If you know anything about how HCG works, you understand that such a low calorie diet is necessary. But you also know that the presence of this remarkable hormone prevents one from wasting away, preserving muscle mass and good health despite the starvation level of calories.

Not only that but those who follow Dr. Simeons’ protocols carefully, normally feel very little in the way of hunger or deprivation.

Dr. Simeons’ Research and What It Revealed

Dr. Albert T.W. Simeons was an endocrinologist. This is the branch of medicine that deals with the system of “ductless” glands that among other functions produce hormones, proteins that are involved with intercellular communications and therefore control many of our physiological processes.

The primary function of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin, or HCG, is to protect the developing fetus during gestation. It accomplishes this in two ways:

(1)    HCG prevents the mother’s body from stealing nutrients or feeding off the fetus
(2)    it suppresses the mother’s immune system, preventing rejection

The second possibility stems from the fact that that the presence of the father’s DNA could trigger an immune response from the mother.

In pregnant women, the hormone plays a large part in maintaining the health of the fetus. While working in India during the 1930s and 1940s, Dr. Simeons determined that HCG helped prevent the mother’s system from robbing the fetus of nutrients in the event she was experiencing starvation.

While studying thyroid patients in India during the 1930s and 1940s, Dr. Simeons found that treatment with HCG injections could actually result in weight loss in these patients. He then came to some startling conclusions about the nature of obesity and fat.

The Real Causes

Dr. Simeons finally realized that there is no one single cause of obesity; rather, excess fat is the result of a number of different factors, all of which were related to genetics and evolutionary tendencies as well as the impact of agriculture on the human diet.

Agriculture changed the human diet in two ways: it introduced new foods into the human diet that had not been available previously, and the labor demands of the farm forced humans into new, unnatural patterns of eating. In the first place, humans began eating grains, legumes and dairy products that would not have been available in nature. In the second, humans were forced to abandon their earlier pattern of nibbling small amounts over the course of a day and take in large amounts at set times.

HCG, when combined with a low calorie diet, resets and restores metabolic balance, which in turn causes unwanted pounds to disappear almost effortlessly. To learn more about the physiological mechanisms involved, use the search function to find articles and posts on how HCG works with your own body’s natural tendencies instead of fighting them.

The thing is, you don’t have to be obese, or even clinically overweight, to have abnormal fat deposits.  People look at you funny when you say you want to lose weight, say you’re crazy, you’re not fat.  You understand where they’re coming from, but you also see the cellulite on the insides of your thighs, the layer of fat around your middle, so flatteringly referred to as a muffin-top.

As a woman, you’re embarrassed to wear a two-piece, but you don’t believe it boils down to self-esteem issues, and it’s definitely not an eating disorder.

As a guy, maybe you’ve got that beer belly that just won’t ever go away.  You’re in shape otherwise, good solid muscular legs, but you can’t seem to do anything about that belly.

HCG can help you out, just like it can help women with their muffin tops and cellulite.  The HCG diet is not only about losing weight. It’s about how your body distributes its fat, and whether it’s storing even small amounts when it doesn’t need to.  HCG is a natural way to teach or re-teach, perhaps your body to use, store and distribute its fat appropriately.

Dr. Simeons, who developed the original HCG diet protocol, reached the conclusion after the study of a multitude of patients that obesity was a disease, displaying symptoms like any other disease.  The most obvious of these symptoms were abnormal fat deposits in people, who weren’t, yet, overweight.  These fat deposits were areas of fat that just wouldn’t go away, no matter the amount of dieting or exercising.  Kind of like the muffin top or beer belly.

I’m not saying that you’re destined to be obese.  But HCG can help reset your metabolism before that ever becomes an issue.  Hcgdietdirect.Com can tell you how.

The fact that you have started here at HCGDietDirect.com demonstrates that you understand this. By the way, our site is an excellent source of homeopathic HCG drops as well as other fine HCG diet products in addition to the latest, up-to-date information on HCG.

Getting HCG Injections

You will also find that we operate our own weight loss clinic in Mesa, Arizona. If you prefer to have injectable HCG and live in the Phoenix metro area or can make the trip for a few weeks, you’ll receive the best treatment and have health care professionals with you every step of the way. If this is not an option for you, there are weight loss clinics that offer HCG treatments in most large cities.

