What are the Negative Effects of HCG on Men?

The HCG diet has been growing in popularity over the past few years. Once people hear about the weight loss effects, they often search online for more HCG diet information so that they, too, can enjoy the rapid weight loss that others seem to be experiencing. However, upon learning that HCG is a hormone that is naturally found in pregnant women, it turns some men off of the diet. The truth of the matter is that HCG doesn’t have any adverse effects on men, but some people still feel apprehensive about taking it.

During pregnancy, women produce the HCG hormone for a couple of reasons. The first is that HCG is responsible for the development of sex organs in both male and female fetuses. Without this hormone, genitalia would not develop correctly or fully, and as the baby grows into adulthood, would not be able to reproduce. The second function that the HCG hormone serves is to stimulate the hypothalamus into releasing stores of fat into the bloodstream. When these fat stores are released, so are vitamins and nutrients that are stored in fat. These nutrients are then used to help ensure that the baby and mother have the necessary nutrition in order to survive. The released fat also serves the purpose of providing the mother and fetus with necessary calories.

The HCG diet takes advantage of this second function. Along with a low calorie diet, HCG will allow your body to burn it’s stores of fat for energy and result in weight loss. Often, the weight that’s lost will be very rapid (due to the low calorie diet) and can range anywhere from .5lbs to 2lbs a day, depending on the amount of fat a particular person has on their body. Both men and women benefit from this secondary effect of HCG, so even though pregnancy causes HCG to be released naturally, it isn’t necessary.

the diet has potential HCG side effects, though, and they are experienced by both men and women. Typically, they stem from the low calorie diet and not the HCG itself. The side-effects include: mild headaches, fatigue, and irritability. The headaches are probably the easiest to deal with as a simple over the counter painkiller can usually do the trick. Fatigue can be combated by making sure to supplement vitamins and minerals, as well as eating as many nutritious veggies as possible (while still maintaining strict adherence to the list of approved foods). ‘

All in all, the HCG diet has shown no adverse effects in men. The weight loss, it turns out, can be even higher in men than it is in women. Men tend to lose weight easier than women, and when both are following the same diet, men tend to lose a little bit more. If you’re still not entirely convinced of HCG’s safety in men, you can always speak with your doctor. They can give you a lot of useful information about the HCG diet and how it can work for you. Also, your doctor can prescribe the best supplements for use during the weight loss phase to help ease any potential side-effects that you may experience.


Is the HCG Diet Safe More than Once?

Safety and efficacy are often the two primary concerns for people looking into trying the HCG diet. Anything that promises to provide fast and lasting weight loss results is often looked at with suspicion, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. If you have a substantial amount of weight to lose, and are looking into the HCG diet in order to lose it, then you might want to try performing the HCG diet protocol more than once in order to lose the weight you need to. The HCG diet is broken down into 3 phases, a loading phase, weight loss phase and stabilization phase. The entirety of the diet lasts about 6-7 weeks, with phase 1 being 2 days in length and phases 2 and 3 being 3 weeks each.

Phase 1, the loading phase, requires that you eat as many high-fat foods as you can in a 2 day period while beginning each day with your HCG injections. Good foods to eat during this time will be foods that contain not only high amounts of fat but protein as well. High fat, high carb foods will often not provide you with the kind of fat you need to sustain yourself during phase 2, and should be avoided. These are things like pastries, potato chips, and sugary drinks. Better foods to eat during phase 1 are things like cheesecake, hamburgers and pizza. While pizza may seem like a high fat, high carb food, if you get one with a good amount of meat, it will help out immensely.

Once the initial 2 days are over, you will then begin phase 2 which consists of a 500 calorie a day diet. This diet is in sharp contrast to that of phase 1 as it contains extremely little fat and a very, very much reduced amount of calories. It can often be difficult for people to transition from phase 1 into phase 2, but it’s important that you do it right. If you eat the wrong foods, or too much food, during phase 2, your weight loss results run the risks of being greatly diminished. Be sure to stick to the 500 calorie a day limit and eat only things on the list of approved foods that prevent HCG diet side effects and maximize your weight loss results.

