We’ve all heard about pot smokers going for “the munchies”. The unstoppable snacking after an episode of cannabis use is so legendary that even movies have been made about it. It is widely believed that smoking pot makes you snack uncontrollably resulting in weight gain. Epidemiological studies, however, have thrown up different results.
Long-Term Marijuana Use Is Linked With Weight Loss
In a study conducted on 4657 individuals to assess the effect of marijuana use on the metabolic process, it was found that the users of marijuana had lower levels of fasting insulin and smaller waist circumferences.1
In another study on the effect of cannabis use on body mass index, it was found that the prevalence of obesity was much lesser among cannabis users compared to the others.2
A study to examine the effects of enacting medical marijuana laws or MMLs on factors like body weight, physical wellness, and exercise showed that MMLs reduced the obesity-related medical costs by $58-$115 per person annually indicating that legalizing marijuana consumption positively reduced obesity in the population.3
Marijuana use is also linked with lower risk of metabolic syndrome.4
However, Marijuana Increases Weight In HIV And Cancer Patients
Then what about all those stories of weight gain among marijuana users floating about on the internet? Interestingly, a study done to understand this paradox has found that while most epidemiological studies have shown weight reduction among pot smokers, marijuana use among patients with HIV/AIDS and cancers has shown weight gain. The study inferred that marijuana could well be a regulatory compound, increasing weight in those with low weight, but decreasing weight of those who are normal or overweight.5 It was also found that weight loss is seen mostly among chronic marijuana users than short-term users.
Marijuana Is Not The Best Way To Lose Weight
Studies have proven without a doubt that cannabis use helps reduce weight, but it may not be the right way to do it. Weight loss is seen only among long-term, chronic smokers but long-term smoking affects your health adversely. Here are some health problems associated with chronic cannabis use:
Long-Term Use Impairs Certain Brain Functions
Studies have found that long-term cannabis use seriously impairs executive functions of the brains like attention, inhibition, memory, and cognition, among others. It was found that it affected attention and information-processing abilities and that recovery was possible only after a month or more of abstinence.
Acute cannabis use was also found to impair inhibition and promote impulsive behavior. Even after a period of abstinence, these deficits in users became evident in tasks that demanded concept formation, planning, and sequencing abilities. What more? Even working memory was significantly impaired in long-term cannabis users. Chronic, heavy use affected verbal fluency and the impairment continued even after long-term abstinence.6
Long-Term Use Can Cause Many Physical Problems
Marijuana contains delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a mind-altering chemical which is responsible for the high after smoking pot, along with other related compounds. When you smoke marijuana, THC passes from the lungs and into the bloodstream through which it reaches the brain. In the brain, THC acts on specific cell receptors which respond to certain natural chemicals that resemble THC, resulting in the “high” that’s felt after smoking. The immediate effect of smoking pot includes heightened sense, altered sense of time, changes in mood, impaired body movement and memory, and difficulty in thinking and solving problems.
Long-term use, however, results in many health problems like breathing problem, increased heart rate, hallucinations, and paranoia among others. If you are pregnant, you ought to avoid marijuana completely as the drug can interfere with the physical and mental development of the child.
Long-term marijuana use can also lead to lower life satisfaction, poorer mental and physical health and more relationship problems.7
Marijuana Use Is Also Linked With Substance Dependence
If you are a chronic cannabis user, it is highly like that you are dependent on other substances as well. A study has found that long-term cannabis use is associated with other substance dependence.8
Now, it is up to you to decide if you want to go the weed way to reduce a few inches.
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