Does honey with warm water and lemon reduce tummy fat?

Question

There is a common belief that one can reduce tummy fat by drinking honey and lemon juice mixed in warm water the first thing in the morning.

This questionable website, for example, makes this claim without citing research:

Fasting on honey and lemon-juice, an alkaline food, is highly beneficial in the treatment of obesity without the loss of energy and appetite. For this natural cure , mix one teaspoon of raw honey (unheated) with the juice of two teaspoons of lime or lemon juice in a glass of room temperature or lukewarm water (not boiling water!). Take this remedy as a wake-up drink once in the morning on a empty stomach.

Whereas this one refutes the claim, again without citations.

Answer 1

Even before we get to the honey and the lemon juice, let's dispel the larger myth here: targeted weight loss.

"Targeted Fat Loss: Myth or Reality?" published in Yale Scientific covers some research on this topic to conclude that targeted fat loss is a compelling fiction. General fat loss comes down "to the basic principle of how many calories you expend versus how many you take in."

By that reasoning, all types of fasting (honey and lemon being irrelevant here) would promote weight loss, but not in any one particular area.

Answer 2

For one thing, the first part of the reasoning for the claim is simply false: neither honey nor lemon (or lime) juice is alkaline! A simple google for the ph of raw honey reveals that honey generally runs from 3.2-4.5 ph - and anything below 7 is acidic, not neutral! PH Scale Lemon juice is far more acidic, with the previous chart stating a ph of around 2 (with 0 being battery acid). So adding a weak acid and a stronger acid to neutral water does not result in an alkaline solution.

Put simply, if drinking warm lemony sugar water (even if the sugar is from honey) got rid of belly fat or catalyzed significant weight loss, then such things wouldn't be such a problem - such a painlessly easy fix!

If you drink it instead of a high calorie beverage, then great - otherwise it is almost certainly a waste of mental resources.

EDIT: Wikipedia lists academic sources for the chemical properties and PH of honey: Wikipedia on Honey There the claimed range is 3.4 to 6.9, with 3.9 being average. Direct Link to PH of honey

The original post already contains a link to the PH scale that contains that other referenced data.