CBD for Weight Loss: Fact or Fiction

CBD (Cannabidiol) has become the talk of town recently. But what makes it so popular in health and wellness world? The answer is pretty straightforward.

It is one of the hundreds of natural compounds derived from a Cannabis plant (or Cannabis sativa plant). Unlike other cannabinoids, it is known for its medicinal properties. The most common ones are alleviation of pain and inflammation, tackling insomnia and reduction of stress and anxiety.

But is this all that CBD is good at? The most interesting is yet to come. It turns out that CBD Oils may also help lose weight. If you are still on the edge, keep reading the article, where we leave no stone unturned analyzing the current research of cbd for weight loss.

How Does CBD Oil Work to Help Lose Weight?

Many people wrongly associate CBD Oils with unstoppable food cravings, or “munchies”. From the start, it must be made clear. It is THC that can entice your appetite. This is the result of the psychoactive effect people feel, for example after smoking marijuana. On the contrary, traditional CBD oil is non-psychoactive and can have an entirely different effect on your appetite and metabolism.

Of course, there is no more than anecdotal evidence about it. Many experiments have been carried out on rats, but the results are quite promising. However more human studies are absolutely necessary to back up all this. But don’t get discouraged. Many CBD proponents claim that it really has an essential role in losing weight.

To start with, one of the reasons for body weight gain is overeating or getting more calories than burning them.

Very often overeating is linked to anxiety, stress, chronic pain. According to some researchers, symptoms of chronic pain are usually accompanied with obesity. As using CBD may significantly reduce chronic pain, consequently it will promote weight loss as well.

But how does it work? CBD oils enhances our body’s natural system, called the endocannabinoid system. This system has a great potential in our body that, along with other functions, regulates weight loss and its management. The endocannabinoid system controls our neurological, immune, and metabolic systems. It influences the main functions of our body through two receptors present in the brain- CB1 and CB2. Thus, CBD affects your weight through these two receptors found in brain and lymphoid tissue. Obese people have abundant CB1 receptors, mainly in fat tissues. Hence, there is a connection between CBD and obesity. Besides these 2 receptors play a role in metabolism, too.

Can CBD Oil Help With Metabolic Disorders?

One of the good sides of CBD oil is managing metabolic disorders and, as a result, helping people lose weight. Among such disorders are high blood pressure, high level of cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, and chronic fatigue.

Weight loss and metabolism are interrelated; it is the latter that converts food into energy. If your metabolism is fast, it will enhance your body to burn fat at a faster rate. But in case it is low, it may bring about the aforementioned disorders. Of course, you can find many pills on the market that promise to boost metabolism. But, each of them is accompanied with a number of side effects and problems. So, CBD oil will be your best companion on your weight loss journey.

Of course, more human research is needed, to prove these facts. But one thing is obvious. It overactivates cannabinoid receptors, which are directly in charge of obesity and metabolic symptoms, reduces levels of cholesterol and the amount of sugar in cells significantly, and hence, insulin resistance improves.

Can CBD Suppress Appetite and Reduce Food Intake?

According to research done in this field, CBD stimulates CB1 receptors to reduce appetite and food intake. It is achieved by deactivating CB1 receptors indirectly through other molecules. They block off the receptors and reduce appetite. Unlike CBD, THC affects CB1 receptors and releases a hormone that induces food intake. That is why the word “munchies” has become synonymous with THC compound.

But, unlike THC, CBD suppresses your appetite and lessens your food intake, and your body has to turn to your white fat to burn it into energy.

When you are hungry, your endocannabinoid system sends signals to the hypothalamus, an organ that produces hormones and regulates many functions in the body, including appetite. Endocannabinoids are in charge of a hormone that increases your appetite and food intake.

The experiment on rats comes to prove that after injecting a certain dose of CBD, the rats lost their appetite and became thinner. So, it can be concluded that CBD oil is very likely to suppress appetite and decrease food intake in people, too.

Can CBD Regulate Insulin and Help to Lose Weight?

According to some studies on rats, CBD is very likely to reduce occurrences of diabetes among non-diabetic rats. This has led scientists to conclude that CBD oils has the capacity to maintain insulin levels steady, which in its turn facilitates the weight loss process.

