, then why is it called the hormone diet? We say no it is not a hormone. It most definitely is not a 'sex hormone' and is definitely not a 'pregnancy hormone'. hCG is a natural substance comprised of 244 naturally occurring amino acids. So by eliminating the definition of hCG as a 'hormone', it makes a lot more sense how it can be used in dieting and weight loss!

The history of hCG is pretty interesting. hCG was discovered in 1929 and has commonly been used over the years in females to treat infertility. hCG is extracted from a pregnant woman’s urine and then administered via injections to females in increments of 10,000 unit doses, along with other fertility hormones. It is interesting to note that male body builders and professional athletes who use steroids and deplete their natural testosterone levels have used hCG injections for years at about 500 units 3 times a week as a pre-cursor to increase testosterone levels. They are now discovering that if they use a lot less hCG and follow a low fat food plan, they can also significantly reduce abnormal body fat!

When I first heard about the use of hCG for weight loss, I thought it sounded pretty bizarre and wondered why Simeons came up with the idea to inject hCG into people. After I found more information about his work, he knew that hCG positively affects the master gland known as the hypothalamus gland. This master gland is responsible for regulating the body’s ability to store and release fat and this made perfectly good sense to me. Based on this, he hypothesized that people who could not lose weight or who stored abnormal fat potentially had a problem with the gland or the association with the hypothalamus regulating fat. After years of research with hCG and specific low fat foods, he successfully created the HCG Diet Plan that began, and still does today, help people lose extraordinary amounts of abnormal fat in a relatively short period of time.