I tried HCG and lost weight, I also lost some of my hair, messed up my digestive system and I almost stabbed my fiance’ with a fork at Cracker Barrel over a biscuit with butter. The 10lbs I lost was sooo not worth it. I started Weight Watchers and I’ve lost more weight with this program, but I am now looking at leaving the crutches behind. I know how to eat better, it was just easier to eat the wrong thing. Love the site and I’m having great fun exploring it. Also I did the diet with four other women. All of them have gained the weight back.

It took 3 years to gain it all back… The point here is with the HCG “you don’t have to exercise”. That should have been a HUGE clue for me. I thank you for letting me speak .

I look forward to your blogs every single day. You are truly an inspiration to know you can lose that much naturally and in that amount of time. You give such hope and I’ll keep you posted sis.

Thank you again for a wonderful blog. I have passed it along to some good friends.

The cost is much too high, you gained NINETY pounds after coming down off the diet, and you’re back exactly where you started… only now, you’re short $3,000 dollars, too.

It’s so ridiculous to me – injecting yourself with synthetic chemicals and eating 500 calories a day. You’re GOING to lose weight. I lost 100lbs in approximately 10 months, too, without injecting some foreign substance in my body, too. Really.. it’s very rare that I chastise things this toughly, but this one just takes the cake on the level of ludicrousness. I just can’t even start with this one.

Brandi, thank you so much for sharing your story and I DO hope you stick around and can gather some tidbits to help you in your every day life… because if I can prevent ONE person from going back to this silly farcical scam diet, I feel like I’ve lived out my purpose in life. Jeez.

Editors’ Note: Hi, Rhea! When you can match my studies with studies, then we can talk. As the rules dictate, anecdotal evidence doesn’t work around here.

Have a wonderful day!

Lydia, as for your second comment.. your results are not due to hcg. I’m sorry. Have a lovely day.

The bottom line with your list of descriptions in regards to your “experience” is that you, apparently, DID have bad eating habits. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have put the weight on the way you did in the first place. I’m sorry, looking at the information you gave me here as well as on the side, I can see that clearly. Raw lifestyle with meat (?) aside, you were doing something wrong.

This isn’t about age, and I refuse to let you introduce that into the equation as if it’s a means of discrediting my stance and my research. Scientific studies have proved over and over and over again that hcg works no better than your typical placebo! Your “success” is due to a 500 calorie diet. Not a miracle drug. This isn’t a rant. It is a stance based off of scientific studies that I compiled. What more is it going to take for you to stop crediting a drug you barely understand (I KNOW you barely understand it because scientists barely understand it… can’t tell what it does in the body, just knows what it does NOT do) with your weight loss?

I would NEVER recommend something as nebulous as hcg to any woman I loved. My mother suffered from high blood pressure and high cholesterol (common in many Black women her age… hell, it’s common in Black women MY age), and I personally assisted her in becoming healthier and more fit. We did that together with walking every day and changing her eating habits.

Lastly, I am happy – really, I am – that your 500 calorie diet has worked for you. However, I know it’s simply not real. And even if it were, by some strange stretch of the imagination? As I told you via e-mail, I will never endorse or condone any method for weight loss that costs one pink penny. Ever. Weight loss is free, and can easily be done in the comfort of one’s own home. I will never use this blog to condone laziness on the part of the person struggling with weight, because allowing a woman to maintain a lazy demeanor while still “losing weight” only practically ENSURES that she will gain it back. 50 isn’t “too old” to get a handle on that. The man who first encouraged me to set out on my OWN fitness journey, no matter how fat I was? He was 61.

Thank you very much for the compliments, though! Even though we thoroughly disagree on this, I appreciate them and your ability to still give them.

At your age, you are right to pursue and encourage others to rebalance themselves in a long term way of healthy eating, and lifestyle.

May I suggest though that in some cases, maybe if your mother or grandmother is at high risk with diabetes, that there is another way. Rants are great – just realize that if someone you love is suffering greatly – this is not a scam – it is another alternative for which I am grateful each day. Many are helping others for free as they also are so grateful.

I am actually healthier with my hormones now as this approach specifically offers the body a rest.

Love you energy, love the picture and truly wish you well in your life

IMO, it makes ZERO sense to take HCG and do the proper things. It’s a waste of money and it is a serious mindf@ck. Tricking yourself into dependency. It’s a crutch and that’s all I’m going to say about that. Great article and great response Erika.

The hCG is a scam. You don’t need a shot in your ass to lose weight off of a 500 calorie a day diet. I’ve already listed clinical studies that show that it has yet to be seen that hCG can do anything for metabolism OR weight loss in general.

A consistently easy way to lose weight and keep it off would be changing one’s eating habits and taking advantage of a healthily active life, not a quick crash-and-burn diet. Calling it a “medical protocol” absolutely does not change what it is – it is 500 calories a day. Clearly, you don’t intend to continue it on for the rest of your life. It is an extremely low-calorie diet. No “medical professional” worth their degree (if their degree is worth anything) will OK that.

Will power isn’t about “superhuman strength.” It is a muscle – much like the ones in our bodies – that has to be used in order to gain strength. If you can’t control your eating habits, what is a shot in your ass going to do for you? What is 500 calories a day going to do for you? You can’t control the thing that is causing you to gain/keep the weight in the first place! I’m sorry, I wholeheartedly reject the notion that the hcg works, or is actually beneficial for long-term weight resolution.

Best of luck to you, though, and thank you for stopping by!