After going over dozens of HCG diet reviews, I thought it was time to push back just a little on some of these opinions. So I put together a head to head list and breakdown of the top ranking pages to buy HCG injections online based on search results. This task took several hours of research and several more deciding how to present the information. However, in the end we feel you will be well equipped to decide if you want to try HCG and who to get HCG from. The remainder of this article will be spent discussing the HCG hormone and conflicting studies that are posted in medical research journals. One more thing, we welcome a debate or discussion from those that agree and disagree, especially if you have a medical background!
Online HCG Injection Company Overview
| Category | My Diet Doc | The HCG Institute | Buy HCG Kits | IkonHealth | iHCG Injections | RiverfrontMD | TeleHCG | US HCG Shots | Pharmacy Rx Solutions | Reliable Rx Pharmacy | hcgRx |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Product Source | US Pharmacy | US Pharmacy | Overseas /Unknown | NA | Overseas/Unknown | NA | US Pharmacy\t | US Pharmacy | US Pharmacy | Overseas/Unkown | Overseas/Unkown |
Regular List Price | $299 5000iu kit (Price Match Guarantee) | $395 5000iu kit | $215 5000iu | NA | $215 5000iu | NA | $384 5000iu | $259 | No Price Listed | $10.39 5000iu | $139 5000iu |
Live Doctor Consult | Yes | Yes | No | NA | No | NA | Yes | Only if further information is needed | Does not specify | No | No |
Post Order support from Nutritionist | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Support from Weight Loss Coach | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Individualized Weight Loss Program | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
When Are You Charged? | AFTER approval | Before Approval | Before Approval | NA | Before Approval | NA | Before Approval | Before Approval | Does not Specify | Before Approval | Before Approval |
Accepted Payment Methods | All Credit Card Types | Visa, Discover, Amex (can checkout as guest) | Billed under different business name. Appears to accept multiple card types. | NA | Mastercard, Amex (international Banks, not US) Echeck or Bitcoin | NA | Visa, MC, Amex, Diners Club, JCB, Care Credit Card | E-check or Paypal | Does Not Specify | Echeck, Money Order, Bitcoin | Various Payment Apps like Zelle, Popmoney,Apple Pay or they take Cashiers Check/Money Order |
Online HCG Diet Company Reviews
Best Place to Buy HCG Online
My Diet Doc checks all the boxes
- HCG Made and Delivered to You from a Pharmacy in the USA
- Weight Loss Coaching and Nutritionist Support After the Sale
- No Charge to You Until After Approval
- Best Price Guarantee
There was really no legitimate challenger to My Diet Doc when you consider why you are buying the HCG injections in the first place. Read our breakdown to see why.
Breakdown of Reviewed HCG Diet Suppliers
When conducting HCG diet reviews, it is important to realize why someone is considering the diet in the first place. Another consideration is that those seeking information have probably never tried HCG injections and are looking for a reliable supplier and product.
I used to work for an online clinic that sold HCG injections, among other things. Therefore, I am aware of customer needs, product quality, support as well as issues regarding the sale of HCG for weight loss online. I will explain why each of the criteria I used is important which will explain why we chose the supplier we did.
Product Source: Buy HCG Injections Only From the USA
We are not saying this just to be patriotic or to push a “support local business” campaign. While both of those reasons are valid and noble, we have a more practical reason for these criteria. When you are starting the HCG diet and are selecting your HCG product, the only way to be sure that it is safe and real is to get your HCG directly from a US pharmacy.
I want to be clear; this applies to over-the-counter HCG drops and pills too! HCG is a prescription medication and a prescription requires a medical consultation and a doctor to write the prescription. If you do not get a consultation, there is a better than average chance you are not getting any HCG at all.
Additionally, buying HCG from an unknown source poses many risks. Pharmacies in the USA are required to have their medications tested for potency, purity and sterility. Also, the pharmacies where HCG is made are subject to inspections by State agencies and in some cases, Federal agencies. HCG being brought in from overseas do not have to meet any of these requirements. So, you have no idea if the product you are about to inject into your body has the HCG hormone at all, how much HCG is in it or if it is free from contaminants. You also do not know the physical conditions of the location that made the HCG. Is the location following good manufacturing processes? Are they storing the HCG correctly? How about handling and shipping of the product?
As you can see, four of the top search results send you HCG from overseas. In my professional opinion, buying from them would be very unwise.
Regular List Price of HCG Injections
Price is not everything, but it is something! This category was based on advertised list price of the cheapest HCG injection package the companies offered. No coupons or discounts were considered as these can change at any time. Within the price category each online supplier offered different levels of support and guidance as well.