In any event, if you want HCG injections, you’ll need to be under a physician’s supervision and have a prescription. Otherwise, you will need to order HCG drops. Frankly, this liquid form has been proven just as effective in helping people achieve their weight loss goals.

Choices and Options

Here at our website, you’ll find a variety of HCG diet products and services to help you in winning the proverbial “Battle of the Bulge.” This includes an on-site physician who will be glad to answer any questions or concerns you may have about this incredibly effective weight loss remedy (a nominal consultation fee applies).

You can also learn about Dr. Simeons’ work, which is the basis of the HCG program as well as the hows, whats and whys of his diet protocols. Not to mention, learn why it is perfectly safe to eat a mere 500 calories a day with no ill effects, provided you are using HCG according to the instructions.

Sometimes, the decreasing necessity for face-to-face interaction can be sad, I agree.  But sometimes, the convenience of purchasing from home via the Internet is a true relief.

Buy HCG Online is Easier
Wouldn’t it be exhausting to drive around town in search of a place to buy homeopathic HCG?  Or calling numerous places on the phone, trying to ensure you were getting the best deal, the best product for your money?  Or seeking out some doctor’s office or exclusive weight loss clinic where you could get injections at an affordable price?

Thankfully, you don’t have to do any of those things, because HCG is available in oral form online.  There is more than one company selling oral HCG online, but HCG Diet Direct’s formula is the best product for your money.  You get a unique blend of high-quality ingredients that will make you feel your best while only eating 500 calories a day.

In addition to the HCG, their formula contains natural appetite suppressants and energy enhancers.  Since HCG helps to suppress the appetite anyway, it’s likely that you’ll hardly notice your limited calorie intake.

Save More with Kits
HCG Diet Direct provides savings kits for you, whether you want to do the diet for 15 days, 26 days, or 40 days.  Their kits include recipe guides and B-vitamin supplements.  The B-vitamins are needed for energy and overall well-being, especially on the HCG diet. HCG Diet Direct provides this information as well as a multitude of other advice for dieting successfully with HCG.  They have other herbal and nutritional supplements available as well to keep you feeling your best on your journey toward health.

You can tell they truly care about their customers.  The site is friendly, supportive and informative in a way that almost makes you feel like you’re walking into your neighborhood pharmacy—the 21st Century version.

500 Calories a Day

At the heart of the Simeons’ weight loss method is a Very Low Calorie Diet (VLCD) of a mere 500 calories a day. Under normal circumstances, this is barely enough to survive.  This is not what happens on the HCG diet, however. The reason is rooted in how the body responds to starvation in a state of nature and how this response is modified by the presence of HCG.

As Nature Made Us

Due largely to our evolution – descended from forest-dwelling apes who were driven out onto the savannas of central Africa between six and eight million years ago – our human physiology was adapted in such a way as to hold on to fat stores, which are in a form known as adipose. It was a survival mechanism that came into play. However, with the rise of civilization and the invention of agriculture, normal feeding patterns were forced to change and new foods were introduced into the human diet.

According to 20th-Century endocrinologist Dr. Albert T.W. Simeons, who first developed the HCG program in the late 1940s and early 1950s, this is among the root causes of modern obesity.

What Happens

When the body senses starvation, it first responds by slowing down all metabolic processes in order to conserve energy. Next, it reaches for the most easily available source of nutrition, which unfortunately consists of lean muscle mass. Next, it will feed off the visceral structural fat that cushions the internal organs. Needless to say, this is very dangerous to good health.

According to Dr. Simeons, the excess fat that we are all trying to lose is much like old motor fuel that has been stored too long. Still very volatile, it has nonetheless solidified into a form that cannot be used in the gas tank to run the car. HCG breaks this adipose down into a form that is more readily available, and forces the hypothalamus to use this source before any others.

The Dangers of Exercise

Because of the HCG, your system is burning up calories at the maximum rate. Strenuous exercise pushes your body beyond these safe limits, and can cause severe dehydration while pushing our heart rate to dangerous levels.

