Does Acupuncture Help with Weight Loss?
Are you exercising and eating a low-calorie diet yet still struggling to lose weight? Acupuncture treatments could help you finally reach your goal weight. The ancient Chinese medical practice reduces cravings, boosts metabolism, and improves digestion.
How Acupuncture Can Help
"Eat less, move more" has been the standard weight loss advice for decades. It's true that cutting calories and exercising help you lose weight, but sometimes these measures alone aren't enough.
If you're struggling to keep weight off, your ancestors may be partly to blame. According to Columbia University Irving Medical Center, human bodies are designed to hold on to extra pounds. Centuries ago, storing fat made sense when it might be days until you could find another bison to hunt. With food readily available today, extra fat reserves aren't necessary, but your body may still react as if food is scarce. Luckily, adding acupuncture to your weight loss plan may help you finally shed those extra pounds.
Wondering if acupuncture is truly beneficial for weight loss? According to a systematic review and meta-analysis published in Complementary Therapies in Medicine in 2025, acupuncture had a significant effect on weight, body mass index (BMI), and waist circumference. The researchers noted that additional studies will be needed to support the evidence that acupuncture is helpful for weight loss.
Whether you want to lose 10 pounds or 100, acupuncture treatments could help you lose weight by:
- Restoring Balance. An invisible energy called "Qi" flows through your body and is essential for good mental and physical health. Qi stagnates and becomes blocked if you're stressed, don't eat well, or are fatigued. Blockages disrupt the body's natural balance and can make it harder to lose weight. Acupuncture treatments clear blocked pathways and keep Qi flowing.
- Reducing Cravings. Sticking to your diet can be difficult if you can't ignore cravings. Acupuncture treatments balance hormones that control hunger. Auricular (ear) acupuncture could have a positive effect on ghrelin levels, according to a pilot study published in BMJ Open Gastroenterology in 2015. Ghrelin is a hormone that tells your brain when your stomach is empty and you need to eat. Higher ghrelin levels increase hunger.
- Lowering Stress. Your first inclination when stressed may be to reach for a bag of potato chips or a slice of cake. Acupuncture decreases stress by flooding your body with serotonin and endorphins. These feel-good hormones create a natural calming effect that helps you relax. Once you're less stressed, you may find you no longer need to use food for comfort.
- Improving Digestion. Losing weight may be challenging if your digestive system is slow. Acupuncture treatments help your body break down food, absorb nutrients, reduce bloating, and eliminate waste.
- Boosting Metabolism. Metabolism is the process your body uses to turn food into energy. If your metabolism is slow, your body may convert some calories into fat instead of burning them. Acupuncture could help reset your metabolism and burn more calories.
- Enhancing Sleep. Poor sleep can affect the hormones that regulate hunger and appetite and slow your metabolism. Acupuncture treatment may improve sleep duration and reduce the time it takes to fall asleep, according to a review published in Sleep Medicine Reviews in 2024.
Combining acupuncture with dietary changes and exercise could be the solution to your weight loss issues. Ready to try acupuncture? Contact our office to schedule an appointment.
Sources:
Science Direct: Complementary Therapies in Medicine: Efficacy and Safety of Acupuncture for Weight Management: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials, 6/2025
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965229925000469
Healthline: Acupuncture for Weight Loss, 5/19/2023
https://www.healthline.com/health/acupuncture-for-weight-loss#takeaway
PMC: BMJ Open Gastroenterology: The Effects of Auricular Acupuncture on Weight Reduction and Feeding-Related Cytokines: A Pilot Study, 2/9/2015
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4599151/
USA Today: Acupuncture Is Used to Treat Many Conditions. Is Weight Loss One?, 1/25/2024
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases: Overweight & Obesity Statistics, 09/2021
https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-statistics/overweight-obesity
Columbia University Irving Medical Center: Why It's Hard to Maintain Weight Loss, 5/2/2022
https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/news/why-its-hard-maintain-weight-loss
Sleep Medicine Reviews: Acupuncture for Primary Insomnia: Effectiveness, Safety, Mechanisms and Recommendations for Clinical Practice, 4/2024
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S108707922300148X