About the desk

HCG is a small independent desk writing about weight loss, diets and metabolic health. We explain how things work — what a calorie deficit actually does, why the scale moves overnight, what a regulator has ruled about a product — and we put the numbers in the text so a reader can check them.

What we do not do

We do not sell diets, programmes, supplements, injections or consultations, and we do not take payment to recommend them. Nothing here is a diagnosis or a prescription. Where a subject is medical — human chorionic gonadotropin, prescription weight loss medicines, very low calorie diets — we say what the evidence and the regulators say, and we send the decision back to a qualified clinician who knows the reader.

Where our facts come from

Regulators, national health services, published trials, and the manufacturers themselves. When the record is thin we say so in the sentence rather than filling the gap. Photographs come from Wikimedia Commons and other free banks, with the photographer credited under the picture.

The gaming section

Before 2026 this domain published an online gaming portal. Those pages have not been deleted: they are gathered in the Gaming section, they carry advertising links, and they are written for adults of legal gambling age. They are separate from the health desk in subject and in tone, and we keep them labelled as such.

Corrections

If something here is wrong, write to [email protected] and say which sentence. We correct the page and note what changed.