Have you ever heard that marijuana helps you lose weight? Is it true… does marijuana help you lose weight?
Well, it's true that marijuana helps you lose weight, and now we'll tell you why. Regular marijuana use can have many benefits for our bodies, including reducing the amount of insulin in the blood and throughout the body. This phenomenon is due to the fact that smoking suppresses the function of proopiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons, which are responsible for whether we feel hungry or not.
However, saying that marijuana helps you lose weight may sound contradictory, since it has always been said that one of the main effects of this plant is to increase appetite.
So…
Does marijuana help you lose weight?
Answering this question definitively is no easy task, but it's worth knowing that regular cannabis users burn about 600 more calories per day than non-users.
Marijuana reduces fasting insulin, as cannabis promotes insulin absorption in the body, marijuana increases the production of good cholesterol.
So we could say that smoking joints helps you lose weight.
We must also emphasize that there is an endocannabinoid system in the human brain, a system that governs appetite, pain control, and memory. Normally, cannabis stimulates this endocannabinoid system, which translates into an increase in appetite if it's not consumed regularly. Therefore, the argument that marijuana helps you lose weight is only valid for regular smokers, since they have certain levels regulated in their bodies, as you will now see.
Why does cannabis help you lose weight?
THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol) is directly responsible for increasing our appetite. By quickly entering the bloodstream, this component is also responsible for weight loss, especially in overweight people, because it improves intestinal transit and promotes waste elimination. This is the scientific explanation for why marijuana promotes weight loss: it speeds up our metabolism.
This is one of the positive effects of marijuana we can draw from. And although there's still a long way to go before we can definitively say that marijuana promotes weight loss, it can certainly help achieve this.
In other words, various tests have been conducted on people who used cannabis and people who did not, and the results have always shown a lower level of obesity in users.
In fact, it's not so much that marijuana makes you lose weight, but rather that there's speculation that it might replace compulsive habits, such as replacing smoking with eating.
So the summary is:
Marijuana helps you lose weight because THC regulates your bowels.
It helps you lose weight because it speeds up your metabolism.
Because it inhibits the effect of hunger on the body.
Something you'll find helpful if you're someone who's carrying a few extra pounds. However, it's always advisable to consult a nutritionist.
Are there studies that support the idea that marijuana helps you lose weight?
Yes, several scientific studies and reports have demonstrated the direct impact of THC on weight loss. For example:
- A study published in the American Journal of Medicine linked marijuana use to proper insulin regulation, the hormone that regulates sugars in the body. Regular cannabis smokers typically register around 15% lower insulin levels upon waking.
- Another study supporting the link between marijuana and weight loss is one published in Nature magazine by expert researchers at Yale University. In this study, cannabis was administered to mice, suppressing hypothalamic neurons. As previously mentioned, this resulted in a lower Body Mass Index.
- Another scientific study linking marijuana to weight loss is a study published in the Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics. In this study, researchers from the University of Miami tested 13,000 men and women who used cannabis. The results showed that women who used this substance had a BMI 31% lower than non-users. For men, this figure was 2.7% lower.
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