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Wednesday, June 24, 2026

This photo shows Indonesian students who won science awards in US, not student inventor of 'weight-loss formula' - AFP Factcheck

Social media posts purport to show a photo of an Indonesian student who invented a "permanent weight-loss formula" at a US university in 2019. The claim is false; the photo shows Indonesian students who grabbed meteorological, psychological and geosciences awards at a scientific competition in Los Angeles in 2017.

The photo was posted on November 30, 2021, here on Instagram, where it has garnered more than 70 likes .

"A female student invents a diet pattern for lazy people. 34-kg permanent weight loss," reads Indonesian-language text superimposed on a photo of four people holding an Indonesian flag and a medal.

"This unexpected thing happened at one of universities in the United States, precisely in spring 2019," the post's Indonesian-language caption claims.

"Everybody stood up and gave a big applause to an Indonesian girl for ten minutes at a world-class event in new york the united states.

"Indah Kusumwati is an Indonesian student who was successful in inventing a unique formula that can reduce weight in a short period, without having to limit food intake."

The caption further says that "the medicine has been created and shown positive results in creating a diet pattern for lazy people to lose weight permanently."

The photo has been liked more than 280 times after it was shared with a similar claim on Instagram here, here, here and here; and on Facebook here, here, here and here.

Some of the posts identify the purported Indonesian student inventor with different names:...



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