I like to sip consommé in the winter. My excess calories often come from savory food and a cup of beef broth, home made, usually distracts me from the more caloric choices. Anything with more water than substance works.

Isn’t bone broth just one component of a way of eating? Keto? or maybe Paleo?

Good point, Zalco

If made with a variety of vegetables (much is just the bones) it could be very, very nutritious, potentially cutting out cravings for missing nutrients. I've experienced a common thing of feeling ”hungry” but not for any particular thing, and realizing it was actually thirst wearing a disguise. I'm generally very well hydrated, so it's a surprise, but certainly broth can help with that kind of thing. For sure bone broth can help people who eat too much because they're missing nutrition, especially protein and minerals. Filling up on low calorie, nutritious broth can certainly reduce hunger.

BUT there is no magic potion. There is nothing you can take in which will make you safely lose weight (amphetamines and tape worms are not safe). Eat to balance your blood sugar, take care of your gut health, boost your immunities, and generally be healthy. Just eat a little less than you want, but not so little you'll be uncomfortable and go eat more. Slow, but lots less likely it'll bounce back.

"bone broth" seems to be a new buzz work for what wwe used to call chicken broth or beef stock. You take some bones and aromatics and something acedic like lemon or vinegar and simmer for many many hours and strain and boom!! Bone broth! It won't cause weight loss, the only way it can be considered a diet food is if it's used as a substitute for something more calorific. And as for nutrients from vegetables? After boiling for many hours not much organic is left but collagen and perhaps some minerals from the bones and whatever else you have added. As for the marrow....maybe maybe not....I am collecting chicken carcasses and preparing a big batch of bone broth soon and there is not much marrrow in chicken bones! It's not the marrow, but the collagen and calcium in the bones that leaches out into the broth after hours of simmering in an acedic solution.

Like Linda, I've been making Bone Broth for years and always called it broth or stock. I always slowly cook the bones for hours before adding in all sorts of veggies; and then I add the herbs at the very end, in hopes of keeping most of the vitamins and minerals.

I don't know about losing wieght with it as a diet drink, but I've lost a pound or two when this broth saved me when I've been sick and unable to prepare a meal.

I remember, from reading books on history, that the broth on the back of the stove saved more than one life with it's drinkable nutrient value.

You lose weight because you're consuming mainly water. It's not a healthy diet.

I use bone broth when I make soups as it adds more protein and collagen, and body to the soups, but I've not heard it as a weight loss plan. But then again, you can lose weight eating nothing but chocolate as long as the calories stay low. Certainly wouldn't be healthy though. Reminds me of the days way back when they had the grapefruit diet!

Weight is determined by what we eat and our activity level. If you substitute something that 'fills you up' for caloric laden choices and can maintain that ya you will lose weight. There is nothing magic about the broth. It also won't be a long lasting weight loss as it has not re-taught you portion control, avoiding empty calories i.e. how to eat in the real world.

Bone broth isn't for losing weight but a lot of people like me do intermittent fasting and bone broth is something you can drink during the fast. I don't use it myself, I am never hungry during my fast so there is no need. I fast 16 hours so usually I have my first meal at 2 pm then my last meal within the remaining 8 hour period. I have lost 70 pounds since September without doing any exercising because of my back and eating low carb up to 20 whole carbohydrates a day. I don't need to count macros. I eat the food and amounts from a food list and I stick with it. Easiest way of eating to lose weight I have ever done. I eat enough protein so that I am never hungry, don't have cravings nor want to eat the foods I used to eat. I haven't had a piece of bread or rice or potatoes or pasta, no starchy vegetables, most fruit except berries and lemon or lime juice and I don't miss them.

Thank you all for your insight and information. Basically, the conclusion seems to be that ther’s no magic bullet, but that a good beef or chicken (or other meat) broth can satisfy your hunger and thirst needs for a meal now and then (or daily, say for lunch) as the broth provides you with vitamins, nutrients, satisfying flavor, protein and hydrating liquid without adding all the bulk and the carbs your body has to really work at to get rid of. When you think about it, you can possibly lose some weight just because you’re filling up now and then on a high protein liquid instead of potatoes, chips, cheese, and other foods that have a tendency to add more calories to your body.

So, no magic bullet or potion, just good common sense. Well, I think I might skip the bone broth, which honestly does creep me out a bit, and try a healthful cup of just plain chicken broth that I‘ll simmer some healthful veggies in for my lunches a few times a week. Being the longtime wife of a now retired family practice physician, who has basically told me that there is no magic bullet and that he doesn’t have time right now to research bone broth claims for me (LOL!).

That said, we have always eaten pretty healthfully. We try to avoid beef, pork, chicken, regular wheat flour and its breads and other products, white rice and its flour, regular potatoes and potato flour (although not sweet potatoes or yams), sugar, and we try to minimize our intake of fruits with a high sugar content.

“Try to“ as much as we can because we want to avoid being one of those PIA guests when invited to someone else’s home for a meal, etc. Hmmmm, and I need to get more exercise, too!

Anyhoo, thanks for your thoughts on this. I love this Houzz site of ours here where we can gather and pick each others brains : ~ }

The idea of bone broth for weight loss makes me think of the fad for hydrolyzed protein diet drinks back in the day.

I'm always highly skeptical of viral media claims about health & nutrition - unless from a trusted source like Mayo or NIH. I think fad diets are mostly, if not completely, a bad idea.

I was fed an Instagram reel last night of some old guy with a foreign accent claiming that as long as someone exercises enough, they will be healthy, even if they're obese or eating poorly 🙄

Bone broth as a nutritional supplement isn't a bad idea, tho. It's a healthier beverage than a soda or sweetened tea.

the only bone broth i ever make is for my dogs as a joint supplement. i usually use chicken and save the meat for chicken salad. i refrigerate the "broth" and as it cools, it becomes the consistency of half-set jell-o. it's been suggested to me that i warm it enough to liquify the fat and drink it myself. no thanks but the dogs LOVE it!!

Really good stock is delicious. I used to sip it like a fine scotch. For losing weight - I think it’s a fancy version of the old trick of drinking a large glass of water before eating, so as to feel more full.

Lynn, you already have a nice and reasoned and sensible approach to your diet and seem to be well informed. I find it odd that you would entertain the claims of weight loss from bone broth. You sound like you are doing fine.