Hormonal Weight Loss

Sorry for another post about something that I learned in Physiology, but I liked that class a lot and it was really practical. Anyway, at the end of the semester we spent four or five lectures taking about the female reproductive system and cycle. (In comparison, we only spent half a lecture on the male reproductive system.  It is much, much simpler.)

When a woman gets pregnant, the little fertilized egg is still in the fallopian tube.  It takes about 24 to 48 hours for the little future baby to travel the foot long tube to reach the uterus. Once it is implanted in the uterine wall, the egg/uterus releases a hormone called HCG.  Maybe you've heard of it.  This hormone's purpose is to tell the cells in the female's ovaries to keep producing estrogen and progesterone so that menstruation doesn't occur and the fetus will continue to grow. However, a more modern use of HCG is to assist in weight loss.

I saw a big sign at Elase Medical Spa in Orem that they now do HCG weight loss program.  It has been shown that using this hormone actually works in helping people lose weight.  The reason this works is because your body thinks you are pregnant. In fact, if you took a pregnancy test while taking HCG, you will test positive, even men.  This is because all pregnancy tests look for is HCG in the urine or blood.  Anyway, along with taking HCG, you are only supposed to eat maybe 500 or 600 calories a day.  Because your body thinks your pregnant, your body starts ripping apart fats in order to give the little "fetus" the nutrients it needs.

This seems pretty controversial to me.  Actually, this seems like a bad idea to me. While we were talking about it in class, the TA commented that this seemed like a bad idea to her, too, and maybe people will realize in a few years that it has a lot of negative side effects, just like fen-phen.  But just as she said this, a dozen hands shot up.  There was a person in my class that used this weight loss technique. Another person's roommate was doing it right now.  It seemed that many people knew of people who were doing this, and all of them were losing weight. Others said in class that the whole thing is a scam and a hoax and will disappear in a few months. So I'm not sure now.  Maybe it could be a good idea for some mortally obese people who have to lose weight but are scared of invasive surgery.  But messing around with pregnancy hormones doesn't seem so wise.  Females have to deal with enough hormones as it is...