Apple cider vinegar for weight loss, 10 trials and 789 people: one study has been retracted

Apple Cider Vinegar for Weight Loss: 10 Trials, 789 Participants: One Study Has Been Retracted

This article is for health education purposes only and is intended for informational reference; it does not constitute medical advice. If you have health concerns, please consult a professional physician.

That bottle of apple cider vinegar in the kitchen has been assigned far too many jobs over the years: weight loss, blood sugar control, fat burning, bowel regularity. A widely circulated version on short-video platforms goes like this: "One spoonful a day, and after 12 weeks body weight and blood lipids drop across the board." This claim didn't come from nowhere—it has a source: a randomized controlled trial published in 2024 in a subjournal of the British Medical Journal.

In September 2025, that paper was retracted by the journal.[2][3]

So the question becomes two-fold: What was wrong with that study? And how much evidence is actually left for apple cider vinegar itself? We dug up every original paper we could find in this field and checked them one by one.

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1. That repeatedly cited paper has been retracted

The retraction notice was very specific—not a vague "the authors requested withdrawal": The journal asked the authors to hand over their raw data and conducted a post-publication review. The conclusion was that the authors' analysis could not be reproduced and multiple errors were found. In addition, the dataset provided by the authors showed patterns inconsistent with "participants being randomized," and implausibly small p-values appeared despite a limited sample size. The study also had not been prospectively registered, violating journal policy.[3]

How tempting were its original conclusions? 120 overweight and obese adolescents and young adults were randomly divided into four groups: 5 mL, 10 mL, 15 mL of apple cider vinegar per day, and placebo. After 12 weeks, the study reported significant reductions in body weight, body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, body fat percentage, fasting blood glucose, triglycerides, and cholesterol across all groups.[2]

That's why you can find the entire script of "how many pounds apple cider vinegar helps you lose in 12 weeks" across the Chinese internet. It can no longer serve as evidence, but those reposts are still out there.

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2. Laying out the usable evidence: effective, but the magnitude is small

A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis in Nutrients retrieved 2,961 reports and ultimately included 10 randomized controlled trials with 789 adults, with intervention periods of at least 4 weeks.[1]

The results: For those who consumed apple cider vinegar daily, the standardized effect size for weight loss was 0.39 (95% confidence interval 0.15 to 0.63), for body mass index 0.65 (interval 0.26 to 1.05), and for waist circumference 0.34 (interval 0.02 to 0.67); other body composition indicators showed no significant changes.[1]

Three numbers need to be put in plain language:

0.39 is a small-to-moderate magnitude, and it is a standardized effect size that cannot be directly converted into "how many kilograms"—anyone who tells you it can be converted is making things up.
Heterogeneity was 62% (weight) and 83% (BMI), meaning these 10 trials differed greatly from one another and cannot be treated as a single unified answer.[1]
The subgroups where effects were somewhat better were: interventions of no more than 12 weeks, around 30 mL per day, and populations who were overweight/obese or had type 2 diabetes.[1]

In other words: this is not zero effect, but it is far from the "lose weight lying down" claims in short videos.

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3. The post-meal blood glucose part: the evidence is real

The part of apple cider vinegar that genuinely has physiological support is post-meal blood glucose, not body weight.

Classic trial: 12 healthy volunteers ate white bread containing 50 g of available carbohydrates for breakfast, paired with 18, 23, and 28 mmol of acetic acid respectively (roughly equivalent to 20 to 35 mL of regular-strength vinegar). At 30 minutes, blood glucose and insulin showed a clear dose-response—the more acetic acid, the lower the response; the high-dose group had lower blood glucose at 30 and 45 minutes, lower insulin at 15 and 30 minutes, and higher satiety scores at 30, 90, and 120 minutes.[4]

The mechanism makes sense: acetic acid slows gastric emptying and affects the rate at which the post-meal blood glucose curve rises. This pathway matters for the blood glucose curve of the same meal; it has no magic effect on total daily calories.

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4. Half of the appetite reduction may just be "it tastes bad"

Many articles cite "vinegar can suppress appetite." But the same group of researchers later conducted two more detailed trials, and the conclusions were less flattering.

