# Eating tapeworms to lose weight **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [September 26, 2008, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-tapeworms-to-lose-weight/465325 "2008-09-26T14:00:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Adler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@Adler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Adler)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-tapeworms-to-lose-weight/465325/1 "2008-09-26T14:00:14Z")
In this article Cecil states that he’s unsure if the practice of ingesting tapeworms is (or was) real… > [@](#): > > Whether any actual tapeworms got eaten, and if so with what result, are matters on which I’m content to remain agnostic. I’d like to refer everyone to [this](http://www.wormtherapy.com/products.html) page, which seems to confirm it… Yup… people do this… ---
**Author:** ![WF\_Tomba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d9b06d/32.png) [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-tapeworms-to-lose-weight/465325/2 "2008-09-26T14:05:14Z")
[Column.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2805/tale-of-the-tape-can-tapeworms-help-you-lose-weight) As Cecil describes it, the tapeworm life cycle has two phases: the adult worm, which hatches from a cyst, lives in the host’s intestine, and produces eggs; and the larva, which hatches from an egg, burrows into the host’s tissue, and forms a cyst. Cecil lists all the dangers of eating tapeworm eggs, but if you wanted to lose weight, wouldn’t you want to eat a cyst rather than an egg? I suspect that stories of people eating “tapeworm eggs” are more likely to be referring to cysts. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-tapeworms-to-lose-weight/465325/3 "2008-09-26T15:13:36Z")
The problem for me is that you have no control over the tapeworm. Cecil remarks it can grow to 50 feet and live for 20 years. Plus it constantly churns out eggs of its own. Eat less, exercise more! ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-tapeworms-to-lose-weight/465325/4 "2008-09-26T16:15:05Z")
To keep things tidy, I’ve merged two threads about the same column. bibliophage moderator CCC ---
**Author:** ![SiXSwordS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@SiXSwordS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiXSwordS)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-tapeworms-to-lose-weight/465325/5 "2008-09-26T18:01:38Z")
> [@Adler](#): > > .. > I’d like to refer everyone to [this](http://www.wormtherapy.com/products.html) page, > [@](#): > > [N]et loss of calories will be modest even in the most responsive of individuals… the worm cannot improve a bad diet, address overeating or compensate for a lack of physical exercise. Cost $1,299.00 USD :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-tapeworms-to-lose-weight/465325/6 "2008-09-26T18:28:03Z")
Apologies for the highjack, but why is it that typing \*tapeworm \*into the search engine doesn’t find the column in question? ---
**Author:** ![Skara\_Brae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Skara\_Brae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skara_Brae)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-tapeworms-to-lose-weight/465325/7 "2008-09-26T19:33:37Z")
Is there anyway to tell if you have a tapeworm? I mean, if you don’t get any of the symptoms listed in the column, you’re good, right? ---
**Author:** ![SiXSwordS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@SiXSwordS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiXSwordS)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-tapeworms-to-lose-weight/465325/8 "2008-09-26T19:35:33Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > Apologies for the highjack, but why is it that typing \*tapeworm \*into the search engine doesn’t find the column in question? WAG— It’s too new? September 26, 2008 ---
**Author:** ![SiXSwordS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@SiXSwordS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiXSwordS)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-tapeworms-to-lose-weight/465325/9 "2008-09-26T19:42:34Z")
> [@Skara\_Brae](#): > > Is there anyway to tell if you have a tapeworm? I mean, if you don’t get any of the symptoms listed in the column, you’re good, right? > [@](#): > > [If you’ve got a tapeworm in your gut, chances are you won’t even notice it. Unless you’re already malnourished, the worm won’t adversely affect your health. If you do experience symptoms, they will be vague and could be attributed to an upset stomach, irritable bowel syndrome or stress. Most people notice worm infections when they spot shed proglottid segments in their feces or on their clothes.](http://www.askmen.com/sports/health_100/122b_mens_health.html) emphasis added for yeecchhh factor ---
**Author:** ![Phlint](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c89c15/32.png) [@Phlint](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlint)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-tapeworms-to-lose-weight/465325/10 "2008-09-26T19:45:42Z")
One thing I’ve always wondered about the tapeworm diet… how is this supposed to help you lose weight? So the worm is taking the nutrients instead of you, but isn’t it going to be weighed as well when you step on the scale? ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-tapeworms-to-lose-weight/465325/11 "2008-09-26T19:52:32Z")
> [@SiXSwordS](#): > > WAG— It’s too new? > September 26, 2008 That makes sense! ---
**Author:** ![SeanArenas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeanArenas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeanArenas)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-tapeworms-to-lose-weight/465325/12 "2008-09-26T20:36:10Z")
> [@SiXSwordS](#): > > emphasis added for yeecchhh factor For more yucky factor, go do a google Images search for “proglottid segments” ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-tapeworms-to-lose-weight/465325/13 "2008-09-27T03:30:24Z")
