HCG Diet History
The discovery, the background and the creation of the HCG diet
Dr. Albert T.W. Simeons , born in 1900, was a British endocrinologist who is responsible for multiple advancements in research of many diseases.
When researching boys with low testosterone levels, Simeons began giving them HCG and discovered that they began losing abnormal belly fat and slimmed down.
In 1967, Simeons published Pounds and Inches: A New Approach to Obesity, which would help summarize and deliver his weight loss findings to the world.
HCG Diet is helping
HCG Triumph customers have lost an average of 20-25 pounds while on the HCG 26-day kit. If you have more to lose, you can do multiple rounds of 26-day (with a maintenance phase between), or try our 40-day kit.
The Science Behind the Discovery
When Simeons first began using the hormone, underdeveloped boys were given several hundred international units, delivered twice a week. A few discoveries were made by Dr. Simeons as a result of these injections. The first being that small, daily doses were just as effective as much larger ones given twice a week.
Simeons also noticed that the boy’s body shapes began to change. Simeons believed that this was due to abnormal deposits of fat moving away from the hips and becoming available to the body to burn off. This new source of fuel could then be used in replace of food, which answered the question of why the boys were not as hungry, even when their diets became restricted.
Simeons points out that the addition of the HCG injections seemed to have no harmful effects. Patients were able to go about their normal days on only 500 calories per day and began to lose an average of a pound per day. This made it clear to Simeons that the body was transitioning to using up abnormal fat instead of the usual normal fat reserves.
Types of body fat
Structural fat
Fills in the gaps between organs, and acts as a packing material. It helps protect our arteries, provides bedding for the kidneys and keeps the skin smooth and taut. Structural fat also provides the springy cushion underneath the bones in our feet.
Normal fat
Our normal reserves of fuel that can be drawn on by the body for energy. Fat packs a high amount of calories in a small amount of space and is used for muscular activity and the overall maintenance of the body, including its temperature.
Abnormal fat
These fats are created by the high consumption of starch and sugar in the modern diet, and over time, continues to build up in the body. This is the fat that causes obesity, and is found most often around the hips, stomach, buttocks and thighs.
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Other Benefits of HCG Hormone
- Simeons’ research revealed a connection with diabetes, and the ability to lower a diabetic patient’s blood sugar each day, often reaching normal levels in 2-3 weeks.
- Rheumatic pains can also decrease within a few days of HCG treatment, and allows patients to interrupt prolonged cortisone treatment. This interruption is key due to the disadvantages and negative effects associated with prolonged cortisone treatment.
- High cholesterol has also been seen to decrease with the introduction of HCG helping to lower overall blood pressure.
- HCG usage has been proven to help patients with gout pain, even if levels of blood uric acid are increasing during treatment.
- The overall lowering of blood pressure was also a significant discovery when it came to the use of HCG. When a woman with high blood pressure became pregnant, her blood pressure would often drop quickly, before slowly increasing once again after pregnancy. However, studies showed that their blood pressure never got back up to the same levels it was at before pregnancy.
Dr. Simeons and the HCG Diet
- Human Chorionic Gonadotropin, or HCG for short is a hormone found in both men and women, with higher quantities produced while women are pregnant. HCG consists of 244 amino acids, and was first connected with weight loss by Dr. ATW Simeons, a British endocrinologist.
- The hormone is created in large amounts in a pregnant woman’s placenta, extracted from her urine and was often used to treat infertility. While Simeons was researching boys with low testosterone levels, he began giving them HCG and discovered that they began to lose abnormal belly fat and were slimming down. From this observation, Dr. Simeons researched and experimented with various amounts of HCG and its relation to weight loss.
- Through this research over 10 years, he eventually discovered that both males and females could lose large amounts of abnormal fat with a combination of strict dieting, exercise and the HCG hormone. The word soon got out about a new use for HCG and soon, doctors and healthcare professionals around the world were coming to Rome to learn more about his experiments. Because of the growing popularity of his work, in 1967, Simeons published Pounds and Inches: A New Approach to Obesity, which would help summarize and deliver his weight loss findings to the world.
