Why Does Apple Cider Vinegar Make You Lose Weight

Medically reviewed by Debra Rose Wilson, Ph.D., MSN, R.N., IBCLC, AHN-BC, CHT — By Ashley Marcin — Updated on March 17, 2023

While your body can detoxify itself, some people use an apple cider vinegar detox to begin changing their diet. Consuming apple cider vinegar in moderation may provide some health benefits.

Until now, you may have thought that apple cider vinegar is only good for dressing salads. But people across the globe use apple cider vinegar in a number of other, more medicinal ways.

Does Apple Cider Vinegar Really Improve Your Health?

The idea behind the detox is that raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar still has “the mother” in it. The mother contains good bacteria for the gut, vitamins, minerals, and enzymes. It’s normal for apple cider vinegar with the mother to be murky or cloudy.

The use of apple cider vinegar for detoxification, diet, or other benefits goes back thousands of years. Some even claim the father of medicine, Hippocrates, promoted its health qualities as far back as 400 B.C.

The body is able to detoxify itself. There isn’t much scientific research to support the argument that detox diets remove toxins from the body.

Weight Loss: Apple Cider Vinegar Diet To Lose Belly Fat In Just 1 Week

You may hear that apple cider vinegar helps reduce appetite and even burn fat. There’s also evidence to suggest that adding apple cider vinegar to your daily routine may help with type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol.

With an apple cider vinegar detox, you consume this type of drink regularly for a set period of time — several days to a month or more.

Much of the information you’ll find online is purely anecdotal. Read it with caution. But this isn’t to say that the health properties of apple cider vinegar haven’t been examined.

Apple Cider Vinegar For Weight Loss: Does It Work?

, consuming this ingredient lowered both blood glucose and insulin in 12 participants with diabetes. Not only that, but the participants’ fullness after eating bread increased.

One study revealed that obese rats who drank apple cider vinegar daily lost more body weight and fat mass than the rats in the control group. The waist circumference and triglyceride levels for rats in the groups that consumed apple cider vinegar lowered significantly as well.

In yet another study, apple cider vinegar lowered the LDL, triglyceride, and cholesterol levels in 19 people with hyperlipidemia, or high blood fats.

How Does Apple Cider Vinegar Help With Weight Loss?

The results suggest that regularly consuming apple cider vinegar may be a good way to prevent atherosclerosis for people at high risk of developing this complication and other heart issues.

However, these studies were either conducted on animals or very small sample groups of people. Larger-scale studies on humans are still needed.

Because evidence surrounding apple cider vinegar is largely anecdotal, we curated comments from Amazon reviews left by people who tried the detox:

Ways To Use Apple Cider Vinegar For Weight Loss

Before you start guzzling lots of apple cider vinegar, make sure it’s diluted with water. Apple cider vinegar in its pure form is acidic. It may erode tooth enamel or even burn your mouth and throat.

If you do choose to do the detox, be sure to rinse your mouth with water after drinking the vinegar. You may even want to drink it through a straw. Even just one glass a day may be enough to negatively affect your teeth.

Apple cider vinegar may also interact with different medications or supplements. In particular, it may contribute to low potassium levels if you take diuretics or insulin.

Weight Loss: This Baking Soda And Apple Cider Vinegar Drink Can Help You Burn Belly Fat

If you take diuretics or insulin, talk to your doctor before you start consuming apple cider vinegar regularly or try the detox.

People who have tried an apple cider detox do share that you may have some nausea or stomach discomfort after drinking it. This discomfort is usually worse in the morning hours when your stomach is empty.

While there isn’t a huge body of research to suggest apple cider vinegar is a miracle health cure, the testimonials and reviews you’ll find online can be compelling.

Apple Cider Vinegar Detox: Drink, Side Effects, And Cleanse

In the end, the best way to “detox” your body may be to stop taking in sugars and processed foods and eat a healthy diet rich in whole foods, like fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins.

