Losing weight and getting healthy takes some serious grit, consistency, and discipline. In today’s world, you might see advertisements for all sorts of magic pills and programs promising faster results with less effort, but the reality is that it takes hard work.
We aren’t aiming to claim that using cannabis will make you lose weight -it still takes a great deal of effort on your part- but cannabis has been shown to improve results in certain areas.
So whether you’re looking to shed a few pounds before the holidays, or develop a fresh, new lifestyle for yourself, here’s how cannabis can help.
- Replace calorie-heavy alcoholic beverages
While it’s commonplace to enjoy a drink with some friends at the bar, or a glass of wine (or two) with your dinner, alcohol consumption is no friend of weight loss.
Contrary to what your frat brothers might’ve told you in college, alcohol itself provides little nutritional value. It doesn’t fill you up as food does -hence the term, “empty calories.”
A single serving of vodka contains 100 calories, and a 12-ounce can of beer has almost 150. That means that one night out at a bar with friends can easily pile on a mountain of useless calories, which will most likely end up stored as fat around your midsection. So if you’re looking for an alternative to take the edge off of a long week, consider using cannabis.
You’ll feel just as relaxed, but without the extra baggage that alcohol brings. In fact, a healthy dose of THC can give a natural boost to your metabolism, which will help you shed excess body fat instead -just make sure you stay away from the junk food if the munchies hit!
- It can reduce stress
Stress management is vital for good mental health and weight loss alike. When you’re stressed out, you’re less likely to form healthy habits like regular exercise and more prone to eating comfort foods that aren’t good for you.
Stress leads to disruptions in restful sleep. If you don’t sleep well you feel hungry more often and have to make the choice between eating more for relief or feeling bad all day.
Whether you use CBD or THC-based products, cannabis can help minimize the amount of stress you experience on a daily basis.
- Boost your metabolism
Weight loss is a science. While thoughts and emotions can make it seem like you’re up against insurmountable odds, it’s actually a simple process. In order to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you consume.
Studies have indicated that THC may boost metabolism. This makes sense if you’ve ever smoked cannabis and then felt hungry shortly afterward. While more research needs to be done in order to definitively say whether or not there’s a direct link, we do know that THC interacts with the cannabinoid receptor that plays a role in regulating your metabolism.
The most important thing to keep in mind is that if you use cannabis and feel hungry, make sure you stay away from junk food no matter how tasty it looks!
Instead of tearing into a bag of Doritos, go for a healthier option like fresh fruit, or sautéed vegetables. The beauty of cannabis is that it makes just about everything taste good!
If you’re not interested in exercising extreme self-control when you have the munchies, you can use CBD or THCV products to help curb your appetite. For some THCV recipes, you can try at home, check out this article on Veriheal!
- It can improve your sleep
Making sure you get good quality sleep every night is essential for any weight loss endeavor. Getting enough sleep ensures that your body has ample time for your muscles to recover from your workouts, and for your brain to continue working properly.
When you deprive yourself of sleep, your brain simply doesn’t work properly. Your decision-making center (the frontal lobe) starts to slow down, so making good decisions gets harder.
To top that off, your stomach will start to produce more hunger-activating hormones (ghrelin), and less hunger-curbing hormones (leptin), leaving you feeling hungry more often.
Using cannabis can help remedy this by putting you right to sleep. Be careful though -THC has been shown to reduce REM sleep (your deep, dream sleep). So make sure you use a CBD-based sleep aid instead. This won’t get you high, but it has a calming effect on the nervous system, making it easier to fall asleep.
- Reduce inflammation
If you’re giving everything you’ve got towards your weight loss goals, you should be hitting the gym or exercising regularly, and that will naturally come with loads of aches and pains.
You might have days when you feel like you can’t get out of bed -let alone workout- because of muscle soreness, but in order to reach your goals, you simply have to!
To help you get the most out of your workouts and recovery time, you can use cannabis for its anti-inflammatory effects. Cannabis is widely known as a natural anti-inflammatory, and can easily replace OTC NSAIDs as a natural alternative.
To get the most out of cannabis for pain and inflammation, make sure you’re using a full-spectrum or broad-spectrum CBD product.
Conclusion
Weight loss takes a lot of work and perseverance, but using cannabis can help make things easier in a variety of ways!
