Losing weight is tough at any stage of life – but it gets even harder as you age. And diet and exercise aren't always enough to lose the amount of weight you want.
If you're struggling to lose weight, a jumpstart with the hCG diet may be what you need to finally get to a healthier weight. Although it's not a long-term fix, it can help your metabolism get over weight loss plateaus.
In Kinston, North Carolina, Dr. Lori Scott is a family medicine specialist who provides weight loss tools like hCG shots, regular weigh-ins, and tips to help you lose weight. Here’s what you should know about the role hCG can play in getting a healthier life and the body you want.
The hCG diet is a method for losing weight quickly without compromising muscle mass. It includes a very low-calorie diet and daily shots of human chorionic gonadotropin, or hCG. The body produces this hormone in the early stages of pregnancy.
When diet and exercise aren't enough to get your metabolism going, this diet works by restricting calories and using hCG shots to curb cravings and target fat without allowing the body to burn muscle.
Many people utilize the hCG diet to begin a weight loss journey, but it's not a long-term solution. If you're struggling to lose weight, it can be a valuable tool to help you get started on a healthier lifestyle.
The hCG diet has three main stages that span several weeks. It's not something you can do alone — Dr. Scott follows you very closely while on the hCG diet to ensure you don't have any adverse side effects.
Each phase of the hCG diet works to jumpstart meaningful weight loss in different ways.
The loading phase is the first step in the diet. After ensuring the hCG diet is for you, Dr. Scott advises you to eat a high-calorie and high-fat diet for two days. Eating these foods helps your body prepare for a significant caloric restriction in the next phase.
The main phase of the diet involves low caloric intake. This is the longest phase, lasting anywhere from 3-6 weeks. During this time, you consume only about 500 calories per day.
Dr. Scott administers hCG injections daily during the low-calorie phase. The goal of the shot is to encourage fat loss while preventing muscle wasting from the incredibly low-calorie diet. It helps control cravings and curbs hunger.
During this phase, you gradually increase your caloric intake to stabilize the weight loss.
It's crucial to continue eating a healthy diet and incorporating regular exercise to keep the weight off after completing the hCG diet. This diet jumpstarts weight loss, but you still need to make healthy changes to achieve and maintain a healthier weight.
The hCG diet is not a long-term option for sustained weight management. The goal of the hCG diet is to allow you to lose weight quickly if you have a medical condition or can't seem to get weight loss started alone. However, the body requires more than 500 calories to function in the long term.
Dr. Scott discusses alternative weight loss options for patients who need to lose a significant amount of weight. The hCG diet allows you to lose a lot of weight quickly, but a healthy lifestyle is the only way to lose weight and keep it off for good.
Additional weight loss tools Dr. Scott provides after the hCG diet can help you stay on track, including personalized coaching, meal plans, and weekly weigh-ins for accountability. She also may prescribe appetite suppressants and supplements.
You can achieve the body you've always wanted through weight management under the supervision of a caring medical professional. Contact Lori Scott Family Care today to schedule an appointment to learn more about the hCG diet.
