Does listening to sound at a frequency of 280 Hz help you lose weight? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that sound at any frequency will help people shift unwanted kilos from their bodies according to health experts who spoke to Lead Stories.
The claim reappeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok published on October 18, 2023, with comments from the author translated into English from Serbian by Lead Stories staff that say:
Doctors don't want you to know this truth, for every problem in your body there is a frequency that can heal you. Nikola Tesla once said: "If you want to find the secrets of the universe, look for them in frequencies". If you have trouble sleeping, listen to frequencies from 3 Hz. If you are anxious listen to a frequency of 432 Hz, this will calm your thoughts. If you want to lose weight, listen to the frequency of 280 Hz, it stimulates metabolism and promotes fat burning.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Fri Nov 3 21:28:13 2023 UTC)
The Serbian language narration is an almost identical copy of a viral video (archived here) published three months earlier on TikTok in English which has been viewed more than five million times.
Both videos claim that listening to a sound frequency of 280 Hz will help people lose weight by stimulating metabolism and promoting fat burning.
Lead Stories spoke to Andrew Beamish, a consultant surgeon from the UK who specializes in obesity and bariatric surgery and the co-author of more than 62 peer-reviewed articles over the past 15 years, who told us:
"I'm not aware of a single piece of evidence to support the claim that sound waves or an associated sound frequency treatment impacts upon body weight or weight management in any meaningful way...Anyone seeking health and weight improvement should seek the advice of their doctor, who can refer them to the specialist weight management service in their area, for effective and evidence-based treatment."
Bridget Benelam, Nutrition Communications Manager at the British Nutrition Foundation told Lead Stories:
"While it's an attractive idea that simply listening to sounds could cause weight loss, there is no evidence to back this up. To lose weight you need to make changes to your diet that you can stick to. Different approaches suit different people, but broadly it involves cutting back on calorie-dense, sugary and fatty foods and eating plenty of fruit and vegetables and high fibre foods."
The videos also claim that sound frequencies positively affect sleep and anxiety. However, there is no conclusive medical evidence about the efficacy of such treatments.
Medical News Today (editorial processes available here and Media Bias Fact Check rating available here) describes binaural beat therapy as an "emerging form of sound wave therapy" but warns:
Binaural beat therapy is not part of standard care for any condition. Doctors consider this treatment to be semi-experimental.
