What Happens To Your Body When You Drink Apple Cider Vinegar And Lemon Juice

For some, the journey to shedding pounds also involves shedding money. In the United States, people collectively pay a staggering bundle to achieve weight loss: Yearly estimates hover around $33 billion (via Boston Medical Center). You don't have to break the bank to beat the scale, though. Reducing your waistline or maintaining a healthier normal weight or BMI for your frame, age, and gender could be a matter of drinking more apple cider vinegar (ACV) and lemon juice, two foods that may make your body more efficient at losing weight.

To understand the weight control potential of combining ACV and lemon juice, let's begin by looking at the science behind them. ACV is a byproduct that results from fermenting apples. Nutritionally, ACV doesn't contain many key nutrients. A tablespoon contains negligible amounts of sugar and a bit of potassium. Yet studies indicate that, by its nature, ACV may be a weight loss goldmine.

As part of a 2024 study published in BMJ Nutrition, Prevention and Health, 120 overweight individuals consumed doses of five milliliters, 10 milliliters, or 15 milliliters of ACV daily over 12 weeks. By the end of the experiment, the subjects had lost weight as a group and decreased their BMIs.

Other studies highlight ACV's weight loss capabilities as well, including a 2018 trial in the Journal of Functional Foods that showed ACV seemed to improve the effectiveness of low-calorie diets. Registered dietitian Erin Palinski-Wade told Prevention that ACV isn't a magic weight loss solution, but acknowledged that "the consistent results indicate that ACV may be a beneficial tool in reducing body weight."

As for lemon juice, a 2008 study in the Journal of Clinical Biochemistry and Nutrition revealed that when mice were fed higher fat foods plus a 5% solution containing lemon antioxidant compounds called polyphenols, the mice didn't gain as much weight as expected. These findings suggest that lemon polyphenols might be assistive in fighting fat and weight gain. You don't have to isolate the polyphenols from lemons, though. You can simply drink lemon juice and water; to get the most polyphenols, include polyphenol-rich lemon pulp in your beverage. Lemon water may lower your hunger pangs, too, mainly because water causes stomach fullness. (Read if it's safe to drink lemon water on an empty stomach.)

Ultimately, ACV and lemon juice won't dissolve fat (you may need to switch workouts for fat burn) or make the calories you've already eaten vanish. However, adding both foods into your daily diet could give your body extra weight loss support.