The milk industry continues to advertise the benefits of drinking milk to lose weight. Their commercials suggest that increasing dairy intake to three servings a day will cause you to lose weight. The studies they use to support their position are weak, at best. Interestingly enough they exclude any studies that showed no benefit or negative effects from drinking milk for weight loss. Are you surprised? Me either. Here are a couple of examples from recent studies:

“Children who drank the most milk gained more weight…” and “…dietary calcium and skim and 1 % milk were associated with weight gain…”
From: Milk, dairy fat, dietary calcium, and weight gain: a longitudinal study of adolescents. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2005 Dec;159(12): 1187-8.

“These findings suggest that a high-dairy calcium diet does not substantially improve weight loss beyond what can be achieved in a behavioral intervention.”
From: The impact of calcium and dairy product consumption on weight loss. Obes Res. 2005 Oct;13(10):1720-6.

The bottom line is that milk is not the answer to any weight loss prayers. Nothing will take the place of exercise and diet that excludes processed foods.