The hCG Diet
A 70-year-old idea, tested, failed, banned - and still for sale. Here is the record.
The “hCG diet” — daily hCG injections or drops plus a 500-calorie starvation diet — does not work, has been known not to work for decades, and the products sold for it over the counter are illegal. This is not a controversial position. It is the settled conclusion of the controlled trials, the FDA, and the FTC — which ordered hCG weight-loss clinics to stop their claims back in 1976.
In the 1950s, British physician A.T.W. Simeons proposed that hCG injections would suppress hunger and mobilize “abnormal” fat stores, allowing patients to thrive on 500 calories a day. It was an appealing story. It was also testable — and when it was tested properly, it failed.
The definitive analysis (Lijesen 1995, British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology) reviewed 24 studies of the Simeons protocol, including the randomized controlled trials. The findings:
People on the protocol do lose weight — because they are eating 500 calories a day, which is semi-starvation with its own real risks (gallstones, muscle loss, electrolyte disturbance). The injections contribute nothing but expense and a pharmacologically active pregnancy hormone.
hCG taken for dieting is still hCG: it turns pregnancy tests positive, disrupts cycles, and in men suppresses normal hormonal feedback. If a clinic near you sells this program in 2026 — and some still do — that tells you something about the clinic, not about the hormone.