Each year there is a new advance in the world of weight and fitness, a miracle drug that comes to light claiming to be the answer to every dieter’s dreams. Mostly these drugs turn out to be fairly useless, and sometimes they can even have the reverse effect and be damaging for your wellness and wellbeing.
Last year, the big thing has been for a certain homeopathic remedy which contains something called HCG. This stands for human chorionic gonadotropin, and is a hormone that is produced by pregnant women (usually found in the placenta). It has been used in the past to trigger ovulation in women who are undergoing treatment for fertility problems.
HCG can also allow the body to access the fat stores in the body and provide nutrients for when a woman is pregnant with a baby. This function can then be exploited to help people to lose weight. People usually take the HCG supplement plus a 500 calorie per day diet, and the theory is that this could help them shed one or two pounds every day.
If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. This is certainly the case with HCG. In fact, the Food and Drug Administration, alongside the Federal Trade Commission, have actually issued a large number of warning letters to the companies who are selling over-the counter products containing HCG and labelled as a homeopathic weight loss remedy. This is because HCG has not been approved to be used for weight loss, and the claims that the products are making does not have any evidence to back it up. In addition to this, the hormone may have health risks associated with it, due to the lack of testing and evidence, and there are also serious health effects associated with very low calorie diets.