- The hormone within the HCG drops allows the body to burn up excess abnormal fat stores in the body and has been shown to help reduce fat cells. With Dr. Simeons protocol, the abnormal fat is the main target during exercise and the core philosophy behind the HCG diet. Other diets can often target the wrong types of fat in the body, leaving dieters confused on why they aren’t seeing results.
- Through the HCG diet drops, the hormone also works on the hypothalamus, a part of your brain that fulfills various roles. While following Simeons protocol, research shows that the hormone can help curb and even eliminate your cravings for starch and sugar, the leading causes of abnormal fat creation and buildup.
- Dr. Simeon’s Pounds and Inches Away establishes very quickly that “obesity in all its many forms is due to an abnormal functioning of some part of the body.” He believed that it was a disorder that caused you to accumulate fat, and not simply whether you ate more than normal. In his opening pages, Simeons tackled the issue of obesity with his theory on the accumulating fat disorder, and the ways in which it could be corrected through his three phase diet.
- Through his experiments and studies, he aimed at creating a sustainable system of weight loss, where his users could eat as they please, without immediately gaining back the abnormal fat they lost while on the diet.
Obesity Causes and Facts
Simeons understood that an important part of studying weight loss was to research what causes weight gain and overall obesity. He knew that the only way in which to burn fat was to first see where it comes from. Throughout his 10 years of research and observations, Simeons narrowed it down to three main reasons. These are the psychological aspects, compulsive eating and reluctance to lose weight. With psychological aspects, he believed that emotional eating is an instinct gratification tactic by a part of the brain that is having difficulty finding emotional comfort. From Simeons experience, he only believes that compulsive eating constitutes about 1-2% of obese people, but still concludes that it can be a factor. He also believes that most obese people are truly hungry and not susceptible to sudden hunger attacks and compulsive consumption. Simeons final point is about the reluctance to lose weight. Simeons points out that some patients become deeply attached to their fat and do not like the idea of losing it. He makes many points about the psychology behind this reluctance and highlights factors such as an attachment to their obese childhood’s, fear of people liking them after weight loss, or the inability to see the reality of the situation they are in. In this instance, it is important to understand that your self image could be inhibiting your ability to lose weight.
While studying the psychological rather than the physiological aspects behind obesity, Simeons began to study the diencephalon or hypothalamus, a part of the brain that we have in common with all vertebrate animals. A very primitive part of the brain, the diencephalon directs the central nervous system and controls functions of the body, such as breathing, digestion, sex and sleep. It was through this discovery, that Simeons started to connect the diencephalon with the storing and burning of fuel in the body. He believed that the aspect of the brain that controlled so much of our body, must also contribute to how we store fat. With the various “storage banks” of fat around the human body, Simeons thought that if he could tap into the “control center” of the human brain that operated this fat movement, he could discover ways of weight loss not yet examined.
While studying the psychological rather than the physiological aspects behind obesity, Simeons began to study the diencephalon or hypothalamus, a part of the brain that we have in common with all vertebrate animals. A very primitive part of the brain, the diencephalon directs the central nervous system and controls functions of the body, such as breathing, digestion, sex and sleep. It was through this discovery, that Simeons started to connect the diencephalon with the storing and burning of fuel in the body. He believed that the aspect of the brain that controlled so much of our body, must also contribute to how we store fat. With the various “storage banks” of fat around the human body, Simeons thought that if he could tap into the “control center” of the human brain that operated this fat movement, he could discover ways of weight loss not yet examined.
Signs and Symptoms of Obesity
Simeons also concluded that there were early signs and symptoms of obesity. Other than the common signs such as excessive accumulation of fat around the abdomen, hips thighs, upper arms and chin, there were other less obvious signs that Simeons examined to be true with obesity. These included a disproportionately large upper two front teeth, or a “dimple on both sides of the sacral bone just above the buttocks.” Another sign he points out is a pad of fat on the inside of the knees, which he explains is a place where normal fat is never stored and therefore must be abnormal fat. Monitoring how much fat you’re carrying can be a key piece of information while on a diet. Simeons also highlights clinical symptoms such as frequent headaches, rheumatic pains, feelings of laziness and lethargy as signs that obesity could likely occur.