HCG Complex: The Astonishing Truth About This Diet OR HCG Complex: The Real Scoop on this Popular Diet
Losing weight at the rate 1 pound per day. It sounds like a dream, but it’s the reality for many people who follow the strict, but effective HCG Complex diet. Is it too good to be true?
If you’re up for an extreme diet that will help you melt off your extra pounds, the HCG Complex diet could be the answer to your weight loss prayers. With the help of HCG Complex, customers report they are able to reach their goal weight faster than they had ever imagined. This diet, however, does require some serious commitment. You need to be fully informed before diving into this seemingly miraculous weight loss plan.
In this article, you’ll learn all about what the HCG Complex diet involves, the results you can expect, the risks and how it compares to other weight loss plans.
What is HCG Complex? How Does it Work?
But, how does it work? The idea behind HCG Complex comes from Dr. Simeon’s original HCG (Human Chorionic Gondadotropin) diet plan. Using injections of the HCG hormone, which is naturally found in pregnant women, Dr. Simeon’s discovered that men under treatment for obesity began to lose weight, especially around the midsection. After further experimentation with the hormone and strict diet plans, Dr. Simeon’s developed his protocol. Since the diet’s creation in the 1950s, the diet has met overwhelming praise, and criticism.
Some argue that the strict diet alone causes the extreme weight loss. However, others like Dr. Sheri L. Emma have found evidence that HCG can help overweight patience avoid muscle loss, rather helping the body selectively lose only fat.
But, HCG Complex is different. Rather than injecting the actual hormone, HCG Complex contains a range of ingredients which work similarly to the HCG hormone, and may even achieve better results. However, with HCG Complex, you skip the risks of injecting artificial hormones into your body. HCG Complex is taken while also following a strict diet, similar to what Dr. Simeon created.
What’s In HCG Complex?
Created by BioSource Labs, HCG Complex is a supplement created in a US based laboratory. FDA registered and GMP certified, the supplement is made following all regulations for the safe production of supplements, allowing you confidence that the product is safe for use. But, what’s in the supplement? If it’s not the HCG hormone, you’re probably wondering what is in the supplement.
The main ingredients in HCG Complex include a range of amino acids and natural extracts. The full list is: L-Glutamine, L-Tyrosine0, L-Arginine, Beta-Alanine, L-Carnitine, L-Ornithine, L-Tryptophan, Chromium Picolinate, Monoammonium Glycyrrhizinate, GABA, Raspberry Ketones, Irvingia Gabonensis (African Mango) Extract, Coleus Forskohlii Root Extract, Camellia Sinensis (Green Tea) Extract, Panax Ginseng Extract, Guarana Extract, Lepidium Meyenii (Maca) Root Extract, Astragalus Membranaceus Root Extract, Gymnema Sylvestre Leaf Extract,Vitis Vinifera (Grape Seed) Extract, Fucoxanthin Extract, Eleutherococcus Root Extract, Capsicum Annum Extract and Citrus Paradisi (Grapefruit) Seed Extract.
This powerhouse list of ingredients probably includes at least a few names you know. Combined, these substances can help the body burn fat and preserve muscle. For example, L-Glutamine, one of the main ingredients in the complex, is known for promoting muscle growth and minimizing muscle waste, improving metabolism and reducing cravings for sugar and alcohol. All of these are great for weight loss because, ideally, when losing weight you lose mostly fat. Muscle is lean, and necessary for the body, but fat in excess is the villain. By preserving muscle, you’ll appear leaner and your weight loss will focus on fat.
Other ingredients include many other amino acids such as L-Tyrosineo, L-Arginine, Beta-Alanine, L-Carnitine, L-Ornithine and L-Tryptophan. Amino acids play a fundamental part in building proteins. Among the remaining ingredients, natural extracts that are known to promote weight loss play a major role.
