HCG & weight loss - again!!

I just got a call yesterday from some supplier trying to sell me HCG drops to prescribe to gullible unsuspecting patients. When I told her I did not believe HCG caused any weight loss, she chided me & told me that lots of other doctors are prescribing it. Well, I'm not part of that group & here's a bit of free advice for everyone out there desperate to lose weight - it's not the homeopathic dose of HCG that makes you lose weight, it's the 500cal/day diet that you have to stick to as part of the "HCG programme" that makes you lose weight. In spite of what I tell some of my clients about this con job, they still fork out thousands to other people for this "programme" & don't give any credit to their fitness trainers!! God forbid, do doctors with genuine tertiary qualifications actually buy these placebo (probably water) drops from these "entrepreneurs"?! In case anyone thinks I'm a lone ranger with this opinion,here's some evidence to back up what I'm saying. Happy reading! Human chorionic gonadotrophin and weight loss. A double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Bosch B, Venter I, Stewart RI, Bertram SR. Source Department of Medical Physiology and Biochemistry, University of Stellenbosch, Parowvallei, CP. Abstract Low-dose human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) combined with a severe diet remains a popular treatment for obesity, despite equivocal evidence of its effectiveness. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, the effects of HCG on weight loss were compared with placebo injections. Forty obese women (body mass index greater than 30 kg/m2) were placed on the same diet supplying 5,000 kJ per day and received daily intramuscular injections of saline or HCG, 6 days a week for 6 weeks. A psychological profile, hunger level, body circumferences, a fasting blood sample and food records were obtained at the start and end of the study, while body weight was measured weekly. Subjects receiving HCG injections showed no advantages over those on placebo in respect of any of the variables recorded. Furthermore, weight loss on our diet was similar to that on severely restricted intake. We conclude that there is no rationale for the use of HCG injections in the treatment of obesity.