People turn to AI for weight loss

Americans are increasingly using artificial intelligence chatbots for health advice, including diet and weight-loss help, even as researchers keep finding gaps in accuracy. (medicalxpress.com) A West Health-Gallup survey released April 15 found 25% of U.S. adults, or more than 66 million people, have used artificial intelligence tools or chatbots for physical or mental health information or advice. The survey covered more than 5,500 adults from October through December 2025. (medicalxpress.com) Among recent users, 71% said they wanted quick answers and 71% wanted additional information, while 59% said they used artificial intelligence before seeing a doctor and 56% said they used it after a visit. Fourteen percent said artificial intelligence advice led them not to see a provider they otherwise would have seen. (miragenews.com) A separate Kaiser Family Foundation poll published March 25 found 32% of adults had used artificial intelligence for health information or advice in the past year, including 29% for physical health and 16% for mental health. The same poll found 65% of users cited quick advice as a major reason, and 36% said privacy made artificial intelligence feel easier than asking in person. (kff.org) That shift is showing up in weight management, where chatbots are being used like always-on coaches that can suggest meal plans, calorie targets, grocery lists, and check-ins in seconds. A review published April 10 in *The Lancet Digital Health* said ChatGPT is drawing attention as an interactive tool for obesity management because it is cheap, scalable, and easy to access. (thelancet.com) Google’s Med-PaLM was built specifically for medical question answering, and Google says Med-PaLM 2 reached 86.5% on the MedQA benchmark and improved long-form answers to consumer medical questions. That is different from the general-purpose chatbots many consumers use for diet and fitness questions. (sites.research.google) Studies on weight-loss outputs show why researchers are cautious. A January 2025 study in *Nutrients* found ChatGPT 4.0, Microsoft Copilot, and Gemini all produced diet plans with overall Diet Quality Index scores above 70, but macronutrient balance was the weakest category, and more than half of Gemini plans missed calorie targets by over 20%. (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) Another January 2025 study in the *International Journal of Obesity* tested obesity-treatment answers against American Diabetes Association and American Association of Clinical Endocrinology guidelines. Microsoft Copilot gave appropriate answers to all 10 questions, while Google Gemini gave appropriate answers to 8 and refused 2, but completeness and guideline bias still varied by model. (nature.com) Trust has not caught up with use. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll from August 2024 found 56% of adults were not confident they could tell true from false information from artificial intelligence chatbots, and 56% were not confident chatbot health information was accurate. (kff.org) Researchers are also testing how easily chatbots can be pushed off course. Mount Sinai said in August 2025 that widely used chatbots repeated and expanded false medical details in fictional patient scenarios, though a one-line warning prompt reduced those errors significantly. (mountsinai.org) For people trying to lose weight, that leaves artificial intelligence in a familiar role: fast, private, and available at midnight, but still uneven enough that dietitians and doctors remain the backstop when the advice turns specific, medical, or hard to verify. (news.yale.edu)