Raspberry ketones (which actually don’t actually come from raspberries!) have drawn interest for weight loss due to a study that shows they may help improve your metabolism. Green tea extract contains caffeine which can be a positive factor in weight loss. The extract is also known for its use as a weight loss supplement. Ginseng may help fight diabetes, an indicator that it helps regulate blood sugar. By improving and stabilizing blood sugar, weight loss can also be facilitated by avoiding the sugar high and crash cycle that often spurs weight gain. The remaining slew of natural ingredients also help boost energy and promote weight loss.
You’ll also see a few other ingredients that aren’t natural extracts or amino acids. One example is Chronium Picolinate, which is known to be useful in treating diabetes and may also promote weight loss. This mineral may also help reduce cholesterol and blood fats, which is a great added bonus. GABA, another ingredient, is actually a naturally occurring neurotransmitter used in the brain. When your levels of GABA are too low, you might experience anxiety and chronic pain. Taking GABA may improve your mood (which might help you curb hunger), improve your sleep and burn fat.
This powerful combination of ingredients work on several fronts to help you lose weight. As you can see, some ingredients actively help you lose weight, while others curb your appetite and yet others boost your metabolism. Other ingredients help target fat loss while retaining lean muscle, helping you achieve healthier, more effective weight loss.
What does the HCG Complex Program Involve?
Phase 1: 2 Days
In phase 1, you’ll begin taking your HCG Complex drops. The recommended dose is 10 drops 3 times a day. To take the drops, you’ll place them under your tongue and wait about a minute before swallowing. You also need fast for 30 minutes before and after taking the drops (no drinks either!).
The best part of phase 1? They’re binge days! During these two days, you can eat as much as you want of whatever you want. Also known as “loading days”, these two days of no-restrictions eating help prepare you mentally and physically for the strict upcoming diet.
Phase 2: Low-Calorie Diet
This is the part that requires discipline. During this phase, you’ll continue to take your drops everyday as normal, but you’ll also follow a strict diet.
Depending on whether you’re following the shorter or longer diet, your time in this phase will vary. If you’re on the 43 day plan, you’ll follow the diet from day 3-21. For dieters following the 63 day plan, you’ll have to stick out the diet from day 3-42.
The original HCG diet protocol created by Dr. Simeons was based on a 500-calorie a day diet. However, this may be a bit extreme for even the most ambitious dieters. If you don’t think you can handle such a restrictive, minuscule daily allowance, the HCG Complex also offers 800 and 1200-calorie a day diet plans. No matter what calorie amounts you decide to go with, you must follow the approved list of foods and some basic guidelines.
Here are your guidelines for dieting:
- The only beverages allowed are water, tea and coffee – no sugar, milk, or honey!
- Drink plenty of water, aim for 2 liters per day.
- If following the 500 calorie diet, eat 2 meals a day and 1 snack.
- If following the 800 calorie diet, eat 3 meals a day and 1 snack.
- If following the 1200 calorie diet, eat 5 small meals and 2 snacks.
- When cooking, you may use fresh herbs, but no salt, sugar, oil, butter or dressings. It’s best to boil or grill all foods that require cooking.
- A recommended snack is a piece of melba toast.
Those are the basic guidelines, but there’s more. You also have to be careful about how your create your meals and the combinations of foods you consume. Since you’ll be picking your foods from the list of approved foods, you’re responsible for making sure that your meals add up to the correct amount of calories. You’re also responsible for using the appropriate combinations of foods to achieve the best results. That said, here are the guidelines:
- Eat 2 proteins every day and eat them separately. Don’t eat red meat or tuna more than 3 times a week.
- Choose 2 fruits to eat each day. But, don’t eat your fruit with your proteins. It’s best to eat them as snacks.
- Have 2 vegetables each day. You may mix veggies.
The Approved Foods
Now we’ll get into the specifics. Here’s the approved food list that you can choose from for the diet. For your convenience, I’ve added in the approximate number of calories you can expect to consume for each serving.
