Screwed by HCG?

I worked at a health food store when the HCG thing got popular. I talked with so many people that did it. Every single person that I knew who did the program gained the weight back, no exaggeration. I was one of the few people that didn’t agree with it, and would not promote it within our store.

Yes! I went through just one month of the Omnitrition version of this diet and it took my months to heal. Although my metabolism is finally doing better, it’s still not where it was. It took about three months to heal and now, with exercise, I’m seeing an improvement. This diet was a huge mistake. I knew this likely wasn’t a smart thing to do but thought I could just quit if there were any problems. Huge mistake! Hope you are feeling better soon.

**WARNING** Long Post!

I’m a HCG diet veteran and epic example of failure. I’m a 38 yo female, 5’3″, current weight at all time high of 190, 40% bf.

My HCG journey started in 2008, at 175 lbs. I’ve never been ‘thin’ although I maintained my weight for many years at 145-155 with tons of muscle. I was strong, curvy and compact. In 2002 I got my first desk job and with it came 30+ lbs, despite continuing regular workouts.

From 2008-2012 I rode the HCG roller coaster, doing round after round, with 6-8 weeks in between. I did the homeopathic and injections, religiously avoided all oils in lotions and cosmetics, carried my food in snack sized baggies and kept hard candies on hand for the sudden dizzy spells.

I soon became too weak to exercise, even during the ‘maintenance’ periods. But, success was mine. I reached lows of 140 lbs…four times. This success was short lived though.

Because each time I came off the 500 calorie diet cycle – I was LEVELED by ravenous hunger. I craved fat, especially steak, nuts and cheese. And just food in general. And rest. I denied myself rest and instead stuffed my face with everything I could lay my grubby little fingers on. The restriction? Starch and sugar.

And guess what. Contrary to what the HCG followers assure, despite my sticking strictly to low carb fare, the pounds raced back on as fast as they came off, or a bit faster.

I was exhausted and felt so sluggish, like I was dragging around a backpack full of bricks. I attempted exercise routines, but fell off them quickly because it hurt so much (excessive and prolonged muscle soreness).

Between rounds, I had massive hair loss, which would continue for a month or so then slow down. During the rounds, I was freezing all the time, unable to focus, obsessed about food and the scale and the HCG forums, and the couple times I took my temps they were in the low 96’s, high 95’s.

Other symptoms I had which I have since learned were those of starvation, were explained in the forums as ‘detoxing’ or ‘because you are resting your hypothalamus’.

Fast forward to late 2012. I decided I must have broken my metabolism, since the last couple rounds of dieting had been alarmingly unsuccessful (how could a person lose NO pounds eating 500 cals a day for 7 days). Originally, results were apparent within a couple of days of calorie restriction, now it took 5-7 days to see any change and it was relatively minor. Now, it seemed as though any additional food intake caused gain. Not to mention I was so hungry!

Trying to find an answer that did not involve a life sentence of eating no more than 800 calories a day, I had been reading a bunch of Matt Stone stuff and all the comments, it was really interesting stuff and totally new to me.

I also realized that HCG had triggered some level of ED for me (my mother died at 61 weighing 80 lbs – due to orthorexia in the form of strict raw foodism – our family was all orthorexic in my early years). The 2 day binge followed by the 21-40 day starve which makes up the original HCG plan set me up for some serious mental scramble as well as some unpleasant regression to past experiences.

So as of about a month ago, I made a personal commitment to myself that I would never diet again. And I would honor my body, accept myself as I am now and focus on health and strength rather than the scale. I’m slowly re-entering the exercise world with walking, short runs, and short bodyweight workouts. I’ve actually felt the strength beginning to return although muscle weakness persists. Guess it will take time.

Of course as noted above, I did regain over 100% of weight lost via HCG dieting, except that where I started the dieting madness at 33% bf, I am now at 40%. This is by a bodyfat scale so I know it is not accurate but it is the same scale, so it shows the dismal composition change. And since Officially Quitting Dieting, I have packed on another 10 lbs. :'(

My husband thinks I am crazy (and FAT) and wants me to hit another HCG round with him (he was successful in his first two rounds, losing 55 lbs and keeping off 35 of it over 4 years).

As a result, I’m struggling with my ‘no-diet’ commitment. The temptation is so strong to try ‘just one more round’ of the HCG. Despite my obvious failure, I still desperately cling to hope. I look at the fact that it may take a year or more of eating ‘normal’, exercising and being ‘enormous’ before things will turn around.

And I’m afraid. I’m afraid that I will never lose, only get bigger. I’m afraid of other people’s judgment. And I’m also afraid that if I want to be a reasonable weight (I’m looking for a 145 lb goal here people, it’s both healthy and realistic for me), I will forever have to restrict and always worry and stress over what I can and can’t eat. To me that’s a terrible life sentence :( Looks like I need to GET OVER all that fear!

There you have it. What HCG Did For Me. I know I am not alone in this, and I hope that someone else can learn from my experience.

I also wanted to reach out to all you awesome folks who read these forums – I need some encouragement! I’m struggling against the siren call of ‘one more round! maybe this time will be the charm!’ Maybe my metabolism is fixed and the crazy diet will work once more.

By the way, my morning temp is now up to 97.2-97.8 depending on cycle, blood pressure is up to 116/78 from lows of 107/63, and I am WARM. It is wonderful. Other than starting fires with my thighs when I walk things are really looking up. My thyroid bloodwork has totally normalized (I was hypothyroid due to the dieting and took Synthroid/T3 for about a year, came off it 8 months ago).

It seems that I have more or less recovered from the HCG, so perhaps I am good to go once again. But what if I am not? What if I just further damage my metabolism, and starve off 10 or even 20 lbs just to once again see it fly on back with friends on board? I am so tired of restricting and starving and obsessing. I feel resistant and rebellious even at the thought of it! I definitely have some real mental work to do, which I have been doing although progress is slowwww. Maybe slower is better. What do you all think?

Hey MilaMonster, what an inspiration. Thanks for your post, reminding me of the real truth here. Why would I think HCG will work ‘this next time’ when I have seen it fail me for all these years! Silly.

And yes, you’re right. Until I get past worrying about what folks think when they look at me (gosh she sure has let herself go…and the like), I’m really not recovered and am less likely to succeed at reaching a healthy weight.

Yeahh, my husband has got the HCG brain all right. Funny thing is, he bought into the crazy diet thing because of me! Saw my initial good results and decided to jump on the wagon himself, after being very resistant to the idea. Now, since it has worked (somewhat) for him, he figures that all I need is a lil willpower and I will again have crazy diet success.

Still, the fact remains. I know beyond a doubt that while I may lose weight on HCG, it will be slower than any man or first time dieter, and I will suffer the other adverse consequences like reduced thyroid function, hair loss, weakness and dizziness, etc. And who knows – maybe I won’t recover this time.

HCG dieting can work if you do no more than two rounds and MAINTAIN the loss. But serial dieting this way is just a lousy deal. Now – to remember these hard facts when the peer pressure strikes…

@Carikay. Sure I will share on your site if you like. Or you can copy the post from here. My intent is not to bash the HCG diet as I still think that it can work, if used correctly. However I’m not convinced that the homeopathic drops are equivalent to real HCG. It is a very individual thing.

Although it can work, it can also backfire on a person in a big (pun intended haha) way. I know I am not the only one with this experience, and it really pulls ya down in this spiral of self disgust.

I also wanted to mention another thing that developed over my years of yo yo dieting – Borderline high fasting blood glucose. My doc showed me a record of my yearly numbers for the past four years and the FBG number went from a healthy normal 85 to 115. I was called back in to the office as they were concerned about the steady upward march. Recommended I follow the standard diabetes diet of avoiding sugar, counting carbs (14 gm/meal tops), 6 small meals, etc etc. And I am so tired of worrying and stressing about food.

Matt’s theories seem sound and sensible, most importantly the suggestion of emancipation from diet slavery. It’s almost too good to be true>