does marijuana (weed) make you gain or loose weight?

I think it is just so funny how all of you think that it has to do with you'r metabolism and or how your life style is like when not everybody gets the "munchies " I myself smoke "pot " all of the time (not literally like 24 hrs. a day, but you know) and I never eat when I'm high or coming down. I actually don't eat for days when I'm high, so it really cannot have a "yes " or "no ", but it is a thing to think about it just depends on the person whom is doing it.

I smoked a lot of pot one summer and lost tons of weight. As soon as I stopped smoking, I gained the weight back. 

i think that you are right because i've been smoking off and on for 24 yrs now. but, i have notice that i have been loosing a lot of weight. and when i dont have any i cannot eat, i am throwing up yellow stuff, and all i want to do is sleep it off or go get more weed so the stomache pain will stop, but i know if that happens and when im not high no more the nausea will come back again.

I smoked weed every day for about 2 years now I've always been thin but before smoking I was a good 165 and now I'm about 130.... There ya go

Maybe it all just depends on the person... =]

I've been smoking weed for almost a year now, when i'm ' high' i eat mass , but never gain a single pound , & i've actually been losing weight. People who smoke on a regular basis are more likely to lose weight , atleast that how it is for me. Probably because when your not high you don't get hungry, you lose your appetite for all foods. But if you wanna smoke weed just to lose weight , is probably the stupidest thing you could do. There's mass side effects that come from smoking weed.. 

The Science of Why Pot Makes You Hungry

ScienceDaily — Marijuana--or more specifically its active ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol--has a well-documented tendency to stimulate hunger. And while scientists have traced this property to cannabinoid receptors in the brain, they have had little understanding of the neural circuitry underlying this effect.



Understanding this circuitry has important practical implications because blocking the cannabinoid receptor, CB1, offers a promising approach to treating obesity. One such compound, rimonabant (trade name AcompliaTM) is already undergoing clinical testing.



In an article in the December 22, 2005, issue of Neuron, Young-Hwan Jo and colleagues report how the circuitry of CB1 is integrated with signaling by the appetite-suppressing hormone leptin. The CB1 receptor is normally triggered by natural regulatory molecules, called endocannabinoids.



In their studies, the researchers concentrated on the lateral hypothalamus (LH) of the brain, known to be a center of control of food intake. Their studies involved detailed electrophysiological measurements of the effects of specific neurons that they had identified in previous studies as being important in endocannabinoid signaling.



Their studies revealed that activation of CB1 receptors, as by endocannabinoid molecules, induced these neurons to be rendered more excitable by a mechanism called "depolarization-induced suppression of inhibition" (DSI).



What's more, they found that leptin inhibits DSI. However, they found that leptin did not interfere with the CB1 receptors themselves. Rather, leptin "short-circuits" the endocannabinoid effects by inhibiting pore-like channels in the neurons that regulate the flow of calcium into the neurons. Such calcium is necessary for the synthesis of endocannabinoids.



In further studies of mice genetically altered to be leptin deficient, the researchers found the DSI to be more prolonged than in normal mice. Thus, they said, the findings "implicate this mechanism for leptin receptor/endocannabinoid signaling in contributing to the maintenance of weight balance...." The researchers also included that "upregulation of endocannabinoid signaling in the LH may explain, at least in part, the increased body weight consistent with a prior report of elevated endocannabinoids" in such leptin-deficient mice.



The researchers concluded that their findings "are consistent with the hypothesis that the integration of endocannabinoid and leptin signaling regulates the excitability of neurons on appetite-related circuits."



They also wrote that "the cellular mechanisms of recently developed antiobesity drugs, such as rimonabant, may include decreased endocannabinoid signaling and hence decreased excitability of LH circuits related to appetite, even in the context of leptin insufficiency or resistance."



###



The researchers included Young-Hwan Jo, Ying-Jiun J. Chen, Streamson C. Chua, Jr., David A. Talmage and Lorna W. Role of Columbia University in New York, New York. This work was supported by NS22061 and a NARSAD Grable Distinguished Investigator award to L.W.R.; by CA79737 to D.A.T.; by DK57621 to S.C.C.; and by an award from the New York Obesity Research Center to Y.-H.J.



Jo et al.: "Integration Of Endocannabinoid and Leptin Signaling in an Appetite-Related Neural Circuit." Publishing in Neuron, Vol. 48, 1055-1066, December 22, 2005, DOI 10.1016/j.neuron.2005.10.021 Neuron Online.

I'm not sure about loosing weight . I've seen both cases were a friend has lost a ton of weight since he started smoking & then another friend seems to be gaining . Both are guys so I don't know if it's the same for women . I feel since I started smoking & everytime I do I get "the munchies" & all I want to do is eat & it seems as if I've gained weight . But I only smoke occasionally & when I'm not I play volley ball & excersise quite a lot . i'm not sure if my gained weight is muscle or weight from munchies . Is it possible for it to be both ?

dont know if anyone will see this but its true ihave been eating better and less and smoke lots of cronic and i have lost 43lbs in 5weeks!!!!   when i smoke i want to move around i get hungry but eat fruit and veggies........ plus bud lower your blood suger and boosts your metabolism and that why you get hungry. 

here is an article that found that marijuana had a stimulatory effect on metabolic rate. if you google "marijuana and metabolic rate" it will give you some scholarly articles you can look at. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/367234

What?! Man, I've got hypothyroidism too, and of course of years I've have so much trouble trying to lose weight. I remember when I first started smoking it and kept taking my thyroid pills I dropped 50 pounds so quick! But when I stopped smoking weed I did gain it all back.. I should def get back into doing it again !

smoke weed dear.. seemingly it works wonders!!

nah i smoke alota weed an ima big guy. the reason most weed smokers r skinney because they would rather save money to buy weed instead of eating. therfore they dnt eat anough an lose weght.

Marijuana makes you lose weight because it decreases testosterone levels therefore you lose muscle. That is why most regular pot smokers aren't very buff. Info from a drug psych course

No it's because THC lowers testosterone therefore the males lose weight which is really muscle