As much as I would love to lose 20 pounds in six weeks, you won’t find me signing up for of one of the latest weight-loss fads called the "HCG diet." The Human Chorionic Gonadotropin diet is one that requires that you inject yourself daily with a hormone produced by pregnant women (a product that is only licensed for fertility treatment, not weight loss) and that you restrict yourself to eating only 500 calories a day. Neither thing is appealing to me.
Experts have concerns about - and are skeptical of - the potentially dangerous diet, as well. As John Morton, MD, director of bariatric surgery and surgical quality at Stanford Hospital & Clinics, told viewers in a recent KTUV-TV report:
"I would say the mind is a very powerful thing. And I would say there's a big placebo effect occurring here."
For more on HCG, FDA has information on its website.
