Do munchies and cravings make you fat? Here is the truth

Modified on: 28/11/2023

WHAT ARE MUNCHIES, HOW DO THEY WORK, AND WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES FOR FAT MASS?

Munchies are one of the most common side effects of high THC-marijuana use (therefore, not regular CBD cannabis, but illegal marijuana). You’ve probably also had an irrepressible urge to fill your stomach, and given the amount of food you eat, you wonder if the food from the snacks makes you fat.

In short, all the calories you consume when you eat snacks, where do they go? Does our body burn them quickly or not?

What are munchies and how do they work?

Cravings are the irrepressible desire to eat — especially sweets and fatty foods — caused by certain substances. THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol) is a cannabinoid present in large quantities in illegal marijuana and small proportions in CBD weed in Switzerland.

The absorption of CBD, given by legal weed, does not increase hunger but limits the feeling of nausea and promotes appetite. Therefore, it is a thoroughly unique mechanism that is resulting from THC ingestion.

But how does THC increase the feeling of hunger and promote “munchies”?

The processes are different:

• When we take THC, the production of the appetite-stimulating hormone, called ghrelin, naturally increases when our stomach is empty, while THC stimulates it even when the stomach is full.
• Through its interaction with our endocannabinoid system (precisely with CB1 receptors), Tetrahydrocannabinol enables the area of the brain that controls hunger.
• THC alters our sensory perceptions and refines both smell and taste, making us much more prone to eating than usual.

The fact is that munchies drive people to eat foods high in fats, insatiable and out of control. The calories consumed during such an episode can be very numerous.

However, to understand if cannabis cravings makes you fat, you need to consider several factors.

Is eating because of munchies making you fat? It depends!

It’s not the food eaten during munchies that makes you fat, but the imbalance between calories intake and calories consumed.

It means that if you consume 1000 calories in a single meal (in addition to those of foods that have been ingested at other meals), you can accumulate fat or vice versa, depending on the calories you burned during the day.

Of course, weight gain also depends on hormones, water deposits, metabolism, and genetics… But when you focus on food, it’s the ratio of calories burned to calories consumed.

But beware: This is not a suggestion to eat less. The ideal would be to eat in a balanced way, to be physically active regularly and to offer yourself a whim from time to time. It can even include a seizure during a snack attack!

What about the rapid metabolism of marijuana? It’s true?

Some swear to lose weight since they started smoking. And I’m sure we’re not questioning that.

However, we need to understand if this is just a coincidence, a weight loss caused by low food consumption during the day, or whether smoking cannabis can speed up your metabolism.

Understanding this is not as simple as it sounds, so much so that even researchers do not have a precise answer.

Indeed, several studies have confirmed that the rate of overweight people in cannabis groups is generally lower. But the food in the snacks can make you fat as if you are eating at another time.

So, what’s going on? Why are cannabis users thinner and less susceptible to obesity?

Here are some scholarly theories: