hCG: Miracle diet or unreliable weight-loss craze?

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SALT LAKE CITY — Many claim hCG a miracle diet: It curbs hunger and the weight just falls off. But as it continues to grow in popularity, some doctors don't think it does anything to assist in weight loss.

hCG dieters seeing positive results

For Nina Morgan, the draw of a quick, easy way to shed weight was too good to pass up.

"(I) wanted a good boost before the holidays and had talked to a friend that had success with it," Morgan said.

She found a local clinic that offered hCG, a hormone produced during pregnancy. Recently, it's sky rocketed in popularity — not to assist with reproduction, but with weight loss.

"You could lose a pound or two pounds every day," Morgan said.

She signed up and faithfully injected herself daily with hCG, along with eating only 500 calories a day. She says she wasn't hungry because the hCG had curbed her appetite, and off the weight came.

"The first time I probably lost 28 to 30 pounds," Morgan said. "The second time I didn't finish. I was too deprived of food. I wanted what I wanted."

Yes, Morgan has done the hCG diet more than once. After losing weight, she gained it all back. The second time, she ordered hCG shots online. She admits she doesn't really know where they came from, and she didn't stick to the diet.

"I have gained a lot back, and it's not fun," Morgan said.

She swears hCG works, and she's far from the only one.

"It was shy of amazing, initially, at the amount of weight loss people were able to lose if they followed the program closely," said Dr. Vaughn Johnson.

Those results have drawn thousands upon thousands of people to the hCG diet. Johnson is a family physician who has prescribed hCG to some of his patients, including Rachelle Bowlingbroke.

"It's awesome," she said.

Bowlingbroke says nothing else worked until she started hCG. Then the pounds seemed to melt away. "Thirty-three and a half pounds, so it's pretty exciting," she said.

Women like Bowlingbroke and Morgan are lining up at doctors' offices and weight-loss clinics across the country. It costs upward of $1,000 a month for a consultation and a supply of the hormone.

While it's certainly spiked in popularity, hCG isn't new. More than 50 years ago, a doctor at a Roman clinic began promoting hCG as a dieting aid.

Some doctors warn against hCG diet

But there is little scientific evidence that the hormone does anything to promote weight loss. The injections are combined with a near-starvation diet. But Johnson says while he was skeptical at first, he's now a believer.

"I've seen people reduce their calories dramatically without hCG and they do not get the same type of results as if they do reduce their calories and incorporate hCG into that program," Johnson said.

But not all doctors agree. Dr. Brandon Reynolds is an OB-GYN who says he doesn't think the hormone does anything to assist in weight loss.

"I would say it's a placebo effect," Reynolds said.

He says studies have shown it's someone's mind not a hormone injection that suppresses hunger.

"Whether you use sodium chloride, a placebo, or use the hCG as the injection, you had the same outcome," Reynolds said.

He also believes introducing hCG into someone's system in hopes of shedding some weight could be dangerous. The balance of human hormones is a delicate one, he says.

"You don't have evidence to say either way whether it's safe. You could potentially mask things like ovarian cancer, testicular cancer," Reynolds said. "In most of these cases where you find out that hormones have unwanted effects or complications, you don't find that out for five or 10 years down the road.

In January, the FDA warned that "homeopathic" forms of hCG — like drops and sprays sold over the Internet, and in some health food stores — are fraudulent and illegal if they claim weight-loss powers.

While the injectable version of hCG is legal if prescribed by a doctor, the FDA requires distributors warn users that it hasn't been shown to increase weight loss, to cause a more attractive distribution of fat or decrease hunger. Yet, it's as popular as ever.

"In America, we want the magic pill. We want something that is going to help us achieve the goal as quick and easy as we want," Reynolds said.

Morgan says that's exactly what drew her to hCG, and she is willing to do it a third time. "I would probably try it again because I am ready to change my lifestyle," she said.

Email: jstagg@ksl.com