Skeptics Stack Exchange
Skeptics Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [weight-loss]

A reduction of the total body mass, due to a mean loss of fluid, body fat or adipose tissue and/or lean mass.

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Is Herbalife safe, and can it actually promote sustained weight loss?

I have a friend who's begun taking Herbalife products, presumably for weight loss. I informed him that their products, like all supplements, are not regulated by the FDA, and that there have been numerous cases of liver toxicity associated with…
user15871
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Do consumer-grade body-fat scales provide consistent results?

There are weight scales that additionally claim to measure body fat by electrical resistance. According to this article, body-fat scales are "absolutely" superior to just-weight scales, although the article ads the reasonable caveat that one should…
Larry OBrien
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Can artificial sweeteners make you gain weight?

For the last five decades, diet soda has been a given for anyone on a diet who wants to drink something other than water. This because instead of it containing large quantities of sugar it had artificial sweeteners, which according to physicians and…
AndroidHustle
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Do belt massagers promote weight loss?

I recently bought a piece of exercise equipment to help counteract all the time I spend sat in front of StackExchange. I thought I got a very good price for the base unit alone, but I obviously didn't understand the fine-print, because it came with…
Oddthinking
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Is weight-loss almost always temporary?

I was reading this article on Cracked which claims: The number of people who go from fat to thin, and stay there, statistically rounds down to zero. That seemed like a pretty incredible claim, considering the sheer amount of diets and such…
user19443
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Does drinking cold water help to reduce weight?

According to this article, it was mentioned: there may be advantages in drinking cold water for weight loss So, does drinking cold water really help to reduce weight? and does drinking warm water really help to increase weight?
Jack
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Can John Morgan use hypnosis to cause people to quit smoking or lose weight?

John Morgan Seminars claim to be able to do two things via hypnosis: Cause someone to quit smoking forever (the radio commercial indicates usefulness for those smoking 3+ packs a day) and Cause someone to lose weight and keep it off permanently…
Yamikuronue
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Can one's genetics account for x% of their weight?

I have seen statements like this in various places: "Such and such accounts for X percent of so and so". But it's not always clear what this means, how it is calculated or proven. You will see this a lot, in particular, on 23andme.com, in your…
Matt M.
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Did Kali Muscle weigh 99 pounds when he was 16 years old?

Body-builder, YouTuber and actor, Kali Muscle, claims in this video that he weighed 99 pounds (45 kg) when he was 16. When I first started training, when I was 16 years old, I was 99 pounds. That sounds impossible to me unless he was facing…
Count Iblis
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Are those claims from Linda Bacon's Health at Every Size accurate?

Facebook, Reddit, and basicly the rest of the internet exploded with the new viral movement HAES. This movement mainly claims, that being fat is healthy; alleging that they have "evidence" catching these claims in the picture: Source:…
Himarm
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Does ghee help burn body fat?

Several people claim that ghee can promote weight loss by burning fat. Max Sport and Fitness: Ghee promotes a healthy digestive system and is good for weight loss due to its concentration of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which studies show…
skept101
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Do some foods burn fat?

The nutritionist Dr Jonny Bowden claims that some foods inflate fat cells, while others shrink fat cells. His promotional material talks about most people suffering carbohydrate intolerance and that most people who are fat are fat because of an…
Mark Booth
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Does eating Chocolate make you skinnier?

As reported by major news outlets, a study allegedly claims that eating chocolate can make you slimmer: Here the report from CBS News for the study, published in the March 26 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers examined more than…
Lagerbaer
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Does Frank Ryan's abdominal fat reducer pill work?

While waiting for a friend to show up for coffee, I ran into an ad in a local newspaper. I was thrilled to find the exact ad online! It's for a medication that claims to target and eliminate belly fat, supposedly developed by the well-known cosmetic…
Hendy
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Does stimulating the hypothalamus signal brain to store less body fat?

I come across another Indiegogo project that promises a weight loss just by carrying their device on the head. This device stimulates nerves behind the ear. They claim that these nerves send a signal to the hypothalamus, part of the brain that…
Grasper
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