Title: Marijuana Slims? Why Pot Smokers Are Less Obese | TIME.com
Headings: Marijuana Slims? Why Pot Smokers Are Less Obese
Diet
Marijuana Slims? Why Pot Smokers Are Less Obese

Content: Also consider that one of the most popular uses of medical marijuana is to stimulate appetite in people with cancer, AIDS or other diseases. Such patients are significantly less likely to be obese than the general population — so in this case, weight loss would precede or prompt the marijuana smoking. Whatever the explanation for the link between marijuana and less obesity, it’s unlikely that cannabis could serve as an effective diet aid. For one, smoking pot has been shown to increase appetite in multiple studies, at least in the short-term, so it likely wouldn’t help dieters resist temptation. Secondly, a drug that has the opposite effect of THC, marijuana’s main psychoactive ingredient, has itself been shown to aid dieting. Called rimonabant, at high doses the drug nearly tripled the weight loss achieved by people taking placebo. It also frequently caused severe depression and suicidal thoughts, however, so while it was briefly approved by European authorities, it was ultimately pulled from the market. MORE: Reverse Engineering the Marijuana ‘Munchies’: What Causes Binge Eating?