How hCG Works

It is thought - the HCG hormone kicks up the metabolism, signaling the body to burn. Following the diet plan your metabolism with operate over 30%--a much more efficient level to burn, rather than store. HCG opens only the excess fat cells allowing excess fat to be burned. No other time in the human body does this happen, and so other diets often remove fat cells the body needs, causing us to lose in places we don't want to first, and finally where you need it. HCG burns the excess fat cells taking the needed fat, and literally sculpting the body, losing inches as well as pounds.

The hCG diet program addresses the core of the problem with weight gain. Most diets are for life, because when you reach your goal weight your hypothalamus (where you have a base weight set in the brain) thinks it needs to be at your pre weight loss weight, so it lowers your metabolism, switching it into a storing mode, and causing the body to gain the weight right back, and then some. In other diets the metabolism has not changed, and following the diet will continue to run at the same rate, which in most of us dieters has been found to be at only 8%.

Clinical Studies on the hCG Diet
As you research the HCG Diet, you will find information on both sides of the issue regarding whether or not the HCG Diet works or if it’s no more effective than a placebo. There have been numerous placebo-controlled, double-blind studies done over the years.  Some of these studies concluded HCG does NOT work better than a placebo for weight loss when following a VLCD (Very Low Calorie Diet) as prescribed by Dr. Simeons in his ‘Pounds and Inches’ manuscript. Other studies, however, concluded that YES, the HCG Protocol does in fact significantly affect fat loss as Dr. Simeons found in his years of administering the protocol to thousands of patients.

It should be noted that ALL except one of these studies were conducted before 1991.  Only one study has been performed in the past 18+ years, and that study concluded that the HCG Protocol works.

Doctors W.L. Asher, MD & Harold W. Harper, MD published their study,  in the The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 1973.
From the Summary of the Asher & Harper study:

“The HCG group lost significantly more mean weight, had a significantly greater mean weight loss per injection, and lost a significantly greater mean percentage of their starting weight. The percentage of affirmative daily patient responses indicating “little or no hunger” and “feeling good to excellent” was significantly greater in the HCG group than in the placebo group. Additional investigation of the influence of HCG on weight loss, hunger, and well-being seems indicated.”

A more recent placebo-controlled, double-blind study was conducted using an Oral formulation of HCG by Dr. Daniel Oscar Belluscio, M.D., Dr. Leonor Ripamonte, M.D and Dr. Marcelo Wolansky Ph.D:
This study concluded:

“1) Female obese volunteers participating in a double blind study, and submitted to the administration of an oral presentation of hCG plus a VLCD, decreased specific body circumferences and skinfold thickness from conspicuous body areas more efficiently than Placebo+VLCD -treated subjects. Since a significant fat proportion from total body fat is subcutaneously located (50 to 65 percent, depending on sex and fat distribution), this hCG metabolic activity would result in a reduction of the total body fat mass, the main cause for obesity. We suggested that the combination of a VLCD and oral hCG could not only trigger clinically significant changes in subcutaneous fat stores but simultaneously decrease body weight and modelate body contour. 

2) hCG oral administration proved to be a safe and effective procedure on obese treated volunteers. No side effects were observed in the course of the study. There are no reports in the literature regarding this administration route to compare our findings. 

3) Compared to placebo treated subjects, volunteers managed with an oral administration of hCG coped more efficiently with daily irritating situations, were in a better mood, and handled home conflicts without stepping up family discussions.  This study appears to contradict former conclusions on the issue of hCG and obesity. We attribute those differences to a different approach, including variables not assessed in former publications. “

Since 1975, the FDA has required labeling and advertising of hCG to state:
HCG has not been demonstrated to be effective adjunctive therapy in the treatment of obesity. There is no substantial evidence that it increases weight loss beyond that resulting from caloric restriction, that it causes a more attractive or "normal" distribution of fat, or that it decreases the hunger and discomfort associated with calorie-restricted diets.