If you’re still interested in apple cider vinegar, it’s a good idea to check with your doctor before adding this ingredient to your diet. This is especially so if you’re taking medications or supplements.

Has strict sourcing guidelines and relies on peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical associations. We avoid using tertiary references. You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and current by reading our editorial policy.Apple cider vinegar is apple juice that has been fermented twice. Typically, most people will try and drink this to help with their health, in particular with weight loss. This is because raw apple cider vinegar may contain more natural bacteria and yeasts known as the mother, which is the cloudy sediment you see in the bottle.

Does Apple Cider Vinegar Help With Weight Loss? Yes, But Only A Little

I won't deny that apple cider vinegar can have amazing benefits. However, for this challenge, I drank apple cider vinegar for a month to see if it would have any benefits to my body on its own. Noticeably, there were a couple. However, weight loss was not one of them.

To bust the myth, I started by searching for the best ways to drink apple cider vinegar, thinking about timing as well. Apple cider vinegar has a very strong taste, one that can burn your throat if not consumed carefully. I tried drinking it on its own without any flavor aids, and it was a struggle. I had to find a different way to drink it.

After much research (including tons of Tik Tok videos) I landed on a combination of eight ounces of hot water, one tablespoon of pure honey, a sprinkle of cinnamon, and two tablespoons of the apple cider vinegar—specifically Cento Organic, which is a raw unfiltered, with the mother brand. This lessened the strength of the vinegar taste and instead made it taste like a sour-ish baked apple pie. Plus, the honey and cinnamon provide some additional benefits, so they only added to the health factor of this test.

Do Apple Cider Vinegar Diets Help You Lose Weight?

The idea was to drink this concoction every day for an entire month, so I needed to find the best time every day to do so to ensure consistency. I decided to drink it first thing in the morning before consuming any other food or beverage to help cleanse my body and aid in digestion for the day. For the record, I would also like to say that this drink was not an alternative to coffee. I still needed my morning cup of joe and would immediately have some after I drank the apple cider vinegar mix.6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e

Once I drank the beverage, I would go on with my daily eating and drinking like normal. On the first day of the month, I weighed myself and made note of my weight. Then, once a week for the entirety of the month, I'd weigh myself again to see if I noticed any changes on the scale.

Here's what I did notice: the apple cider vinegar curbed my appetite. This was the most noticeable difference. Although still eating three square meals, I didn't feel as hungry throughout the day. I limited my snacking, and I consumed fewer amounts of food during my meals.

Apple Cider Vinegar: Benefits, Side Effects, Uses, Dosage, And More

Although snacking less and eating fewer foods during meals can eventually lead to losing weight, it's important to acknowledge the difference between foods that make you lose weight and others that act as a weight loss aid. On its own, the apple cider vinegar did not help me lose weight. However, I do believe that it could help aid weight loss if paired with the correct diet and exercise. Personally, since my appetite was curbed, I could've eaten foods that contained fewer calories during my meals. That would lead me to be in a calorie deficit. Also, if I exercised frequently or kept better track of my exercise routine during the month, there could have been different weight-loss results.

I also noticed that the apple cider vinegar did help aid digestion. This might have been because I drank it before my coffee, which is a mild diuretic. However, apple cider vinegar is known to potentially help raise stomach acid levels to aid digestion. It also could prevent gas and bloating, which slow digestion can cause. Who knows, maybe my drinking habit for the month did help the digestion process. Nonetheless, my stomach does thank me for it.

Am I going to continue drinking the apple cider vinegar recipe in the mornings? Honestly, no. About halfway through the experiment, I was excited to near the end. The annoyance I felt with trying to get into the drinking habit of consuming it in the morning was a daunting task. However, I do believe that drinking apple cider vinegar could still provide some awesome benefits. Therefore, I will not overlook having it every now and then if I need a body cleanse.

Health Benefits Of Apple Cider Vinegar + How To Drink It

Kayla Garritano graduated from Hofstra University, where she majored in Journalism and double minored in Marketing and Creative Writing. Read more about Kayla