An HCG diet plan may not be so much of a diet as a medical treatment, and by explaining what is meant by this, and how HCG works, you can decide yourself whether or not the HCG diet plan benefits are worth the hassle involved.
What is HCG
It is amazing how many people talk about HCG and have no real conception of what it is. Some talk about it as if it was some alternative to the Atkins Diet, and others as if it was a carbohydrate diet. Yet, the truth of it is that an HCG diet plan is not a diet at all, but a treatment provided with a hypodermic needle. Here is how.
HCG is Human Chorionic Gonadotropin. What do these various terms mean? Chorionic refers to the outer membrane enclosing the embryo in humans, reptiles and birds, and in humans it is involved in the development of the placenta. It is therefore a very important component of human reproduction, taking part in embryonic and placental development.
Gonadotropins are hormones that are secreted by the pituitary gland at the base of the brain. The two major gonadotropins in human biochemistry are luteinizing hormone and follicle-stimulating hormones that play an important part in the development and proper function of your body. A third, however, is human chorionic gonadotropin.
What is the Theory?
A major function of HCG is to rapidly generate energy for the developing fetus from your body’s store of fat. Every individual is born with a certain number of fat cells in their body, and when excess energy is stored as fat, the fats are stored in these fat cells that can be anything from empty to full. Normally the fat stores in these cells are not used unless your demand for energy exceeds that available from the carbohydrate content of your diet.
Carbohydrates undergo glycolysis to form glucose, which is then oxidized to ATP energy by means of cellular respiration in the mitochondria of your body cells. When your blood glucose stores run out, and your emergency energy stores in the form of creatine phosphate and glycogen are used up, your metabolism turns to your fat reserves for energy.
However, in the presence of HCG, this process is accelerated so that the developing fetus has no energy deficiency and can develop at a proper rate. The theory is then that if you took a supplement of HCG, you should be able to burn off that fat in the same way. That supplement would theoretically be the basis of an HCG diet plan.
How Does HCG Work?
It is believed that the way HCG works is that it does not directly burn fat and convert it to energy, but that it suppresses your appetite and so enables you to more easily follow a low calorie diet. Normally, when your calorie intake is too low, your metabolism slows down and you don’t feel so hungry, but at the same time you are burning less energy (fat). So you don’t lose weight.
HCG enables your body to maintain its normal metabolic rate, and so continue to use up energy as normal, even with a low calorie diet, so that you eat less but do not feel hungry, and so you still use up energy. That means that your metabolism will turn to your fat reserves and burn these for the energy it needs just to keep you alive. What that means in layman’s terms is that HCG is an appetite suppressant.
How is the HCG Diet Plan Taken
You cannot take HCG as a supplement. It must be taken hypodermically, and your HCG shots work even better if Vitamin B12 is included. That vitamin increases your metabolic rate and so helps you burn fat quicker. So the so-called HCG diet plan is a treatment, and not a diet. The injections are made directly into your muscle tissue where your body does most work. It does appear to work, and is particularly useful to those that must remain relatively inactive: physically handicapped, bedridden, and the excessively obese that cannot exercise without straining their heart.
However, before embarking on the so-called HCG diet plan, refer to your doctor or physician to make sure that your metabolism is suitable for that type of treatment.