No scientific support for any purported benefit. It's just ultralow calories with what amounts to be placebo.

I understand the frustration lots of people have with questions like "Is this paleo" or "Is that paleo", to the point that the concept of something being paleo or not is anathema to them, but injecting pregnancy hormones in an attempt to lose weight is about as far from what the paleo community is about as I can imagine.

If it was shown that eating Doritos and Mountain Dew all day reset your body's leptin sensitivity, then great, but wouldn't that be well outside the subject this board is meant to serve?

I don't think hcg seems like a good diet, & agree that it seems like starvation, and I also don't think it has anything to do with ancestral diets. I agree with trjones that it's outside the scope of this site.

Can't get scientific support if you don't do a proper study. hcg is a hormone, as is insulin, grehlin, leptin, thyroid, estrogen, testosterone, etc... One thing we do know now, is that obesity effects hormone levels and hormone levels affect adipose levels.

I know hundreds from the hcg dieter forum who have lost weight using hcg, not always sublingualy, sometimes with injections. The "diet" portion of it is very strict, ultra low calorie, no processed foods and therefore has proven to be an excellent springboard for many to a healthier lifestyle. The hcg dieter community has members who have lost up to 200 lbs through this method. Although, we've had at least two members who were on doctor prescribed hcg not for weight loss, but because they weren't producing the proper testosterone levels. Before hcg, they were round and soft, afterwards they were lean and muscular.

My take on it is that it matters not what someone else thinks of it, rather, what are the actual results? I know from first and second hand experience, that it works. It takes a huge commitment, motivation and lifestyle change to do it, something those of us with 50 to 150 lbs to lose have been accused of lacking. It's nice to prove that is not the case.

I'm puzzled by the number of Leptin Resetters who've used HCG. They've all lost bonkers amounts of weight according to testimony, and yet how does a 500 cal/day protocol work when Kruse contends that IF is counterproductive? You almost have to be IF to do HCG ... unless you're not eating enough to elicit a "fed" response at all I suppose. In any case, NOW they need to reset their leptin? I don't get it.

I suppose Jack welcoming them into the fold might explain the influx of HCG'ers with miraculous Leptin Reset testimonials: http://jackkruse.com/what-should-hcgpaleo-users-consider-as-adjuncts/

This blog is not about to discuss whether or not the diet is “total WOO WOO” or not. As a practicing physician, my job is to take care of patients with what they bring to me as they walk through my clinic door. Many of my own patients in Nashville have confided to me that they too decided to give HCG a whirl before they came to see me. In fact , one of my family members, who is a healthcare practioner, now works with a group of physicians who use the HCG diet in their practice. I get many questions from that group of physicians as well. I get asked tons of questions by the lay public and my referral docs about the diet and what I think about it. Recently, I even spoke to a group of ICU nurses in a local hospital about the diet’s pro’s and con’s. My job as a physician is to listen to my patients and then treat them in the best fashion possible. When a person comes to me overweight or with a smoking history I do not ostracize them and refuse to treat them because they maybe impacting their health in a detrimental way. I look at HCG in the same light. People who opt for HCG have usually struggled with obesity and body composition issues for a long time. They want help and are ready to change. These characteristics make them favorite patients because they are ready for real change to occur.

Sounds like HCG is a little like being a smoker ... e.g. not good for you.

I was all set to go to a renowned hormonal doc in NYC until I saw her on TV discussing this diet and going into the supposed hormonal workings of it. Canceled as soon as the office opened.

Having lost a bunch on HCG I can respond to why we might "need to reset" after losing weight. You see, most of us who use it to lose "copious amounts" were Leptin Resistant prior to using HCG and this is a primary reason we gained, we are discovering by studying Dr. Kruse's blog. Losing weight doesn't change that and losing weight, alone, is not what the reset is about. It's about becoming healthy for the first time in our lives.

You can be uderweight and be Leptin Resistant.

As Dr. Jack teaches with intense biochemistry detail, each organ in our body has Leptin receptors. If those cells are resistant then those organs don't function well. That opens the door to all manner of disease.

When we lose while on HCG, all is well and we are very happy; but many have difficulty keeping the weight off after the loss without extreme low carb eating and living without even good Paleo food starches. For some, that doesn't even work well. The Leptin RX is fixing that problem for many of us! It's real!

BTW, you can be "leptin deficient" or have lots of leptin in your body as shown by labs, but that is meaningless. If you are "resistant" your body won't use any amount of the Leptin to unlock the receptors to keep your metabolism running correctly and let your hormones convert what they are required to convert for optimal living.

And, if a a morbidly obese person losing weight (which is what happens for everyone I've known who do the protocol correctly) is bad for you, then you are right: HCG is bad for you!

It is definitely reasonable to question the protocols of the HCG Diet per se. Even so, HCG has known fat-mobilizing agency so I wonder whether it might be a useful adjunct in fat loss diets with higher caloric values and exercise. For instance, HCG to facilitate a cutting IF diet? Still, it would be hard to know for sure about HCG impact, how to separate from other variables.

For sure, Nature ensures that gaining fat is easier than losing fat. Being and/or looking "lean" didn't have much survival value.