Study Indicates Marijuana Users Are Less Likely To Be Obese

A new study indicates that marijuana use could be beneficial in the fight against obesity, according to Marijuana Moment.

Data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System found a connection between cannabis use and lower Body Mass Index (BMI) in U.S. adults.  The research, conducted by Dr. Ray M. Merrill of Brigham Young University, found that people who had used cannabis within the past month were “31% less likely to be obese than non-users, after adjustment,” while “daily marijuana users are 32% less likely to be obese than non-users.”

The information was based on a survey of U.S. adults consisting of 735,921 individuals who completed an optional model on cannabis use from 2016 through 2022.

One of the conclusions was that “as legalization and prevalence of the drug in the U.S. increases, the prevalence of obesity may decline.”   But the reported noted that health care providers “should view this outcome with the known health risks associated with marijuana use.”

Merrill said the data support past findings showing that marijuana use correlates with lower BMI.  The latest report will be published in the journal Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research.

A prior study, by a team of researchers from Michigan State University, also found that marijuana users were less likely to be overweight or have obesity.

“Over a 3-year period, all participants showed a weight increase, but interestingly, those who used marijuana had less of an increase, compared to those that never used,” reported the study’s lead author, Omayma Alshaarawy, Ph.D., an assistant professor of family medicine at MSU.

Alshaarawy said that despite the prevailing theory that marijuana increases appetite, the “munchies” effect, “Our study builds on mounting evidence that this opposite effect occurs.”

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