Phase 3 is the stabilization phase. This lasts 3 weeks and during this time you are to make sure your weight does not fluctuate more than 2lbs up or down from the last time you weighed yourself at the end of phase 2. It is often regarded as the most important phase because this will make or break the permanence of your weight loss. You are to abstain from starches and sugars during this phase (as in phase 2) and exercise is often encouraged in order to keep the weight off. Once phase 3 is complete, you should continue to eat a healthy, nutritious diet to maintain your weight.

If you have a large amount of weight to lose, you can begin the HCG diet protocol again and experience even more weight loss. However, it is important that you complete the entire 3 week duration of phase 3 before beginning the diet again. Also, you should talk to your doctor before beginning any diet, but especially before restarting another cycle of the HCG diet. You will want to make sure your body can handle another month or so on a low calorie diet. Sometimes it is required that people wait a little longer before going back on the diet to make sure that their bodies have recovered fully and are capable of going through it again.


HCG Diet Meal Recipes

One of the best ways to be successful on any diet is to put together a meal plan for the week. This meal plan can help you divide up your daily calories and keep you from going off your diet. An HCG diet meal plan is often utilized by people who undergo the HCG diet in order to keep them from veering off course and sabotaging their weight loss results. Phase 2 of the HCG diet has a list of approved foods that goes along with it, and it isn’t very long. In order to keep things interesting and avoid any potential temptation, you should look up some HCG diet recipes.

There are several places to look for HCG diet recipes, and online is probably the easiest. Simply searching for HCG diet recipes can pull up any number of pages dedicated to the subject. Browse around and find the ones that sound the most appealing and give them a try. You might just discover a dish that you want to eat even after you finish the diet.

While you’re online, you might want to stop by the HCG diet forums and ask the people there for any particularly delicious HCG diet recipes that they may have devised themselves. Even though the list of approved foods is rather small, you’d be surprised just how creative some people can be. Also, there are other foods that can be safely eaten while on the HCG diet that are not on the list of approved foods. However, you should talk to people who have tried them first, just to make sure. Some have found great success on modified HCG diets, and these people can help you out if you need some variety in your diet.

If you plan to continue eating in a similar fashion to the HCG diet protocol even after you finish, you might want to pick up an HCG diet recipe book to keep around the house. Continuing to eat a healthy diet is key in maintaining weight loss, and all the foods approved for the HCG diet are nothing if not healthy. The Weight Loss Cure They Don’t Want You To Know About by Kevin Trudeau is one of the more popular HCG diet recipe books. It is one of the modified HCG diets, and as such will either be lauded or denounced, depending on who you talk to. There are some HCG diet purists out there (perhaps you’re one of them) who insist on following the real HCG diet as described by Dr. A.T.W. Simeons in his book Pounds & Inches, and that’s just fine! People have found success on both the modified version of the HCG diet as well as the original HCG diet.

Another good book would be 101 Worry-Free HCG diet recipes. This book is chock full of delicious, nutritious recipes that you can follow both on and off of the HCG diet. With 101 HCG diet recipes to choose from, you’re sure to find several things you like. Even though many of the recipes are portioned out to go with a 500 calorie a day diet, you can very easily increase the portion sizes for when you’re on phase 3 of the diet, or even after you finish. If you want to maintain your weight lost on the HCG diet, you might want to stick to a similar meal plan even after you’re done.


What Exercises are Appropriate for the HCG Diet?

Phase 2 of the HCG diet is often the most controversial, due to its extremely low calorie requirement. 500 calories a day can be a tough plan to follow, but those that do often report losing a lot of weight from typically hard to target areas. While phase 2 gets most of the attention, phase 3 is arguably the most important. It is the phase in which you will either cement your weight loss or gain it all back and be forced to undergo the HCG diet protocol again.

In some ways, phase 3 of the HCG diet is much easier than phase 2. For one, you don’t need to be worried about being hungry. Because there is no low caloric requirement, you can pretty much eat as much as you want. However, the amount of food you eat relates directly to your waistline, so it is still important to be careful about how many calories you eat and where they come from. Eating a lot of meat, for example, may cause you to start gaining weight because of the fat content and the fact that it is so calorie dense. A better idea would be to eat large amounts of vegetables. If you feel hungry during phase 3, reach for a plate of veggies instead of something like meat, cheese or grains.

