Laura Prepon Once Injected Herself With Hormones To Try and Lose Weight 

3 Protein-Packed Breakfast Smoothies That Will Make You Excited To Wake Up

This Body-Positive Lane Bryant Ad Was “Too Sexy” For TV

Laura Prepon Once Injected Herself With Hormones To Try And Lose Weight—Here’s Why That’s Dangerous

Actress Laura Prepon may have always seemed the face of confidence on 

, but the star’s secretly struggled with her weight and diet throughout her career. It’s an issue she reveals in her new, 21-day diet book 

, co-written by Elizabeth Troy, the integrative nutritionist who helped the actress finally get her eating on track and lose weight in a healthy way in 2012.

That ’70s Show in 1998, she was plagued by digestive issues that caused her to gain weight, lose energy, and feel bloated. This pushed her into a cycle of dangerous fad and crash diets. As each plan continually failed her, she’d move on to a new one. “It got to the point where it felt like I couldn’t do my job or live a normal life, and I felt like I couldn’t eat 

The most drastic diet Prepon tried before meeting Taylor: injecting herself with the hormone HCG. She writes in

“The last diet I tried before finding my nutritionist, Elizabeth Troy, really did a number on me. A doctor I consulted prescribed injections of HCG (a hormone secreted by pregnant women) to trick my body into thinking it was pregnant. The idea was that these injections (which I did myself every morning) would cause my body to burn stored fat to support the ‘baby.’ This regimen was accompanied by a starvation-level 500-calorie-per-day diet. I know what you’re thinking, and yes, it’s just as crazy as it sounds, but I was willing to try anything. When I stopped it, not only did I gain all the weight back, but my hormones were completely out of whack.”

HCG stands for human chorionic gonadotropin, and it’s a hormone made by the embryo that enables its growth and development early in a pregnancy. “It’s actually the hormone that we measure when we check women to see if they’re pregnant,” Deena Adimoolam, M.D., assistant professor of endocrinology at Mount Sinai Hospital tells SELF.

But as a diet tool, it’s dangerous. Dieters often believe the hormone can help them burn fat and stay full, and they take it either orally or through injections. But in 2011 the Food and Drug Administration ruled over-the-counter diet products containing HCG illegal. The reason: it doesn’t work.

“With the FDA, there’s been a lot of controversy about these injections and whether they’re efficacious for weight loss,” Adimoolam says. “All the studies have shown that, for the most part, HCG injections alone do not lead to weight loss.”

Like Prepon experienced, many HCG products are paired with an extremely low-calorie diet. Adimoolam says that’s what could lead to weight loss if someone tried this diet—but at a price.

The FDA says a 500-calorie-per-day diet—which is both unhealthy and unsustainable—could lead to side effects like “gallstone formation, an imbalance of the electrolytes that keep the body’s muscles and nerves functioning properly, and an irregular heartbeat.”

“Typically we tell our patients to follow a 1,200 to 1,400-calorie restriction a day for a typical diet, so that’s far less than what we would even recommend,” Adimoolam says. “Our body needs a certain number of calories to be able to function the way that it does everyday.”

Then there’s the problem of introducing unnecessary HCG hormones. Prepon said after the diet, her hormones went “out of whack.” To Adimoolam, that makes sense. 

“We use HCG injections to help treat women with infertility to help them ovulate,” Adimoolam says. “We notice when we give HCG injections to these patients, there are some hormonal effects that can occur. Women can have increased production of estrogen, and related to that increase in estrogen they can actually have ovarian hyperstimulation, which can lead to some problems like abdominal pain, development of a lot of fluid in the abdomen, and other issues.”

Studies have shown that HCG can also lead to the development of blood clots.

“There’s been some studies where people can develop clots in their legs which can ultimately lead to a very fatal incident called a pulmonary embolism, which is basically a clot in the lungs,” Adimoolam says.

She says she’d never recommend the diet to a patient, and would instead suggest a healthy calorie-restriction program, ideally with the guidance of a healthcare professional or registered dietitian.

15 New Makeup Products That We Used To The Very Last Drop