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TikTok Is Turning a Diarrhea-Causing Parasite Into a Weight Loss Hack: ‘Risking It All for the Cyclospora’

Weight lost during a Cyclospora infection is mostly water, and the parasite can cause severe diarrhea, dehydration, and lasting gut issues.

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Leave it to the internet to turn a public health emergency into a weight loss hack.

While public health officials scrambled to trace the source of a fast-moving Cyclospora outbreak—1,645 confirmed cases across 34 states since May 1, with 141 hospitalizations, according to the CDC—a corner of TikTok spotted an opportunity. The parasite, which causes watery and explosive diarrhea, cramping, bloating, nausea, and fatigue, was repackaged almost immediately as a weight loss strategy. Hashtags like “the diarrhea diet” and “Cyclospora skinny” started circulating on SkinnyTok, the social media subculture that TikTok already banned once—and which simply rebuilt itself under new hashtags and coded language after the........

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