
Study: why pot smokers are skinnier - chepaslaaa
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/05/study-why-pot-smokers-are-skinnier/275846/?single_page=true
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calebm
A few years ago, the thought occurred to me that a lot of christians are
overweight, and I came up with hypothesis: since many indulgences are
considered by many as forbidden, the remaining indulgence of food might tend
to be overused. I focused on alcohol, since many christians (especially in the
south) think it's sinful to drink alcohol. I looked up maps of alcohol use and
maps of obesity. I didn't do the work to combine them, but looking at the maps
side-by-side, it appears my hypothesis may be correct:
[https://www.evernote.com/shard/s5/sh/18dbb20c-29bb-412d-8d5d...](https://www.evernote.com/shard/s5/sh/18dbb20c-29bb-412d-8d5d-f146153253df/738b00740091218b).

My hypothesis for pot would be the same - pot smokers may be less tempted to
eat food all the time since they're getting their kicks from pot.

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slededit
> A few years ago, the thought occurred to me that a lot of christians are
> overweight

Perhaps this is a regional thing? Its certainly not universally true around
the world.

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iggg
It's hard to be overweight when you are starving.

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slededit
I can't imagine the thought process that would generate this comment. Could
you elaborate a little more? I'm genuinely curious.

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ehvatum
I adhere to the ironclad rule that before committing suicide, I get stoned,
put in a good 1.5hr aerobic and resistance workout, eat a couple slices of
pizza, take a nap, feel great.

16 years ago, before adopting this rule, my strategy for coping with stress
was to eat and watch TV or play video games. It was pretty obvious to me where
that road ended. Weed is my gateway drug to a healthy lifestyle + pizza. It's
illegal, but so is everything, so who even cares? I'm in good shape and I
don't have to worry that there's no way out when stress piles up, which it
still does. I gave this same advice to a friend suffering from stress in grad
school. He was clearly in trouble... I invited him to spend the weekend in the
countryside with me, shooting broken equipment and smoking up, but he felt he
had to study. He killed himself at 8:30pm that Sunday evening. Psychology is
counter-intuitive. Weed can be the key to being more intelligent at a healthy
weight. The correlations found in the study may be explained by this. I think
they are, in my case. Alternatively, perhaps weed just addled my brain and
made me a successful and dedicated coder, entrepreneur, and machinist, by some
insanely unlikely chance. Perhaps even it caused a marijuana-related tumor
that is powering me? That would be copacetic.

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unixhero
You're stoned aren't you? ;)

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pascalxus
what's incredible is that their caloric intake is significantly higher ~ 600
calories per day!! That would be enough to make one gain 50 lbs a year, and
they're saying these people were less fat and better and regulating blood
sugar. This really is a mystery that deserves to be solved.

I would guess, their metabolism is massively increased.

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sebazzz
"IMPLICATIONS: Although they're not sure exactly how it happens, write the
authors, these findings suggest that marijuana somehow works to improve
insulin control"

The title is incorrect. The why is unanswered and still unknown. The article
simply states that there appears to be a correlation.

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jbob2000
I forget what the term for this body type is, but basically; there is a type
of person who's body turns food into calories extremely well. This is
beneficial to the brain, as it is a huge consumer of calories.

The downside to this body type is that the brain is always very active; it
always has lots of calories to draw from. Makes for great programmers and
problem solvers, but also leads to poor attention span and insomnia.

So my theory is that marijuana is a dampener on the brain for these people. It
doesn't improve insulin control, it's just that people who like to use
marijuana tend to have fantastic insulin control. The logic being good insulin
control = noisy brain = marijuana use.

I don't think you could prove this, you'd need some way to quantify noise in
the brain.

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kolinko
> The downside to this body type is that the brain is always very active; it
> always has lots of calories to draw from. Makes for great programmers and
> problem solvers, but also leads to poor attention span and insomnia.

Interesting - that part about overactive brain, short attention span and
insomnia matches ADHD very nicely.

In my case, since I began using stimulants to treat ADHD, my sugar cravings
disappeared and weight stabilised. In the past I used to overeat, because it
calmed me down.

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sebazzz
What stimulants are you referring to? Are those subscription/recipe based?

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balabaster
I guess pot cookies and cup cakes wouldn't have quite the same effect :P

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INTPenis
I'd like to know if these people also smoked cigarettes.

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josteink
> I'd like to know if these people also smoked cigarettes.

While that seems like an obvious factor, I'm sure there are other factors too.

For instance, people getting high on cannabis probably won't drink as much
beer or other forms of alcohol. This probably contributes to a generally lower
weight.

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sl0wboat
I smoke cannabis and drink red wine am not overweight. Don't really exercise.
Cannabis definitely helps alleviate built up stress.

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sli
I smoke and drink beer, but the difference is I drink fewer beers when stoned
than I typically do when sober. I'll probably drink three or four depending on
the day, but if I'm stoned, I might drink one beer? Maybe two? Typically
though it's zero.