16 young adults of normal weight had vinegar added to pleasant-tasting and unpleasant-tasting drinks, paired with the same breakfast: vinegar did significantly reduce objective and subjective measures of appetite—but nausea scores also rose significantly, and the reduction was greater in the "unpleasant-tasting" treatment group; there was a significant correlation between palatability scores and appetite measures.[5]

In translation: if you don't feel like eating after drinking it, it may not be because vinegar regulated appetite hormones, but because your stomach feels uncomfortable. That's not a weight-loss mechanism; that's poor tolerability.

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5. Two costs: gastric emptying and teeth

Slower gastric emptying is bad news for some people. In a crossover trial of 10 patients with type 1 diabetes and gastroparesis, after adding 30 mL of apple cider vinegar to the same meal, the median gastric emptying rate dropped from 27% to 17%. The authors explicitly warned that for people who already have delayed gastric emptying, this may actually be detrimental to blood glucose control.[6]

Teeth are another victim. A case report documented enamel erosion in a 15-year-old girl, traced to drinking a cup of apple cider vinegar daily for weight loss; the report also noted that in North African cultures and among bodybuilding populations, this practice has been passed down for generations.[7]

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If you still want to try it, remember these 5 points first

Take it with meals, not on an empty stomach. Eat a few bites of food first, then drink it—your stomach will be more settled.
Dilute it with water. Mix 1 to 2 spoonfuls into 200 mL of warm water; don't drink the undiluted liquid straight.
Use a straw and rinse your mouth afterward. Tooth enamel can't withstand being soaked in acid every day.
Don't swap it for medication. Take your glucose-lowering and blood pressure medications as prescribed; the risk of stopping them on your own far outweighs any benefit a bottle of vinegar can bring.
People with stomach conditions, reflux, low potassium, or those currently using diuretics should not try it, or should ask their doctor first.

One more piece of advice that costs nothing: don't buy those expensive capsules and drinks with the words "apple cider vinegar" added to the name. All the credible trials to date used ordinary brewed vinegar, and not a single one has proven that extract capsules are better.

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Vinegar can make a meal's blood sugar curve look a little better, but it can't move the needle on the scale. What really determines body weight is how much you eat in a day, how much you move, and whether you get enough sleep—there are no shortcuts for these three things, and there's no need to spend money on a bottle of vinegar.

If someone around you is relying on apple cider vinegar for weight loss, forward this article to them. Saving these 5 usage tips is more useful than saving ten short videos about "one spoonful to slim down."

If this has been helpful to you, give it a like or a "Wow," and feel free to leave a comment telling us what topics you'd like to see.

Disclaimer: This article is health science popularization, provided for informational reference only and does not constitute medical advice; if you have health concerns, please consult a professional doctor.

Declaration of interests: This article does not involve any product recommendations, and the author has no financial relationship with any brands or manufacturers mentioned in the text.

References

[1] Castagna A, Ferro Y, Noto FR, et al. Effect of apple cider vinegar intake on body composition in humans with type 2 diabetes and/or overweight: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Nutrients. 2025;17(18):3000. PMID: 41010525

[2] Abou-Khalil R, Andary J, El-Hayek E. Apple cider vinegar for weight management in Lebanese adolescents and young adults with overweight and obesity: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. BMJ Nutr Prev Health. 2024;7(1):61-67. PMID: 38966098 (This article has been retracted)

[3] Retraction: Apple cider vinegar for weight management in Lebanese adolescents and young adults with overweight and obesity: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. BMJ Nutr Prev Health. 2025;8(2):693. PMID: 41789013

[4] Ostman E, Granfeldt Y, Persson L, Bjorck I. Vinegar supplementation lowers glucose and insulin responses and increases satiety after a bread meal in healthy subjects. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2005;59(9):983-988. PMID: 16015276

[5] Darzi J, Frost GS, Montaser R, Yap J, Robertson MD. Influence of the tolerability of vinegar as an oral source of short-chain fatty acids on appetite control and food intake. Int J Obes (Lond). 2014;38(5):675-681. PMID: 23979220

[6] Hlebowicz J, Darwiche G, Bjorgell O, Almer LO. Effect of apple cider vinegar on delayed gastric emptying in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus: a pilot study. BMC Gastroenterol. 2007;7:46. PMID: 18093343

[7] Gambon DL, Brand HS, Veerman EC. Unhealthy weight loss. Erosion by apple cider vinegar. Ned Tijdschr Tandheelkd. 2012;119(12):589-591. PMID: 23373303