HCG protocol scam alert!
It's not the HCG. It does nothing. It's the below 500 calorie diet they put you on.
If you feel the HCG works, then try it without the 500 calorie diet restriction and you will quickly see the only weight you will lose is in your wallet.
Ehhh....agree and disagree.
I've made similar posts to this on numerous occasions, so I don't want to waste too much time, but the short(ish) version is this:
hCG and weight (more importantly, FAT) loss is an area that needs significantly more research, but I feel fairly certain would show positive results. My own personal theories are that it puts one in a state of or similar to ketosis where the body is relying on fat stores for energy. The 500 calories (other users have ranged them up to 800 calories/day and/or added in weekly cheat meals) provides enough energy while the body mainly relies on the fat stores for the bulk of it. Talk to someone who has eaten 500 calories per day and then to someone who has done the same, but while injecting 250iu hCG/day and you'll hear the hCG user say that they don't feel tired or even hungry aside from the mental battle of wanting to eat mostly because you know you can't.
I personally hit a PR on deadlifts 9 days in on the hCG diet, so it's not like I was suffering a lack of strength. The hardest thing to deal with is watching your glycogen stores deplete rapidly and seeing how flat you look and how much smaller your muscles appear; though you just have to tell yourself it's temporary.
Now would I recommend this as an ideal way to cut fat? Not at all. Proper diet and exercise hands down take the cake. However, for someone that has tried everything else and can't make it work OR, in rare cases, for someone who is dedicated enough to bodybuilding, I'd honestly see no problem in using the hCG protocol for a short cut after a bulk, thus allowing users to dirty bulk over clean bulk more often and then use a short hCG diet to cut off the necessary fat pounds.
I'd recommend running an anabolic along with the hCG to ensure that one doesn't lose muscle; If you want to run gear, you could do that, or a PH, but I think OSTA would be strong enough, too.
I could talk about this for days.
But now to address the OP's question -- I would not advise it. I say this for a few reasons. Namely because the rebound effect is far too easy from this and when the weight comes off quickly, it's all that much easier for it to be put back on. And if you're sedentary, you just need to adjust your normal calorie consumption to reflect that. The hCG diet isn't the fix; lowering your calories and eating less as you're not exercising as much is the trick.