> [@Adler](#): > > In this article Cecil states that he’s unsure if the practice of ingesting tapeworms is (or was) real… > > I’d like to refer everyone to [this](http://www.wormtherapy.com/products.html) page, which seems to confirm it… Yup… people do this… Hookworm therapy is scientifically legit and distinct from tapeworm “therapy.” See[the article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helminthic_therapy) on Wikipedia if you’re curious. As of last I’ve heard, it’s still in the research and testing phase, but I may be mistaken. ---
**Author:** ![SiXSwordS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@SiXSwordS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiXSwordS)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-tapeworms-to-lose-weight/465325/14 "2008-09-27T17:37:03Z")
> [@Phlint](#): > > One thing I’ve always wondered about the tapeworm diet… how is this supposed to help you lose weight? So the worm is taking the nutrients instead of you, but isn’t it going to be weighed as well when you step on the scale? I was hoping someone with better chops than me would take a crack at this. Consider this a bump. ---
**Author:** ![psythe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@psythe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psythe)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-tapeworms-to-lose-weight/465325/15 "2008-09-27T18:39:48Z")
OK, as far as the conservation of mass bit is concerned; tapeworms are basically egg making machines - they convert nutrients to eggs which are then passed out of the body in proglottids - poorly mobile sacs (they wiggle a bit if you watch them closely) looking a little bit like a squashed piece of rice, containing large numbers of eggs. So although you’d weigh the tapeworm when you got on the scales you wouldn’t be weighing the hundreds or thousands of proglottids that it had produced and shed in the faeces (using nutrients that you’d otherwise have turned into fat). ---
**Author:** ![psythe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@psythe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psythe)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-tapeworms-to-lose-weight/465325/16 "2008-09-27T18:47:53Z")
Other than the less than pleasant job of sieving one’s own faeces the other two ways you could do it are to send some to a lab and get them to do a faecal exam (this would have the advantage of picking up eggs laid by Ecchinococcus sp which includes the sheep tapeworm, which are one of the ones responsible for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydatid\_cyst](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydatid_cyst) Hydatid cysts and have microscopic proglottids) as well as roundworms. You can also do serology - check a blood sample to see whether your immune system has “seen” worm eggs before. The problem with this that (a) it doesn’t tell you whether you’re still infected and (b) you probably need to test separately for each species. To estimate your chances though - my old parasitology professor told us that an estimated 10% of the UK human population had a human-beef tapeworm. Researchers performing serology on the (UK I think) population found that about 50% were seropositive to Toxocara canis (dog roundworm) - in other words had at one point or another ingested the eggs and made an immune response to them. I’m afraid I don’t have the references to hand. ---
**Author:** ![psythe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@psythe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psythe)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-tapeworms-to-lose-weight/465325/17 "2008-09-27T18:57:08Z")
You’re right: if you wanted to get yourself a tapeworm you’d need to eat a cyst, which contain one or more larvae (roll out the steak tartare). In the case of Taenia bovis (the one you’d be most likely to use for this sort of endeavour) I think its just one larva per cyst (apparently its quite rare for a tapeworm to take root in a host which already has another tapeworm) ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-tapeworms-to-lose-weight/465325/18 "2008-09-27T19:31:29Z")
> [@Phlint](#): > > One thing I’ve always wondered about the tapeworm diet… how is this supposed to help you lose weight? So the worm is taking the nutrients instead of you, but isn’t it going to be weighed as well when you step on the scale? Well, it’s not like the tape worm is going to convert food mass to body mass at 1:1, or anything like it. Actually, I have no idea how efficient a tape worm is, but you have to deduct what it metabolizes and excretes as eggs from what you’d find on the scale. submitted for your approval: [http://www.flickr.com/photos/26870187@N02/2892321577/](http://www.flickr.com/photos/26870187@N02/2892321577/) ---
**Author:** ![WF\_Tomba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d9b06d/32.png) [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-tapeworms-to-lose-weight/465325/19 "2008-09-30T15:34:33Z")
> [@outlierrn](#): > > Well, it’s not like the tape worm is going to convert food mass to body mass at 1:1, or anything like it. Actually, I have no idea how efficient a tape worm is, but you have to deduct what it metabolizes and excretes as eggs from what you’d find on the scale. The tapeworm may also cause weight loss by interfering with your digestion. ---
**Author:** ![Girl\_Next\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@Girl\_Next\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_Next_Door)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-tapeworms-to-lose-weight/465325/20 "2008-09-30T15:40:40Z")
I’m gonna lose weight just from reading this thread. I’m nauseated!