But how all this works? The liver is known to control the process of extracting toxins and converting excess sugar into insulin, a hormone that is released into the cells of the body. There insulin is converted into energy.

If the levels of insulin are excessively high, the body does not cope with fat burning process and it becomes really tough to lose body weight.

Unfortunately, more studies are necessary to give a straightforward answer to the question posed at the headline: Can CBD stabilize insulin levels and assist in losing body weight?

Does CBD Oil Have a Say in “Fat Browning” of Body Fat Cells?

Many CBD enthusiasts claim that CBD oil stimulates the process of converting of bad fat into good fat. This process is associated with burning of calories and breaking down of fats more efficiently.

There are two types of fat cells in our bodies: white and brown.

White fat is responsible for many chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease. So getting rid of these white or bad fats will help you tackle the chronic diseases mentioned above. On the other hand, brown fats are more active, they are responsible for stimulating thermogenesis, burning off heat by burning calories. The more calories you burn, the more weight you lose. This may be done by exercising more regularly and improving the quality of your sleep. Healthy people have more brown fat cells as compared to overweight people. That is why it critically necessary to try to convert white fat cells into brown fat if you earnestly wish to lose weight. CBD can help you stay on your toes and exercise more.

Moreover, medically reviewed, CBD reduces the number of proteins forming new fat cells and induces the number of mitochondria in brown fat cells.

What Are The Key CBD Products To Take For Weight Loss?

Of all the great variety of CBD products, a few are better for weight loss.

CBD oil takes the first place on the list. It is administered under you tongue. You just have to put a few drops sublingually and wait for a couple of seconds until it is absorbed, then swallow it. It starts to work after 30 minutes and the effect lasts longer. Besides it does not contain any calories and additives, such as sugars, sodium, flavours, that will disrupt your diet.

If you do not like the taste of CBD oil, you can consume CBD capsules. They are great at burning stubborn calories, boosting your metabolism and supporting healthy weight. Besides they are quite easy to take.

The next on the list are CBD gummies. They are not as efficient as the aforementioned two, but still are worth taking. Just take into consideration the fact that they may contain sugars, flavourings, which will derange your dietary routine.

One more way to use CBD is vaping. It is the fastest means of getting your dose of CBD, if your wish is to lose weight.

CBD sprays for weight loss work much the same as CBD oil. They stimulate the endocannabinoid system to give the process a go. Just read the label carefully to see the list of ingredients, and follow the manufacturer’s directions.

Last but not least are the creams. They can be applied on the affected area and help reduce pain and inflammation. But no more than that. They will not benefit your metabolic system or help you lose weight.

Whatever CBD products you choose to go for, check the full list of ingredients to make sure there are no chemicals and illegal elements in it.

Which Type of CBD Products are Better for Weight Loss?

There are three main types of CBD: full-spectrum, broad-spectrum and isolate. Each type has its pros and cons, but it is the full-spectrum CBD oil that can assist you immensely on your weight loss journey.

It contains not only CBD, but also other cannabinoids, terpenes, flavonoids, and less than 0,3% of THC. The concentration of the latter is too small to cause you “high”, but the presence of all these components is necessary to create the entourage effect. CBD can try to help tackle the obesity problems, but it is not enough to carry out the whole job by itself, All the components should work in sync to get the desired result.

What is the Optimum Dosage of CBD for Weight Loss?

Before deciding on the optimum dose of CBD to consume, there are a number of factors to take into consideration: body condition, ethnicity, genetics, and weight. Besides, each person is unique, and so is his/her endocannabinoid system. Hence no two recommendations may have the same result.

But what can be recommended to each and every CBD newcomer is to start with a low dose, monitor the sensations for a couple of days, then increase it gradually until you get the dose best for your particular situation.

However, there is a general dosing range for losing weight on the market, which is <1 to 50 mg per kg per day.

The Bottom Line

Though there is little evidence to prove the beneficial effects of CBD on weight loss, some studies claim that it may boost your metabolism, help you sustain a healthy lifestyle, support your emotional and physical state, and suppress your appetite. But, do not expect it to work wonders all by itself. Only in conjunction with a healthy diet and regular exercise, it will enable you to achieve the result you earnestly wish.