Can Apple Cider Vinegar Help You Lose Weight?

Apple cider vinegar has been a favorite of the alternative medicine community for years. In the long-ago past, it was frequently used to boost and tone your overall health, as well as believed to help with various afflictions. But was there any truth to these claims?

The Internet is full of claims that so-and-so household ingredients can help you lose weight and achieve your desired figure.

And while some of these are true, many are not, unfortunately. So it falls on us to help you discern between what works and what doesn’t.

In this article, we’ll be studying how apple cider vinegar can help you lose weight, to give you an accurate, fact-based view of things.

Why Can Apple Cider Vinegar Help You Lose Weight?

The first and by far the most impressive benefit of ingesting apple cider vinegar on the regular is that it helps boost your metabolism.

A study conducted on lab rats showed that prolonged use of apple cider vinegar increased the production of the AMPK enzyme in their bodies.

This enzyme is responsible for fat burning, so the more of it you have, the more fat you burn. It also inhibits the production of sugar and fat in your liver, which again helps your metabolism run smoothly. 

Apple cider vinegar also seems to discourage the storage of fat inside the body, by preventing ingested fat from bonding with the fat cells inside.

This lets your body convert the fat into energy, instead of “putting it in the bank”, as it were.

Many studies have suggested that ACV inhibits the genes that make you put on weight more quickly, and also protects your liver by decreasing fat storage there as well. 

Yet another ACV study on rats found that even if the rats were kept on a diet high in fats, a regular dose of vinegar stimulated the genes responsible for fat burn.This concluded that even though the rats took in a lot of fat, they were still able to burn through a good chunk of it, thanks to the vinegar. 

What’s more, apple cider vinegar has also been shown to inhibit the parts of the brain responsible for hunger.

In other words, apple cider vinegar can reduce and suppress your appetite, helping you stick to a diet, and avoid common pitfalls such as night cravings.

Lastly, apple cider vinegar has been shown to increase the feeling of fullness in people. If people feel full, they will automatically eat less.

And if that feeling of fullness can be made to last longer through natural supplements, such as apple cider vinegar, then it can greatly impact your daily calorie intake.

And indeed, apple cider vinegar has shown properties that slow down the rate at which your stomach gets through a meal, which means the food stays there for longer, and so you feel fuller for longer as well.

This might also work to reduce the temptation of snacks in-between meals, which is one of the main aspects that put any diet in danger.

One human study, this time, had 11 people eat a meal that was high in calories, while also taking vinegar with the meal.

Not only did the study find that they had much lower blood sugar levels with an astounding 55%, but they also showed that the subjects consumed between 200 and 275 fewer calories that day than they normally would have.

What Other Benefits Does Apple Cider Vinegar Have?

As we’ve seen, apple cider vinegar benefits comes with an impressive list related to weight loss, all of which are supported by tons of accredited data.

But that’s only a part of what a regular vinegar intake can do for your body.

Apple cider vinegar has also been shown to kill harmful bacteria that has somehow made its way into your body.

Acetic acid (which is another name for apple cider vinegar) is a potent weapon against various bacteria that causes food poisoning.

A regular intake of apple cider vinegar is also believed to help with insulin sensitivity. Indirectly, this may also help assuage symptoms of ovarian afflictions, such as polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS).

One study found that women who took apple cider vinegar daily for 3 months were able to resume their periods and saw an alleviation of their symptoms thanks to the vinegar.  

Lastly, apple cider vinegar shows a lot of promise in reducing bad cholesterol levels and increasing good cholesterol.

By ridding your body of bad “LDL” cholesterol, apple cider vinegar also safeguards your heart health.

Because LDL cholesterol coats the insides of your arteries and is the main cause of cardiac events. 

How Should You Use Apple Cider Vinegar For Weight Loss?

Many people choose to add apple cider vinegar to their foods. It’s a big favorite in the salad dressing category and adds flavor to leafy greens, but also tomato salads. If that doesn’t sound like you think you can just drink it. 

The recommended dosage is 1-2 tablespoons a day (or anywhere from 15 to 30 ml). Dilute this in water, because the acid can be harmful to your mouth otherwise. Also, try to distribute this amount throughout the day rather than taking it all at once, as that can cause nausea and other unwanted effects. 

Be careful though, don’t take more than the recommended dosage. Apple cider vinegar can be harmful to the enamel of your teeth and lead to tooth sensitivity.

It can also interact with other medicines or weight loss pills you might be taking, so ideally consult your doctor beforehand. 

The Verdict: Can Apple Cider Vinegar Help You Lose Weight?

The good news is that yes, judging from the extensive research available on the subject, apple cider vinegar can be of huge help in stimulating your metabolism.

Even without all the weight loss benefits, apple cider vinegar is a wonderful toner and health booster, so that should earn it a spot on your daily diet anyway.

Do you take apple cider vinegar for weight loss? We’d love to hear from you – what do you think, does it work or not?