Proteins- 100 grams or 4 oz weighed raw:
- beef (lean, 250 calories)
- buffalo (150 calories)
- chicken breast (no bone or skin, 200 calories)
- cottage cheese (use sparingly, 100 calories)
- crab (100 calories)
- venison (160 calories)
- elk (110 calories)
- egg (use sparingly, 150 calories)
- lobster (90 calories)
- shrimp (100 calories)
- tuna (in water, 120 calories)
- veal (200 calories)
- wild Chilean sea bass (150 calories)
- wild flounder (90 calories)
- wild sole (90 calories)
- wild halibut (110 calories)
Vegetables – 2 cups unless otherwise indicated:
- asparagus (80 calories boiled)
- beet greens (80 calories boiled)
- cabbage (35 calories raw)
- celery (30 calories raw)
- chard (15 calories raw)
- chicory greens (15 calories raw)
- cucumbers (30 calories sliced)
- fennel (1.5 cups, 40 calories sliced)
- lettuce (10 calories)
- onions (1 cup, 90 calories cooked)
- red radishes (35 calories)
- spinach (15 calories raw)
- tomatoes (1 cup, 30 calories raw)
Fruit:
- 1 apple (95 calories)
- 1/2 grapefruit (50 calories)
- 1 orange (45 calories)
- 10 strawberries (40 calories)
Keep in mind when creating your meals that calories vary some depending on the cut of meat, the size of your fruit, whether you eat the vegetables raw or cooked and how finely you chop your vegetables.
Phase 3: Stabilization: 3 weeks
In this phase, you’ll stop taking your HCG Complex drops, but you’ll continue with the diet from phase 2 for another 3 days. Then, you’ll slowly begin to increase your calories while still avoiding sugars and carbohydrates such as those found in foods like bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, crackers, etc. During this time you should also limit consumption of dairy. The HCG Complex website also recommends taking a supplement known as Razburn during this phase.
Once you reach day 43 or 63, you’ve reached the end of your diet! You should now be eating about 1200-1400 calories per day.
Life After the HCG Complex Diet
Many people wonder what they should do after completing the diet? How can you make sure the weight stays off? By leading a healthy lifestyle including exercise and healthy eating habits, you can maintain your weight loss. You can of course include carbohydrates in your diet again, but focus on whole grains and try to limit your consumption of this food group.
What if you want to lose more weight?
Another round of the HCG Complex diet is a great way to continue to advance towards your weight loss goals. It’s best if you wait a few weeks to a month between rounds of dieting. This allows your body to recover from such an extreme diet. It’s also possible that using the drops for a longer period of time could reduce their effectiveness.
How Much Weight Can You Lose on the Plan?
J. Kelley reports losing an astonishing 141 pounds on the diet. This, over several rounds of completing the diet.
Marcie B. says that she has struggled over the years to lose weight, trying every fad diet in sight. However, with HCG Complex, she finally had success. Losing over 165 pounds total, she claims the diet really worked for her. Marcie was able to lose the weight and keep it off, something she had never been able to achieve before. While on the diet, Marcie says she felt great and had plenty of energy.
Barbara reports that she lost 20 pounds within 40 days. At first, she lost up to 2 pounds a day, but things slowed down further into the diet. The best part about the diet? Barbara says it was easy to follow and she didn’t feel like she was constantly counting calories. Whats more, she notes that she didn’t feel hungry.
Check out this personal review of the product. Within 23 days, the user lost 20 pounds, and lost 30 pounds overall.
As you can see, the testimonials point towards very positive results. Your results will likely depend on how much weight you’d like to lose, your eating habits prior to going on the diet, how many calories you choose to consume in phase 2 and other factors.
A Comparison to Other Popular Weight Loss Plans
Let’s face it, there are numerous weight loss plans out there. Why should you choose HCG Complex? How does it stack up against results users obtain through supplements like forskolin or garcinia cambogia?
