There are actually 5 scenarios here:
- Switching from getting hCG injections from one company to another company
- Switching from hCG injections to real hormone (non-homeopathic) hCG drops or pellets
- Switching from hCG injections to homeopathic hCG drops or pellets
- Switching from homeopathic hCG to real hCG injections
- Switching from real hCG drops/pellets to hCG injection
- Switching from U.S. made real hCG to overseas hCG.
The first thing I want to say before we address each of these is that you will almost always lose less weight overall in the 2nd half of your round as the first half of your round- this is because you lose a lot of water weight at the beginning of the diet which makes your first half look as if you lost a lot more – in reality you are probably losing the same steady amount of fat the whole time, but the water weight at the beginning changes the numbers on the scale at the beginning more.
This combined with the fact that typically most people “switch” to another form or brand of hCG do it somewhere in the middle of the round, and you can see how easy it would be to first think something is wrong with your weight loss, and to then think it must be the hCG you switched to. Usually, it has nothing to do with it and your pace of weight loss in the 2nd half of the round is actually totally normal – please see my section on Stalls/slow weight loss with hCG for more help on this. The exception to this is if you switched from real hCG to homeopathic hCG and/or are feeling symptoms you weren’t feeling before- we will discuss this later.
Switching from hCG injections from one U.S. company or pharmacy to another:
“Brands” use to be a thing when it came to real hCG hormone from overseas. I did use quite a few brands myself between my 5 rounds, and yes I switched brands within one round.
These days, most are getting their hCG from U.S. compounding pharmacies through the recommended companies on my blog – in this case, there are no “brands” – just different pharmacies of hCG, compounding the vials in batches of say 100 or 1,000. You might wonder though if one company or pharmacy has better hCG than another though.
What I can tell you is this- laws in the U.S. currently require every single batch of hCG made, no matter what U.S. pharmacy, to have a small set of vials from that batch sent out for 3rd party lab testing both for sterility (no bacteria/viruses, etc) and potency (is the vial says it has 5,000iu hCG in it, how much hCG is it TESTING to have in it? If it tests at 5,000iu, then that means 100% potency). Here what we are talking about is potency.
What this means is that there is a control measure in place to ensure that any vial of hCG you get from any pharmacy is going to be quality enough. I say “enough” because the law allows for a spread of % potency for the vials- I’m not sure exactly what the current spread allowed is, but let’s say it’s plus or minus 10% variable allowed- that means that as long as the test batch of vials is between 90% and 110% potent, they are allowed to be sent out to the public by the pharmacy. If it’s above or below that number (and remember this is just a guesstimate on the actual spread), then, the law requires EVERY single vial in that entire batch to be destroyed. Which would REALLY suck for the pharmacy cost-wise. Not only do they lose all those vials of hCG, they lose all the money they paid the well-paid pharmacist to compound it.
So you can see it would be pretty stupid for any pharmacy to purposefully try to make less potent vials of hCG and risk them not passing the 3rd party lab testing, just to save a little cost on hCG for themselves.
So, IF you buy from one of the U.S. hCG companies, this is the protocol, and you are pretty much ensured you will get a quality vial of hCG with 3rd party test potency, no matter which U.S. company it’s from – since all the pharmacies are under the sale rules in that regard.
Switching from hCG injections to real hormone (non-homeopathic) hCG drops or pellets
The part that might be tricky here and that could cause a bit of either a stall, slow weight loss or hunger, is finding the right dose for you on this new form of hCG. The way you absorb your injection dose is much different than the way you absorb a dose of hCG by mouth. Anyone taking hCG drops or pellets will need to take a much larger dosing of hCG to absorb the same amount they absorbed by injection- but there’s no for sure way to know exactly what this is so it’s a bit of guesswork. I explain this in more detail and give tips on finding that happy medium in my detailed hCG pellets post here.
You usually CAN find your new best dosing on this new form of hCG, but it can just take a few days of trial and error.
Switching from hCG injections to homeopathic hCG drops or pellets
This is a time when experiencing a slow in weight loss or stall if it’s combined with other symptoms, could be showing you that your body is not responding well to the non-hormone hCG. Yes, I know homeopathic hCG HAS real hormone in many of the brands- but being a homeopathic preparation, it’s like a very very tiny amount – kind of like if you eat a grain of sugar, have you really had sugar, in a way that would actually affect anything negatively? I think not.
When you switch, if you experience a dramatic increase in hunger, feeling of fatigue/lethargy, headache, or all, I would consider the idea that you are basically doing the low-calorie diet now without the actual hormone in your system, and your body may not like this one bit and it’s letting you know. If that’s happening ALONG WITH slowed or no weight loss, you might want to consider sticking with the real hormone – while it’s more costly, in the long run you will save yourself a lot of money and time and emotional energy on not having to do rounds over and over.
Switching from homeopathic hCG to real hCG injections
This too can still cause a “transition” period because not feeling hungry on the hCG diet is not just about being on real hCG, but also dialing in your DOSAGE of hCG – see my very detailed article on this.
Both too much and too little real hCG in your system causes the same sensation of gnawing crazy hunger. So when you first switch, if you are on the wrong dose for you, you can feel crummy. Typically weight loss may be better, or the same, when you switch to injections, but keep in mind what I said above about the timing if switching mid-round when overall weight-loss on the scale is almost always slower anyways.
Switching from real hCG drops/pellets to hCG injection
This is pretty much the same situation as above – the dosage you will need for injections is going to be quite different than the dosage you were taking for real drops and pellets – just use my guide to help dial that in.
Switching from U.S. made real hCG to overseas hCG
As far as dosage goes, most likely around the same dosage will feel fine. It’s possible that potency level of various overseas brands may differ a little from the U.S. made but I really don’t know. Just remember even IF a potency level is different, you can just always adjust your dose up or down to find what you need to get rid of the hunger.
