HCG diet: the controversy of the new celebrity bet –

Thinkstock/ Getty Images (/)

When it comes to lasting weight loss, there is no such thing as a miracle. You’re tired of hearing this here in . But it was only the ex-BBB Rodrigo Carvalho posting impressive before and after photos of his wife, Thais Machado, on social networks, that the internet came crashing down at the end of last year: 10 kilos less in just 20 days! Since then, famous and anonymous people have started to adhere to the practice capable of eliminating extra kilos in record time. The hCG Diet, hit in the 1970s, is back in full force. No wonder: of all express slimming programs, it excels by promising not only to shed weight but also to attack precisely the localized fat, which insists on sticking to the culottes or that form that little banana right below the butt. It sounds perfect, but most experts condemn the practice. Come find out why.

It works like this: it’s only worth consuming 500 (!) calories a day and, to withstand the stride – strong, let’s agree –, you need to inject a hormone daily, human chorionic gonadotropin (or hCG, in its acronym in English), which can also be manipulated in the form of a pill for sublingual use. Naturally produced during pregnancy, it mobilizes the mother’s fat reserves to feed the baby. The objective: the hormone simulates a pregnancy during the diet and, thus, forces the body to seek energy even in the most difficult places, where localized fat is hidden. During this period, lasting from 23 to 42 days, exercises (even the lightest ones) are suspended – which seems sensible, doesn’t it? Working out and eating so little is crazy to say the least! The result appears right away: 15 kilos shipped after a month away from the gym. Oops, who doesn’t want to see those tough love handles disappear in a few days without even lifting a dumbbell? Calm down, because the price is high.

Promises X Deliveries

The promisse: melt up to 15 pounds in a month.
The delivery: any diet of 500 calories per day will provide this weight loss.

The promisse: the hormone takes away hunger.
The delivery: there is no scientific proof that hCG acts on the perception of satiety. Many people abandon the diet halfway through because they get hungry.

The promisse: the use of hCG is completely safe.
The delivery: Every medicine carries risks. The dangers of the synthetic hormone, described in the leaflet, are increased risk of thromboembolism, heart attack, pulmonary embolism and stroke.