The HCG diet is hands down the most popular and doctor recommended treatment for obesity in the world today.  It’s easy to see why this is the case once you take a long hard look at many of the studies surrounding its use.  Many researchers for several decades have investigated the use of this hormone and its impact on user’s ability to lose weight and stay healthy.  The results are quite promising indeed.  On average users of HCG lost 20 to 30 pounds per month of use, while also strictly following the protocol.  However, if someone just followed the protocol for dieting without the hormone they lost around 25% this level (or one fourth as much total weight).  For this reason it’s being prescribed all over the world by physicians to help people combat their appetite, increase metabolism and help them reach their desired weight.

Traditionally HCG is administered to patients via daily injections.  This is a highly effective method for delivery, but is fraught with issues for the user.  Many people experience considerable pain and discomfort during injections, as they must do it regularly which can be difficult.  Typically this injection is not administered via a doctor, but instead yourself.  In addition, it’s very expensive to do this (beyond the costs of the injection kits).  HCG purified from your doctor and regular checkups often run in the mid hundreds of dollars a regimen.  A regimen of 44 days often costs $500 to $1000.  This is difficult for many people to manage, as it’s almost never covered by insurance.  As a result, people often cannot afford daily injections.  A popular alternative that many people now use daily is HCG drops.  These drops are placed under the user’s tongue and absorbed directly into the body that way.  This can be a much cheaper, but equally effective way to take the hormone.  This is not without obstacles as well, unfortunately.

Selecting an HCG Drops Product: Homeopathic or Real HCG

Many people probably first stumble across homeopathic or “hormone-free” products when they begin to search for HCG diet drops.  However, these products do not typically contain any of the real hormone.  If they do, it’s just a few molecules.  Typically for injections you would receive well over 5000 IUs of the hormone (international units) over a regimen.  So do these products actually work?  Unsurprisingly to most you actually need the real HCG hormone in order to receive the results on this diet.  There’s no such thing as “imitation” or substitute forms of the hormone out there.  You need to take at least 150 IUs a day, as the studies have clearly demonstrated, to see the 1-2 pounds per day of weight loss.

There’s a huge difference in results when a person takes homeopathic (just another term for a highly diluted substance) when compared to real and pure HCG drops.  As an example, a person who is taking homeopathic HCG may receive a single molecule of the hormone from a dosage.  However, this is so little that it cannot even be measured by any tests, let alone used by your body.  You need a certain dosage for this to work.  If you do, the average weight loss for a full regimen is around 30 to 40 pounds.  Without it, you probably won’t lose over 20 pounds.

Identifying pure HCG can be a challenge, but it’s certainly possible.  Real HCG always requires refrigeration, and should have a finite shelf life, usually only a few weeks to a few months.  Good suppliers can extend this to around 90 days (if opened and refrigerated) but this is the maximum.  If you see a product that claims to last “3 months” it definitely isn’t real.  In addition things like the dosage specified, or other factors should be clearly indicated.  It should be listed in IUs or milligrams of purified powder otherwise it’s fake.  Many retailers market them as “3x, 6x” or some other made up value.  These products are not real.   While it’s certainly true that HCG works for weight loss and provides much in the way of results, it’s important to remember to get the real deal, and not one of these imitations.