Pot Smokers Less Obese than Non-Pot Smokers, Study Finds

Photo Credit: Matthew Maaskant

Guess what? Pot smokers don’t have to worry about packing on the pounds from the “munchies.” A recent study indicated, in fact, that pot smokers are less obese than their non-smoking counterparts.

The study, published in the September 15 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology, was conducted by a research team in France.

The team, led by Yann Le Strat, a Psychiatrist at the Louis-Mourier Hospital in Colombes, studied the pot smoking habits (or lack therof) of some 50,000 U.S. adults from two separate studies. The researchers concluded that only 14% to 17% of pot smokers who smoked this illegal substance at least 3 days a week were obese. Conversely, 22% to 25% of the non-pot smokers in the study were obese.

Does this mean that pot smoking keeps you thin or makes you lose weight despite the munchies? Not so fast, say the researchers. This is only a preliminary study. The researchers, in fact, did not factor in the diet and exercise habits of the research subjects which could account for these findings.

So before you light up the weed to lose weight—and perhaps lose your freedom—you’d best wait for more research.