HCG Diet Made Simple: Your Step-By-Step Guide Beyond Pounds and Inches 5th Edition Paperback – October 6, 2011

Ok, I knew the cover had a picture of feet on it. It's a really bad cover picture. Those are really ugly feet. The author has some ok recipes, not great. (Kind of common sense, especially if you've read the original protocol.) She makes uneducated statements about homeopathic products, patches and such. She's pretty die-hard injection; however, that is extremely difficult to obtain these days. So, it's quite outdated. It was a cheap read but not that insightful.

Most helpful! If you are following the original hCG diet this book is great. After reading "Pounds and Inches" several times, doing lots of research on it and deciding there was no reason not to try it, and every reason to try it. I did a lot of research on my own as I prepared to begin this diet. But as I went through this process occasionally I had questions that unfortunately Dr. Simeon is not able to answer for me. As I researched what has been written about this diet (and there is alot of information out there) I found people have put their own spin on it and deviated from the original protocol, which is not what I was interested in. But I found this book is helpful while staying true to the original protocol, answering many questions for me as I continue my journey. I have finished my first round (25 lbs in 23 days)and am now in Phase 4. Phases 3 and 4 brought up the most questions for me. The author lays out detailed information on so many things that are important for someone following this diet, i.e., what foods are good for each Phase, what foods to avoid, when you can add them and the amounts, additives and sweetners, how to avoid possible pitfalls, and encouragement that supports the original diet and not some version of it. The food industry has changed so much since Dr. Simeon's wrote his manuscript, and not necessarily for the better. This book gives us current information we need regarding our food today to be successful. I plan to lose another 25 lbs on my next round thanks to Dr. Simeon, and have the tools I need for the additional information I want "...Beyond Pounds and Inches", thanks to this book.

This book is an excellent source of information to accompany Dr Simeon's HCG protocol. The only comment (pg 34) that I don't agree with is "My observation about many clinics is that few follow a strict Simeons hcg diet protocol. "Many recommend ways of doing the diet that prolong the treatment period by reducing the rapidity of weight release, perhaps for obvious reasons that they will make more money the longer that it takes you". Later on pg 86, the author says "Please don't ask questions such as can I use this medication or that, I am a dieter, not a doctor".All clinics in the US are run by doctors since hcg is a prescription drug. Yet, the author has already given the impression that most clinics are only out for the money. I think doctors value their licence and reputation more than trying to make a few extra bucks from a little known diet product. For my first round I went to a very reputable doctor run clinic. For subsequent rounds I ordered syringes and needles for over the internet. I HCG I used to inject myself I ordered over the internet from India and China. (Fortunately all went well. Mine was not seized at the border as some bloggers reported). Finally, I obtained additional information for my "do it yourself round" via an internet group who gives advice and shares their successes and failures. I would not have chosen this "do it yourself" internet route if I had not already recieved first hand knowledge of the protocol from a reputable doctor run clinic. In conclusion, excellent book except for dissing the docs.

I purchased this book after starting the HCG diet with the drops. My sister had been doing the HCG injections under the supervision of a doctor and had lost over fifty pounds. After hearing about others who were doing the HCG drops, and also losing weight I decided to try it myself. I researched as much information as I could online about the diet and was getting a lot of information from my sister as to what her doctor was telling her. Even with everything that I found I still felt like I didn't have enough information so I bought this book to help me. It is full of information about this diet and has answers to most of your questions regarding the HCG diet. So far I have lost 22 pounds in 40 days. I'm now on phase 3 and I feel great. This book has been great for letting me know what I can eat and what to stay away from. I felt that the price of this book was a little much and almost didn't buy it for that reason. However it has been worth it just for all the research information and the guidance that has been put into it.

****This book has lots of good information in it about the HCG diet, but I found it a bit discouraging as I was doing the homeopathic delivery, and the book is definitely oriented towards injections and sublingual. I found the information about homeopathic drops minimal, negative, and not entirely in line with what I read in other books. Overall, it got me worried and I had to read other books to rebuild my confidence in what I was doing.If you can take what works for you and throw out the rest, you'll find much to like here with ordering information, legal information, lots of recipes, lots of technical information about HCG injections, dosing, etc. Again, this is all for the injections and the sublingual delivery.I kept this book as a reference but am careful not to rely on it primarily.Recommended only if you are doing something other than homeopathic HGG.****

The new 5th edition book is only 8 X 5 which I hadn't noticed when I ordered it. I had already bought the Kindle version then decided to get the print version for the bigger format (like my friend's older copy) and was disappointed when the tiny little book arrived. This is small especially if you buy it for the charts. If you are mixing your own HCG it is a great reference but if you have older eyes like me the format is very small to read.

I wasn't sure that this diet was backed up by enough evidence as a safe practice. Again, when one returns to regular eating, the weight lost is regained. The idea was nice, though. There are just too many unsafe issues with taking extra HCG.

Answered all my questions for this diet. Done every diet on the planet!!! this one worked and weight loss fast, once you are focused it is easy to follow and if you stick to the rules you will lose weight.