What is HCG weight loss?

OK here comes the science:

"Human chorionic gonadotropin (American English) or Human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) is a glycoprotein hormone produced in pregnancy that is made by the developing embryo soon after conception and later by the syncytiotrophoblast (part of the placenta). Its role is to prevent the disintegration of the corpus luteum of the ovary and thereby maintain progesterone production that is critical for a pregnancy in humans. hCG may have additional functions; for instance, it is thought that hCG affects the immune tolerance of the pregnancy. Early pregnancy testing, in general, is based on the detection or measurement of hCG. Because hCG is produced also by some kinds of tumor, hCG is an important tumor marker, but it is not known whether this production is a contributing cause or an effect of tumorigenesis."

And about the development of the weight loss diet:

"A controversial usage of hCG is as an adjunct to the British endocrinologist A.T.W. Simeons' ultra-low-calorie weight-loss diet. Simeons, while studying pregnant women in India on a calorie-deficient diet, and “fat boys” with pituitary problems treated with low-dose hCG, discovered that both lost fat rather than lean (muscle) tissue. He reasoned that hCG must be programming the hypothalamus to do this in the former cases in order to protect the developing fetus by promoting mobilization and consumption of abnormal, excessive adipose deposits.

Simeons, practicing at Salvator Mundi International Hospital in Rome, Italy, recommended low-dose daily hCG injections (125 mg) in combination with a customized ultra-low-calorie (500 cal/day, high-protein, low-carbohydrate/fat) diet loss of adipose tissue without loss of lean tissue.

After Simeons’ mysterious death, the diet started to spread to specialized centers and via popularization by such as the controversial author Kevin Trudeau."

""The controversy proceeds from warnings by the Journal of the American Medical Association and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that hCG is neither safe,nor effective as a weight-loss aid."

[source: Wikipedia]

The fact that Kevin Trudeau wrote a book about this in which he embellished the original idea with enough new and unproven material to make it a sensational best-seller, is enough to warn you off if nothing else does. The man is a convicted felon who is currently prohibited by law from following some of his activities.

However, the original plan as laid down by Dr. Simeon is widely available and can be downloaded here as a PDF file:

www.hcgprotocol.com/pandi.pdf

And good luck making your way through that one. Pretty much everything else is trading off the claims made by Trudeau in his book, and you should probably ignore it to the same extent that you ignore other "lose 1lb a day" promotions.

Not having first-hand experience of this, I can't comment much but there are some potentially useful comments in the top reviews of the Trudeau book on Amazon, take a look here: http://bit.ly/cpQ41e

This is one I think you have to make up your own mind about - but it's definitely not the easiest diet plan and it's not for everyone, that much I think you'll see after just a little bit of reading.