HCG diets today are primarily based on the research of British endocrinologist Dr. Albert T. Simeons, who worked in India between 1931 and 1949. However, the origins of the HCG program actually goes back a few years before that.
A Remarkable Year
1927 was a banner year in terms of significant events. The biggest event was Charles Lindbergh’s solo flight from New York to Paris, but there were many others. Only a few weeks earlier, an inventor named Philo Farnsworth successfully transmitted the first television picture, though it would be over twenty years before his invention became practical.
Earlier that year, the first transatlantic phone call was successfully placed between New York and London. Later that fall, The Jazz Singer, which was the first film to feature sound, was released in the U.S. Two months later, the first “modern” Broadway musical, Show Boat, opened its two-year run in New York City. It was also in 1927 that the population of the world reached two billion.
That same year, an important medical discovery was made, though it did not make the headlines: medical researchers discovered that the urine of pregnant women contained a biochemical that was not present at other times. The test for Human Chorionic Gonadotropin was the first reliable pregnancy test, and is still used in this capacity.
What HCG Does
Like all hormones that regulates bodily at the cellular level, HCG is a type of biochemical “messenger.” Essentially, HCG protects the fetus during the early months of gestation, making sure it receives sufficient nutrients (regardless of what happens to the mother) and suppressing the mother’s immune system should her antibodies attack the father’s DNA as a “foreign” pathogen. Significantly, HCG levels are at their highest during the first trimester, when a woman is least likely to be aware of her pregnancy (and therefore probably not likely to eat properly).
In addition, HCG affects the development of the reproductive system. Because it is “gonadotrophic,” it can be used to treat boys who experience delayed puberty due to pituitary dysfunction. It is also a common fertility treatment that can increase the production of sperm in men and eggs in women.
Dr. Simeons noted that when overweight patients with pituitary dysfunction were given small amounts of HCG, they could be put on a restricted calorie diet without suffering feelings of extreme hunger and deprivation.
How HCG Diets Work
According to Dr. Simeons’ protocols, when the patient starts taking HCG injections, s/he is to eat as much high-fat food as possible for the first two to three days. The reasons are twofold:
1.) It takes up to 72 hours for HCG to start working
2.) It “kick-starts” the metabolism, giving it momentum
After the second or third day, the patient is restricted to an ultra-low calorie diet of no more than 500 calories a day. By this time, HCG in the system is breaking down stored fat accumulations, allowing the body to obtain the additional 1,000 – 1,500 calories required for normal metabolism from this source.
This is how people are able to lose one or even two pounds a day on the HCG diet.