Don’t get me wrong:  it’s not that promoters of the HCG diet don’t like exercise or don’t think it’s beneficial to the body.  That couldn’t be further from the truth.  We’re all about exercise to maintain the success that you’ll most likely achieve with the diet. It’s just that exercise is not how the HCG diet works—in fact, heavy exercise in conjunction with the HCG plan can have adverse effects like loss of bone density and muscle mass.

Why is this?  The HCG diet involves supplements of HCG, the hormone Human Chorio Gonadotropin, along with a low-calorie diet.  The reason this works better than a low-calorie diet on its own is that if you’re just taking in fewer calories, your body will start storing fat.  HCG works by programming your body to burn fat rather than store it.  You don’t feel like you’re starving because you’re not—you’re using your reserves.

However, if you start exercising a lot, your body will start to starve—or at least your body will think it’s starving.  It’ll go into SOS mode and revert to storing fat, but because not enough calories are being consumed to replace those lost in exercise, the body will go to the next source:  its own muscle and bone.  Which I probably don’t have to tell you is a bad idea!

A little exercise is okay, if you’re an exercise junkie and just can’t go without—but you should limit yourself to a 20-minute walk, or a few sit-ups.  On this diet, exercise isn’t needed to burn calories.  Once the weight is off and your brain and your body have been reprogrammed in the concepts of portion control and using stored fat for energy (respectively), you can return to the gym to help keep up with the healthy new you.