For example, HCGrx offers HCG for just $139 for 5000iu. Their product comes from overseas, does not require a prescription, there is no medical consultation and it can take 30 days or more to receive your product. Not only that, the cheapest HCG kit does not even come with instructions! There are many problems with this, but the medical consultation stands out. Imagine for a minute that you were getting a product with peanut oil in it and you have a peanut allergy. The same concept applies here, some products just are not advised for some people.
Also, there is a difference between price and value. Yes, you can buy a cell phone cheap from someone, but when the phone has a problem who is going to help you fix it? When you buy your HCG injections you are buying a program, not just the hormone. There is only one provider that offers you prescription HCG, all the supplies and full support from qualified professionals after the fact. My Diet Doc assigns you a nutritionist and they have weight loss coaches available. Remember why you are researching HCG diet reviews. Would you rather have no or poor support, or would you rather have your HCG diet questions answered by a doctor, a nutritionist and a weight loss coach?
They also have a price match promise if you can find the exact same program for less!
Live Doctor Consult: Physician Supervised HCG Program
A doctor consultation is not the same as a live doctor consultation. Only two of the providers that were reviewed explicitly state that you will be getting a live doctor consultation. Some do not specify at all, others outright tell you they do not and others state that the review is just based on your online form and that they will call you if they have any additional questions.
You can probably see the problem with having no doctor consultation at all, but there may also be risks if you are only being approved by a form. The function of a form is to gather information and that information can be categorized and sorted. If your form checks off all the boxes for an approved order, how do we know an actual doctor is doing the approval for each order? Which brings up another issue, who has access to your medical information? Can anyone with a back-office login access your data?
While speaking with a doctor via live chat or phone does not guarantee privacy, it increases the odds. If a doctor has to speak to you anyway, there is no reason to provide the information to others within the company. Finally, speaking to a doctor may uncover undisclosed information that may be a safety issue and they can also customize a plan just for you. Only by speaking to a doctor can assure you are getting a physician supervised HCG diet program.
Customized Weight Loss Coaching and Support
This section covers three different categories: Individualized HCG diet plan, HCG weight loss coaching and HCG support. There is only one company that prominently states that it offers all three as part of the program. The other companies either offer no support, minimal support or the support may come from regular office staff instead of industry professionals. First of all, there are variations to the HCG diet, yet some companies are going to send you a sheet with the 500 calorie Dr. Simeons HCG protocol. That diet plan was created in 1954 and does not take into account your height, weight, age, lifestyle or activity level.
Like I mentioned earlier, when you buy HCG injections you are buying a complete HCG diet program. Or at least you should be. What that means is you should get a customized program, not the same cookie cutter program from the 1950’s. You should also be able to consult with a nutritionist if you have questions about the diet and approved foods. Finally, if you are struggling to stay on the plan, a weight loss coach can help guide you and tweak your program to optimize results.
HCG Diet Program Calories
There are several HCG diet options that vary in daily caloric intake. There are 500 calorie programs, 800 calorie diet programs and in my case, I did the HCG diet on 1000-1200 calories a day. Most companies are simply trying to sell you the HCG injections. They do not invest time, money or effort to give you the best chance to lose fat and maintain your weight loss. You place an order, you get the HCG, some basic instructions telling you to eat 500 calories and if you are lucky, some office worker might pick up the phone to answer any questions or concerns you have along the way.
My Diet Doc offers you a physician supervised HCG diet program that includes a live consultation with a Doctor, a customized calorie plan as well as coaching and support after you have paid your hard earned money.
When Are You Charged? and Payment Options
Payment timing and options may seem trivial at first, but it is not. First of all, why be charged for a prescription product before you know if you are approved? It is likely you will get a refund if you do not qualify, but doesn’t it make more sense to see if you qualify first? Also, payment AFTER consultation guarantees you are actually getting a real consultation by a doctor. It also stops you from having your money tied up in the event you are not approved. Why wait for the company to issue a refund and then waiting for the slow bank refund process for a product you should never receive in the first place?
Payment Method
The most common and accepted form of payment over the last 30 years has been the credit card. Yet surprisingly many of the sites I reviewed do not offer domestic credit card processing. Some of the sites use international banks to process payment. This is not just an obvious security concern; you are usually charged some high transaction fee and the price will be different when they convert US dollars to the Euro or whatever other currency they are using.
Some do not take cards at all. So, they process through electronic check, money order or online app. There is usually a time delay here because the money has to clear your account and then the company can actually process your order. I have seen processing delays of 3-5 days for these payment types and then you have to go through the shipping process. As I mentioned above, the HCG companies sending you product from overseas are going to have processing delays AND shipping delays. The domestic companies are still going to have processing delays due to waiting for money to actually clear your account instead of being processed by credit.