Sometimes, you can offset eating a larger amount of calories by working out. If you notice that during phase 3 you are steadily putting on weight, and you don’t want to reduce your caloric intake, you can add exercise to burn off any extra calories. A good place to begin would be with 30 minutes of moderate exercise a day. This can be anything from a good, vigorous walk to a light jog, or anything in between. If you’ve been putting on relatively small amounts of weight, then moderate exercise will probably curb it. However, if the weight gain has been substantial, then modifying your diet as well as exercise is a must. Dr. Simeons has an emergency protocol in place in the event of rapid weight gain during phase 3 that includes eating nothing all day and then eating a large steak for dinner. Doing this often helps people who find themselves gaining weight during phase 3.

It’s extremely important that your weight does not change very much during phase 3 of the HCG diet plan, so if you decide to exercise make sure that you don’t overdo it. If you find yourself continuing to lose weight, you should probably slow or even stop your exercise routine until the 3 week period is over. If you don’t want to reduce your amount of exercise, you can always eat more. Eating heavy, calorie dense foods like cheese will help you to have the necessary calories to maintain your body weight. You should still abstain from starches and sugars, though, as these foods can have a nasty effect on your body during phase 3 and rapidly increase the rate at which you gain weight.

The best time to begin exercising is when phase 3 is over and your weight is successfully stabilized. After this, you have much more control over your daily diet and you can increase or decrease your type and frequency of exercise in order to maintain your body at its current weight, or continue to lose more.


How to Avoid HCG Scams

As time has gone on, there have been several different methods developed for supplementing HCG for the purpose of weight loss. It began with injections, but now HCG is available via HCG diet drops and HCG diet pills as well. If you want to try one of these newer methods for supplementing your HCG, then you will want to make sure that you avoid any scams involved with the purchase of the HCG hormone. If you buy your HCG diet drops online, you stand particularly at risk if you don’t know how to choose where to purchase real HCG. Here are a few tips to help you out:

In order to be absolutely sure you’re getting real HCG and not a phony product, talk to your doctor first. He or she will probably have knowledge of where to buy HCG diet drops online, or can easily give you a prescription for HCG hormone injections. Odds are, if it’s coming from a pharmacy that your doctor pointed you to, it isn’t going to be a scam.

Homeopathic HCG diet drops are available without a prescription, and as such, they are often associated with scams or with being ineffective. If you want to try out the homeopathic variety of HCG, then you might want to look online and make sure that the HCG provided by these sites comes only from FDA approved laboratories. The FDA approval will ensure that the HCG you’re getting is actually HCG and not some chemical cocktail, or just water.

Buying HCG diet drops online is easy, and you can probably get a list of several reputable vendors from the folks on the HCG diet forums. The forums are filled with people who are either on the diet currently, or have completed it already. They can let you know which websites they got their HCG from and which ones to avoid. You can also get a lot of HCG diet tips from these people to help you reach your maximum weight loss potential on the diet.

If the website has a lot of poor spelling and/or bad English, you might want to move on. Not everyone in the world speaks English fluently (or at all) and that’s fine, however websites that are written poorly are often based in other countries and more often than not get their HCG from labs over there. Odds are the FDA has not approved these particular laboratories and, for the sake of avoiding scams, you should probably not buy your HCG from them.

Check your results. If you’ve been on the HCG diet for a week, followed it correctly and are not experiencing the weight loss you should be, then you may have gotten scammed. It is important to be honest with yourself, though, and make sure that you are indeed following the HCG diet protocol correctly, as any deviation from the prescribed method can and often will minimize your weight loss results.

For all the HCG diet scams out there, there are also very good vendors who sell real HCG at affordable prices. Don’t be afraid to shop around, you may find that some sites offer lower priced HCG hormone than others, and making your dollar go farther is never a bad thing. Be wary of cheap HCG though, as one of the easiest and most common ways to scam people is to offer them a deal that seems too good to be true. It often is, and the HCG hormone diet is no different.