Here’s a quick comparison of these three powerful weight loss supplements:
Feature HCG Complex Forskolin Garcinia Cambogia
Burns Fat Over Muscle Yes Yes Yes
Diet Plan Yes No No
Boosts Metabolism Yes Yes Yes
Reduces Hunger Yes No Yes
Helps Regulate Blood Sugar Yes Yes No
Negative Side Effects None Known Yes Yes
Effective for Weight Loss Yes Yes Yes
These three supplements are all powerful weight loss aids that offer impressive results and the support of many customers. As you can see, in many ways, the supplements are similar.
There are, however some important differences. While all three help with weight loss, you can see that garcinia cambogia and forskolin don’t require or provide a specific diet plan, although it’s recommended you eat a healthy diet. If you need direction with your diet, HCG Complex offers this support. In addition, HCG has no known negative side effects, while the other two supplements do.
Any of these weight loss supplements may help you achieve the results you’re hoping for, but it’s important to research each one carefully and discuss your plans with your doctor to come to the best conclusion.
Side Effects: What Can Go Wrong with HCG Complex?
BioSource Labs claims there are no known side effects associated with their supplement, HCG Complex. However, you should always check the ingredient list carefully to ensure that you don’t have any allergies to the components listed. In addition, if you’re taking any medications, you may want to check with your doctor to make sure there won’t be any negative interactions.
In addition to the drops, it’s also important to consider the diet. If you follow the strict 500 calorie diet which lacks carbohydrates, you may find yourself feeling light-headed or weak. This is understandable since the average person at rest needs about 2000 calories a day to maintain their weight. How many calories you need depends on your daily activities, age and sex. Women need fewer calories than men, and as you age, you need fewer calories too. Taking that into account, if you want to lose weight, you should consume fewer calories than you expend, but cutting out 1500 calories is extreme. If you feel weak, you may have to abandon the diet or increase your calorie consumption, following the 800 or 1200 calorie diet.
Advantages and Disadvantages to Using HCG Complex
Just like with any product, there are advantages and disadvantages to using HCG Complex. Before you get carried away and jump in feet first, learn about the pros and cons of this product and the diet plan it promotes:
Advantages:
- HCG Complex is taken orally and is easy to take. There are no special preparations and you don’t need inject yourself as is necessary with the original HCG diet.
- There’s an easy to follow diet that helps you keep on track to lose weight.
- Ingredients include amino acids and natural extracts.
- Testimonials point toward the possibility for great results.
Disadvantages:
- There are no independent studies available proving the safety or effectiveness of HCG Complex.
- A very low calorie diet is used, which could be detrimental to your health and cause dizziness and weakness. Experts at the Center for Disease Control recommend that you make lifestyle changes and try to lose 1-2 pounds a week at most. This type of weight loss is safer, healthier and is more likely to be sustainable. To lose weight this way, you may want to consider options like the 1700-calorie diet that promote slow, steady weight loss.
If you’re enthusiastic about the HCG Complex diet, don’t get yourself down about the disadvantages. Weight loss is different for everyone. If you’ve already truly tried making changes to your lifestyle including a healthy diet and exercise with no success, you may need additional help. HCG Complex can give you that extra boost you need to make progress in your weight loss.
The Bottom Line on the HCG Complex Diet
Fast weight loss is the name of the game with the HCG Complex diet. If you follow the recommendations exactly, there’s no way you won’t lose weight within as little as 4 weeks. It won’t be easy, though. Although the HCG Complex drops can help curb hunger, it’s still a serious adjustment to limit your diet to 500, 800 or even 1200 calories. It might be worth it though, depending on your past experiences with weight loss.
The HCG Complex diet is extreme. If you haven’t yet tried changing your life style, and I mean really, earnestly tried eating well and exercising, make this your first priority. It’s much safer and will benefit your health over the long-term as well. That said, if you have tried a lifestyle change with no luck, then the HCG Complex diet could make all the difference.
What’s your experience? Tell us about your weight loss journey! Have you tried HCG Complex? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below.
