Smoking has an appetite-suppressant effect. It also increases the metabolism. When you are a smoker, you thus spend more energy than a non-smoker for a same activity amount. And your weight curve places you under the average. It’s actually the nicotine that causes those two effects. 

Tobacco is not only addictive, it also supplies smokers with another reason to prevent them from stopping: the fear of gaining weight during tobacco cessation, or rather the return to a normal body weight.

Unfortunately, smoke suppresses the sense of taste, because it dulls the taste buds. The direct consequence is that when you stop smoking, you’ll regain your taste and you’ll eat more.

What about vaping?

Did you gain weight when you stopped smoking? Probably not if you’ve switched to vaping. Vaping delivers nicotine through a similar experience to smoking. It doesn’t shatter smokers’ habits and preserves the metabolism. As for the taste, vaping actually saturates the taste buds. The effect is thus similar to tobacco but induced by an opposite means. We’ve talked about this vaper’s tongue effect. It’s not really good news if you think about it, but it you think about weight loss, it’s a valid argument. And vaping enables you to enjoy so many different flavors that it’s actually OK if it replaces a nice cake from time to time!

A vaping device to lose weight

A startup is actually exploring this further by selling a very specific e-cigarette named Slissie.

They promise that Slissie users can go without sugar for 21 days. And their secret lies in flavored air without vapor. 

We are quite sceptical. And so is the journalist from the Guardian who has tried it and says it’s not working. Despite all that, the British woman who developed this product, Liz Casely, received a 100.000€ prize for her invention!