Get Ready for Summer with HCG

by Karen Wheeler APRN

Time to start thinking about wearing shorts and swimming suits as the weather warms up! This can be really intimidating to those who do not have swimming suit model bodies. While your motivation for getting fit may be to look good in a bathing suit, impress somebody at a class reunion, or feel confident at a big life event like a wedding; I would encourage you to also do so for your health and well-being.

Look around and you can easily see that obesity is an epidemic in the U.S. According to the CDC website, “more than one-third of adults and approximately 17% of children and adolescents in the U.S. are obese.” The leading causes of preventable deaths, which include heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure and diabetes, are obesity-related.  The “State of Obesity” estimates that obesity costs between $147 and $210 BILLION per year to cover healthcare needs of our population as the obesity problem grows (www.stateofobesity.org).

Prevention is cited as the primary way to control this epidemic. Start by getting rid of junk food and fast food, eat lots of non-starchy vegetables, low glycemic fruits, lean protein, drink half of your body weight in clean water, and exercise! When the weight is already on your body, it is time to take action to get back to a healthy weight.

If you want to jump start your weight loss, consider coming to Riordan Clinic and using HCG to help you shed those excess pounds. Our program was awarded “Best Non-surgical Weight Loss Program” by the Wichita Eagle Readers’ Choice in 2014. It will help you get on the right path to better health.  

The basis for the Riordan Clinic HCG Rx+ Weight Loss Program was developed in Europe by Dr. Albert T. W. Simeons in the 1950s. It was his observations of pregnant women in famine, giving birth to normal weight babies, and obese women losing weight easily during pregnancy that started his interest in discovering what it was about pregnancy that allowed this to happen.

The FDA has approved HCG to treat some cases of infertility and select male hormone imbalances. The use of HCG for weight loss is considered off-label, but it has been prescribed by hundreds of providers over the past decades since Dr. Simeons discovered its weight loss potential. HCG stands for Human Chorionic Gonadotropin. Both men and women can safely take HCG for weight loss. One of the most prevalent hormones in pregnancy is HCG. Dr. Simeons’ work showed that men and women given low doses of HCG are able to mobilize the “fixed” fat stored in the body.

This is the fat that is the most difficult to lose, but also the most important to get rid of because it is metabolically active. This is especially effective when combined with a very low calorie diet, because it helps reset the hypothalamus, which is the area in the brain that controls hunger and tells your body when you have eaten enough.

By taking low doses of HCG every morning and restricting calories, the body starts burning its fixed fat stores at approximately 1,000 calories a day, which results in losing 0.5 – 1.0 pound A DAY! If a person experiences low blood sugars or hunger on the program, adjustments are made to the eating program so those symptoms are controlled. Drinking plenty of water (92 ounces a day) is encouraged to flush toxins out of the body.

The foods allowed on the program are quite specific, but they are what Dr. Simeons found to be effective. On this program, the person is restricted to approximately 500 calories a day. Before you panic at that number, please consider what is going on in your body – it will be burning your fat stores (which are how you lose the weight) and the part of your brain that says you are hungry for large portions gets reset! (Please do NOT try this calorie restriction without the HCG because it may have harmful effects.)

Breakfast consists of only water, coffee or tea. Lunch and dinner each contains 3-4 ounces of protein, one to two cups of non-starchy vegetables, a fruit and breadstick.  No oils are allowed to be ingested or used in food preparation (including supplements and personal hygiene products), so you must grill, bake/roast, boil or use a crockpot to cook your food.  If those options are not appealing, you can use some of the new cookware that does not need oils to cook food. There are HCG cookbooks and recipes online that can be used to help with ideas if needed.

This is a whole foods diet so there are not food additives. Eating this way also works as detoxification; people often report that they have clearer skin, more energy, less pain and better mental clarity!

Starting an exercise program while on HCG is not recommended. In fact, those who are already exercising may need to decrease the intensity and duration of their workouts to prevent low blood sugars. Gentle walking and some light weights are okay to continue.  Interval training can be started once in the maintenance part of the program, when calories are not so restricted.

There are a few conditions that would prohibit the use of HCG. These include pregnancy, a current cancer diagnosis and the use of some blood thinners or steroids.  If a person is on medications for high blood pressure or diabetes, we encourage close monitoring of these conditions, because as the person loses weight these conditions improve, so not as much medication may be needed.

If you want to lose less than 20 pounds, the HCG Short Program is ideal for you. This consists of 23 days of HCG followed by six weeks of maintenance. For those who want to lose more than 20 pounds, there is a HCG Long Program that uses 40 days of HCG followed by six weeks of maintenance.

While the HCG part of this program has a very low calorie diet, the maintenance part of it gradually introduces more variety of foods at healthy portion sizes. The patient will continue to lose weight during this time, but at a slower rate. The best part of maintenance, in my opinion, is that it is a healthy eating plan that anyone can and should follow for the rest of their life!  The duration of either program will help you to form healthy eating habits!

Either program comes with a day-by-day guidebook that makes it easy to keep track of what foods are allowed in the eating plan as well as weight loss progress. This tool makes it easy to follow the restrictions, even on a busy schedule!  A person merely has to buy the groceries allowed on the list and then measure out the portion sizes of the meat ahead of time. Some of the food prep can even be done on the weekends for faster lunches throughout the work week.

Also included is a weekly Body Index Analysis that tells the person’s weight, body mass index, body fat percentage, body water, and visceral fat rating. Meetings with a provider are scheduled every two weeks, but a patient advocate/coach is available to answer questions during regular business hours throughout the program.

Since Riordan Clinic has always emphasized the importance of nutrients, our HCG patients are provided with supplements to be sure that their body is getting enough while on a low calorie diet. This includes a multivitamin, probiotic, B-Plex and additional B12. An extra bonus is the inclusion of bloodwork such as lipids, a complete blood count and a chemistry profile.

Riordan Clinic prescribes HCG as a nasal spray or as a subcutaneous injection that is taken once a day in the morning. Either form has been found to have successful weight loss. Both forms must be refrigerated after reconstituted to the liquid form to maintain potency.

After completing maintenance, a person can decide if they want to take another round of HCG through a self-led program, if they have more weight that they want to lose. The self-led programs cost fewer because they have less provider visits and no labs. Our team is still available to address concerns, but we want to make continued weight loss with the use of HCG more affordable.

When you are ready to reshape your body and reach your weight loss goals, come see us at Riordan Clinic because we can help you make that happen!

Addendum: Please understand that the HCG program does not include the entirety of the functional medicine approach to health, so it limits the provider’s focus to only the HCG program. If you want the FULL scope of the Riordan Clinic approach to achieving Real Health, start with becoming a new patient and let us take a detailed health history followed by a physical exam, and then a complete plan of testing and treatments that may help you feel the best you can! Then, if you want to start the HCG program, another appointment can be made to give you the focused information on  the weight loss program.

To become a patient at Riordan Clinic, please contact our New Patient Coordinator, Jason Hattrup at 316-927-4765.