This said, it is actually a good idea to engage in mild exercise, such an a daily stroll around the block in order to get oxygen to the brain – which in turn, will help to maintain a positive outlook and assist you in completing the program successfully.

The good news is that you have a lot more options than you once would have had.  HCG used to be a pretty exclusive and hard-to-get product.  You could only obtain it via injection, and this could only be accomplished at expensive, practically hidden clinics that catered to the rich and famous and left the majority of us out in the cold.

HCG Online
Now, HCG is widely available online, so as long as you have access to the Internet, you have access to buying HCG.  Internet access, too, is fairly easy to come by these days. If nothing else, you can go to the public library.

So the problem, today, is not so much finding HCG as choosing where to buy it from.  You obviously want the best deal for the best product.  You’re still a little confused about the difference between the oral form and the injections.

Oral vs Injections
Well, if you’re buying online, you’re looking for the oral form.  You can find sources of the injection form online too, but I wouldn’t trust those.  Typically, you need a prescription for the injection form, unless you order from an overseas pharmacy, a practice that seems dubious at best.  When you order from overseas, it takes at least six weeks to get your HCG, and that’s only if it makes it through customs.

The oral form doesn’t require a prescription.  While it’s always a good idea to talk to your doctor before starting any kind of diet, you don’t need his or her signature to get homeopathic oral HCG, and that just makes life a little easier, I think.  A prescription isn’t required for this form because, as a homeopathic formula taken in the recommended doses, the amount of HCG you ingest at one time is too small to be dangerous, yet enough to be effective.

Dieters who follow the Kevin Trudeau protocol will actually have four distinct phases, as Trudeau calls for a detoxifying routine prior to starting the load phase as specified by Dr. A.T.W. Simeons. You may wonder if you can actually get fast weight loss by skipping part of phase 2 of the plan, known as “loading.” Or if you are following the Trudeau protocol, you may want to skip both the detox and the loading to head straight into the VLCD (very low calorie diet) phase of the plan.

What is a “load” day?

If you are following the protocol, then you will have two days set aside before you begin the VLCD, which are called “load” days. During these two days, you are to eat as many high fat foods as you can until you are satiated. Don’t eat enough to make yourself sick, just enough fats that you are priming the pump, so to speak, for weight loss.

Even during these permissive days, the emphasis is not so much on bad fats as it is on olive oils, nut butters, and plant-based fats. After the second day of “loading,” you begin the VLCD protocol.

Why are “load” days important?

Load days are important for two major reasons. First, they allow you to indulge in all the high fat foods you wish for two days before you start the most restrictive phase of the plan. This gives dieters a healthy emotional release before heading into the more difficult, but rewarding, work ahead.

Secondly, the load days really set the stage for the VLCD to come. By loading up on fats and then severely restricting your caloric intake, your body is primed for the biochemical transformation that the hormone will make in your hypothalamus and your body.

What happens if I skip the load days?

Some dieters make the mistake of skipping load days in their haste to start the weight loss rolling on the VLCD phase of the diet. But this can actually backfire. Because loading is so important in setting the stage for the program, skipping it can cause the following issues:

• Hunger pains, even when taking the hormone and following the VLCD exactly;
• Fatigue, even when restricting exercise;
• Plateaus and stalls;
• Weight gain, in some extreme cases;
• Cheating, as dieters feel they cannot cope emotionally with the restrictions of the VLCD.

It is in your Genes: Just not how you think
Wait, so it wasn’t just the expensive personal trainers, or naturally superior genes?  Because isn’t that what it feels like sometimes, that they just got better genes than the rest of us?  We’ve all felt that frustration.  The how-can-he-or-she-possibly-still-look-so-good frustration and sometimes, despair.  The it-doesn’t-matter-what-I-do-I’ll-never-look-as-good-as-them despair.

I think the root of that despair is that while you try to tell yourself that they must be truly miserable, they must be denying themselves things, even starving themselves, you can look at them and know that’s not true.  Oh, some of them probably do starve themselves, but they’re not the ones I’m talking about.  I’m talking about the ones who are unmistakably healthy, who aren’t skeletal but who rather look toned, fit, and full of life and energy.  They have a sort of glow about them.