The bottom line is with My Diet Doc you do not get charged for a product you might not get and then when the payment is made, the process of fulfilling your order begins immediately.
*Note: Since these products should be coming from a pharmacy, the pharmacy itself could be providing you with your tracking information and in some cases, even processing the payment.
HCG Diet Review Summary
As you can see, I researched every site, the search results and my experience to create the review. With My Diet Doc your product will arrive in a timely manner and you know the product is real and safe for human consumption. You also get a personalized and modern diet program along with professional support. My Diet Doc is the only company of all the online HCG diet clinics to offer everything I mentioned above.
I would like to note that I included sites like RiverfrontMD and IkonHealth because they still rank for HCG diet related search terms. Neither of these sites offer HCG anymore. Neither do sites like NuImage Medical or Invigor Medical, yet they show up as well. Meanwhile a third of the sites showing up are selling HCG injections with no prescription and no doctor. This is illegal, all prescription products require an actual prescription. Either these companies are out of reach or those that are domestic have not been prosecuted yet. I hope the HCG diet reviews of the suppliers were helpful. Below you will find my opinion regarding some of the HCG research.
HCG Diet Research Studies
This is the part where I give you the obligatory FDA statement.
“There is no substantial evidence that HCG increases weight loss beyond that resulting from caloric restriction, that it causes a more attractive or “normal” distribution of fat, or that it decreases the hunger and discomfort associated with calorie restricted diets.“
So, now that we have that out of the way lets talk about this for a moment. The FDA recently approved Semaglutide as a weight loss prescription product. Raise your hand if you think Semaglutide causes weight loss if you don’t reduce your calories. That’s right, Semaglutide also requires calorie restriction in order for weight loss to occur. In fact, EVERY diet known to man that causes weight loss is a result of eating fewer calories than you burn in a day.
Want to know something even more amazing? It appears that HCG works for all kinds of things but magically stops working if you are using it to try to lose fat! Let me show you an example.
HCG Causes Fat Loss and Muscle Gain in 60+ Year Olds
A 2003 study published in the National Library of Medicine showed that a group of 40 men, between the ages of 60-85 (mean age was 67) lost fat and gained lean muscle mass on HCG, with NO diet and NO exercise [1]. Of course, this study was just to test insulin sensitivity and not fat or weight loss.
That is a quote directly from the study. What it is saying that a bunch of 67 year olds were able to put on 5lbs of muscle, lose more than 2lbs of fat without diet and exercise, just by taking HCG. Also, they found that HCG reduced LDL cholesterol and triglycerides (bad cholesterol) but did not affect HDL (good cholesterol).
HCG for Women: Stimulating Hormones That Cause Fat Loss
Sex hormones play a role in fat metabolism and fat storage. In men, this is testosterone and in women one of these hormones is progesterone. This cancer study, (National Library of Medicine) [2] describes how low levels of progesterone is strongly related to obesity in women.
“We put forth the idea that endometrial cancer is a potentially preventable disease in obese women. It is clear that most of these women are progesterone deficient, at least relative to circulating estrogen levels and increased IGF1/insulin signaling.The fact that so many diagnosed cancers of the endometrium are associated with obesity leads us to hypothesize that a large portion of these cancers might be preventable, and progesterone as a differentiating factor may hold the key. “
Additionally, estradiol regulates several other hormones that control fat and weight loss [3]. The study I just cited referenced 193 other scientific studies that all prove the following statement:
“Gonadal hormones potently control food intake and body weight. In female animals, the activational effects of estradiol acutely and chronically influence body weight homeostasis [1–3]. In rats and mice, estrogen exerts a tonic inhibitory effect on meal size and daily food intake throughout the ovarian cycle and a cyclic inhibitory effect during the peri-ovulatory phase [1, 3–5]. Removal of estrogen leads to changes in meal size and duration [6, 7], hyperphagia, and obesity. Additionally, reductions in estrogen are associated with changes in body weight and fat distribution in humans, which parallel the findings in animals [8].”
“Estrogen has the ability to control energy balance, food intake, and body fat distribution and this may be mediated through its interaction with orexigenic and anorexigenic hormones. This review aims to explore these interactions and discuss the link between estrogen and obesity.”
HCG and Female Hormones
Now that we have established that science has proven these hormones are useful in fighting abnormal fat storage, lets specifically look at HCG. A moment ago I cited a study that concluded that estrogen and progesterone therapy resulted in reduced fat mass. Guess what hormone stimulates Progesterone and Estradiol?
