One of my favorite bloggers is Casey of Mooshinindy.com, because she just seems like a genuinely good person–and she’s real funny. I like her enough that I’m willing to read her sponsored posts and her stuff on Babble, and let me tell you, that is a powerful like. So today I went over to Babble to read about her recent weight loss and found out that it was because of the hCG diet.
Oh, Casey. No, Casey. Oh, honey–no.
I’m not sure if I’ve ever come out and said this, but for most of 2011 I worked as a ghostwriter. My former employer had a contract to create content for various small businesses, so my job was to write between sixteen and twenty blog posts a day. There were plenty of legitimate businesses in there–I actually really miss writing for veterinarians, for example–but there were also a metric ton of scammers…and most of them were selling plastic surgery, that cash for gold nonsense, or the hCG diet.
Of the three, the hCG clients were the absolute worst to work for because that diet was such an undeniable scam that virtually every credible source I found said something along the lines of, “Yo, this is a scam, y’all.” I spent far more time searching for legitimate sources that had something at least lukewarm to say about hCG than I ever did writing one of the articles–and that alone should tell you something.
So what exactly is so problematic about the hCG diet? Here are just a few fun facts:
- The study that it’s based on has never, ever been successfully replicated, and it’s been decades.
- A lot of the people selling hCG sell it in liquid or pill form, and those products are usually pretty low on the actual hormone.
- Experts are in agreement that the severe calorie restriction that goes along with hCG is what actually causes all the weight loss, not the hCG itself.
- Despite the fact that the medical community acknowledges that the hCG diet is a total scam, plenty of doctors still support it. Why? Because you can make bank if you sell hCG–even in liquid form it’s expensive, and many doctors have set up weight loss clinics where they can charge you incredible amounts of money for your injections and your appointments. I should know. I wrote the promotional materials for those places.
- There are also a ton of health problems associated with the hCG diet, which you can read about here and here.
I’m glad Casey’s lost weight and that she’s feeling a lot better, but I’m in a unique position to say that this diet is a scam. After all, I had to write hundreds of articles pretending that it wasn’t.
Thank you for your concern, I can assure you I did all of my own research and made the decision for myself. It cost me a total of $100, I am still just as healthy as I was when I started (I have been monitored closely by my doctor.) I see the sensationalism out there touting it as a good choice or a miracle but I know that it is not. I realize there are horribly scammy ways to do it, and I did not use one of them.
Yes, it did work for me. No, I will never do it again nor would I suggest anyone else ever do it. I made it clear in my article.
The medications I take on a daily basis carry the same side effects as this diet, and I was and am well aware of that.
There are a thousand bad scams out there that give a bad name to every one legit thing. And I don’t just say this in regard to the HCG diet, I say it in regards to religions, politics, diets, get rich quick schemes and laundry detergent.
Thanks again for sticking by me through thick and sponsored. *fist bump*
Honestly, this post was more about working off my terrible, terrible karma for having written those articles than anything else. If purgatory exists, I’m pretty sure I’ll be stuck there an extra year for every article I wrote about hCG, breast implants, crystal elixirs, or selling your cash for gold. I’m basically one psychic hotline away from a non-stop journey to hell, so I try to speak up whenever a blogger I like writes about things like this.
Good luck with the weight loss and try not to touch any ham!