Look Good and Healthy
That glow, I think, is really what we all lust after.  None of us want to be skeletons. What we truly want is to be healthy, to have that life and energy, but sometimes we don’t know what name to put to it, so we say “skinny.”  You can be sick and skinny, but I would hazard a guess that that’s not a whole lot more fun than being overweight.

In this time and place, though, with our supermarkets so full of prepackaged and processed foods that it’s a chore to hunt for the healthy stuff. With fast-food joints on every corner, it’s hard to know how to achieve that healthy glow.  So I’ll give you a hint:  HCG.  The HCG diet isn’t effortless, but if health is something you want, it can help you attain it in its true, glowing form.

There is nothing wrong with taking HCG injections of course – provided that you are getting these from a doctor who is qualified to do so. It is also best to have this done through a licensed HCG clinic.

HCG Kits From Overseas – Not a Good Idea

The last thirty years has seen a wholesale export of U.S. industry to low-wage countries in the name of “profits” and “cheap goods.” As shoddy, poorly-made products flood U.S. markets however, this has turned bitter in the mouths of consumers whose jobs have disappeared and are left with items that are of low-quality and likely to wear out after a year.

Likewise, HCG made overseas is very likely to be of poor quality – and may not be HCG at all. If it is, it may be expired or even tainted in some way that could threaten your health. The reason is that the labs that manufacture HCG in most foreign countries are not regulated in any way. In many cases, it is made in someone’s back bedroom or basement.

A fair number of these websites are outright scam operations as well. There are many people who sent in their money and received nothing in return. It is usually impossible to get your money back from these “fly-by-night” operations.

Finally, there is the issue of the injections. Many patients – mainly Type I diabetics – learn to inject themselves. It is still painful, however, and besides – you legally need a prescription from a licensed physician in order to possess needle syringes.

Oral HCG Drops – A Better Alternative

You will definitely pay more for homeopathic HCG, but the added cost is worth it in terms of peace of mind and the assurance that you are getting full value for your money. This means that you are receiving a product that will do what it is supposed to do in terms of aiding your weight loss efforts on the 500-calorie diet.

Homeopathic HCG is made in the U.S. at licensed laboratories that must meet stringent requirements in terms of who is allowed to work there and meeting product quality standards.

Check Carefully

Regardless of where you buy HCG, it makes sense to investigate your sources. Examine the company’s website carefully. Is there -

• an actual, physical address (and not just a P.O. box)?
• a phone number where you can speak with a real, live human being?
• a Better Business Bureau Online seal and does this link take you to a website where you can check out the company’s ratings?
• an e-mail address consistent with the website address?

If so, chances are good that it is a reliable company.

It may also be worth your while to check out some online HCG forums and find out what other users of this remedy have to say.

HCG = Human Chorionic Gonadotropin
Actually, it’s HCG, and the “H” does stand for “human,” but it’s no virus, and it’s definitely not a bad thing.  Its human chorionic gonadotropin, and it’s a hormone that works with the hypothalamus gland to regulate body fat and emotions, among other things.  HCG is actually the hormone produced by women’s bodies when they’re pregnant.

A Pregnancy Hormone to Lose Weight
So…wait…it’s the pregnancy hormone, and yet somehow people are using it to lose weight?  Well, strange as it may sound, yes.  First, it’s important to understand that while HCG is produced by pregnant women, it’s found in all of our bodies, female or male, when we’re born.  It’s just that we only have a limited supply to last us a lifetime, and that supply gets used up pretty quickly in this day and age due to our dietary habits, all of those chemicals and processed foods.

HCG Diet Direct, the company you’ve heard of, sells a homeopathic oral form of HCG.  It’s also available in injections, but those are more expensive, harder to come by, and no more effective in spite of the extra trouble.  The oral HCG is all natural, completely safe, will not react with other medications, and will not, in the small percentage contained in the doses of the homeopathic formula, mimic pregnancy.

Really, you can think of HCG as primarily a regulatory agent.  In pregnant women, it helps with the appropriate distribution of nutrition and fat between mother and fetus.  In the rest of us, it helps with the appropriate usage, storage, and distribution of necessary fat.  Learn more about HCG by browsing the article base and blogs.