“The most well-known function of hCG is the promotion of progesterone production during pregnancy. hCG stimulates ovarian corpus luteal cells to produce progesterone, thus reinforcing the endometrial walls and preventing menstrual bleeding. This promotion of progesterone production is active in approximately 10% of the total length of the pregnancy or around 3 to 4 weeks following implantation.” [4]
and
“Increasing doses of hCG supplementation markedly stimulated the intrafollicular concentration of both estradiol and androgens” [5]
To recap, scientific studies have found that progesterone and estradiol therapies assist with fat loss. Furthermore, science has proven that HCG stimulates the production of these sex hormones. This is why the FDA has approved HCG for use in fertility treatments for women [6] and men [7] and even in boys with delayed puberty conditions [8].
Contradictions Are Not Unusual In Medicine
Isn’t it remarkable that on one hand we can read studies that prove without a doubt HCG stimulates the sex hormones that result in fat loss, but when we read actual HCG diet studies, they claim it does not stimulate these hormones?
For example, this study [9] states that not only was there no difference in weight loss, there was no difference in fat loss and there was no difference in hormone changes!
“Patterns of change of a variety of plasma and urine substrates, electrolytes, and hormones were similar in the two groups and consistent with semistarvation and weight loss. These results indicate that HCG has no effects on chemical and hormonal parameters measured and offers no advantage over calorie restriction in promoting weight loss. “
That would be very disappointing news to the millions of people who take HCG for fertility issues, low testosterone issues and delayed puberty issues, wouldn’t it? Lets put on our critical thinking caps for a moment. No matter what you think about the actual diet, there is a mountain of evidence that proves HGC stimulates hormone production. Additionally, there are hundreds of research articles that show that these hormones do change body composition. But, we have heard things like this before.
Physicians Change Their Position All the Time
Scientists reviewed and researched the HCG diet and so far they are not in favor of it. In case you are too young to remember, we used to be told that steroids did not work either. Today millions of men are on testosterone therapy to increase energy, lose fat and retain muscle. Case in point, in 1989 one Doctor claimed that steroids were not effective half the time or more. [10]
“Dr. Bruce Catlin, a physician and a pharmacist, is in charge of the United States Olympic Committee’s Drug Testing Program in California. In regard to anabolic steroids enhancing performance, he says that “Anabolic steroids enhancing performance, promoting growth in a normal male, and/or increasing strength is controversial. Experienced users often insist that anabolic steroids do enhance all three, however, our review of the 25 studies [studies they had reviewed which pertained to these issues], find enhancement to be negative, inconclusive, or, at best, indicative with small increases”.
In fact, Dr. Catlin was not alone. He reviewed 25 other studies that all agreed with his conclusion! By the way, Dr. Catlin was asked to testify in front of Congress in 2004 and said this:
“Well, so I went to the local gym, and that is where I learned real quickly what steroids can do for you. They are extraordinarily potent drugs. Steroids profoundly alter your performance. They can make you jump higher, swim faster, climb faster, run faster. Big muscles are not supposed to be fast muscles. If your high school coach says, as we have heard today, “Put on 20 pounds over the summer, and you will start in the fall,” there is only one way to do that, and that is anabolic steroids.” [11]
Disclaimer-
*Note- The article citing Dr. Catlin in 1989 named Bruce Catlin, who was in charge of drug testing for Olympic athletes. The testimony from Congress in 2004 was by a Dr. Don Catlin, who also is listed as the head of drug testing for Olympic athletes. My assumption is the 1989 article printed the wrong first name, all other details are the same. [12]
Conclusion: The Point of This HCG Diet Review
The point of this review was to show you the best HCG diet provider online and to give you the information you need to make an educated decision. Unfortunately, the weight loss industry is surrounded by bad information and the HCG hormone is no exception.
Hopefully you are aware enough to stay away from phony HCG diet drops and pills that are sold over the counter. They are all fakes; HCG is only available by a prescription. Also, I hope you do not risk buying from an overseas source. There is no way to know if your product is real, has the appropriate dose or if it is free from contaminants. Then when you narrow your choices down to domestic HCG suppliers, you should choose one that is going to give you the support you need to succeed on the program.
I also wanted to point out some of the conflicting scientific studies. On one hand, when the study is not diet related, HCG is proven time and again to stimulate the same hormones that regulate fat storage in humans. In fact, some studies show an increase in lean muscle and a decrease in fat without any diet or exercise at all. Yet when HCG is studied as part of a weight loss plan or diet, it suddenly does not improve fat loss or even result in hormone stimulation. Hopefully, you can apply logic here and see why that makes no sense. I am not an advocate for a 500 calorie per day plan. But I am convinced that HCG does stimulate the hormones that influence fat storage, hunger and muscle retention, and I have science to back me up.
