Can vaping help you lose weight? Can it help you shed those extra pounds in time for summer? Here’s the answer.
According to research out of Massey University in New Zealand, the answer is yes, although it may not work for everyone and it’s certainly not without its own potential health risks.
The researchers behind the study, which was published in the Nicotine and Tobacco Research journal back in October of 2016, analyzed evidence pertaining to the notion that e-cigs might help with weight control and found that for those trying to shed some weight, vaping flavored vape juice could prove to be an effective appetite suppressant.
Explaining the study’s findings, Dr. Marewa Glover, an associate professor at Massey University’s school of public health and one of the study’s co-authors, said that it’s the “use of e-liquids with food flavors, along with the mouth-feel and aroma of the vapor and the hand-to-mouth actions of vaping” that they suspect may play a role in helping vapers eat less.
Vaping’s use of e-liquids with food flavors, along with the mouth-feel and aroma of the vapor and the hand-to-mouth actions of vaping, could play a role in helping people eat less.”
As Glover explained to Vice, it was initially reports of smokers who didn’t put on weight while using vaping to quit smoking that sparked their initial curiosity and eventually led to the inquiry that fueled the study. Overeating and weight gain are notably common side-effects of quitting smoking.
“That’s what we’re trying to figure out. We’d begun to hear that vapers who were quitting smoking a second time round—this time with the help of vaping—they weren’t experiencing the weight gain that they’d noticed the first time round. They said it was preventing them from snacking and basically a whole heap of weight control benefits. We’re looking at the mechanisms to see if there’s anything there and we think there is.”
Nicotine is known to increase the rate at which the body’s metabolism operates and when smokers give up their smoking habit, their metabolism sometimes slows as the nicotine in their system dries up, which in turn leads to weight gain for some. But with vaping, users are still exposed to nicotine. Subsequently, the nicotine contained within e-liquid and delivered through vaporizers such as electronic cigarettes may play a part in the lack of weight gain reportedly experienced by some former smokers who have used vaping as a means by which to quit smoking.
Notably, the fact that one is still bringing an object to their face when they use an e-cig or similar vaping device would serve to fulfill the oral fixation aspect associated with cigarette addiction. In the absence of such, quitting smokers may be prone to bring something else to their face – such as food.
While it’s easy to see how vaping e-liquids might help quitting smokers who are trying to avoid putting on weight, it’s rather likely unwise to look at vaping as a tool to shed weight for those who aren’t also trying to give up their smoking habits as research into the potential health implications of vaping is ongoing and no definitive conclusion has been reached on its safety or lack thereof. But for smokers, there is strong evidence to suggest that vaping is likely far less harmful than smoking and that smokers stand to benefit from making the switch.
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