CBD Oil For Weight Loss: Does It Work?
CBD is gaining traction as a way to support our overall wellness. From CBD oils to gummies to CBD-infused seltzers, you can find this well-loved cannabinoid just about anywhere these days.
While CBD oil is not the end-all be-all of wellness, it can play a role in supporting your mental and physical wellbeing. CBD has been used to ease tension, reduce discomfort, boost mood, and more.
With CBD seemingly capable of affecting the body in a number of different ways, many people are wondering if CBD has an effect on body weight as well. For instance, can CBD aid in weight loss? Does CBD cause the same type of hunger associated with cannabis?
While more cannabinoid research is needed to fully understand the effect of CBD on weight loss, let’s go over what is known so far with Peels.
What Is CBD?
CBD, or cannabidiol, is one of over 100 known phytocannabinoids. CBD is commonly extracted from the hemp plant, and it can have beneficial effects on our overall wellbeing by working within the body’s endocannabinoid system.
What Is The Endocannabinoid System?
The endocannabinoid system (also known as the ECS) is a complex internal messaging system within the body. The ECS uses internally produced endocannabinoids to send chemical messages throughout the nervous system in support of maintaining homeostasis. When endocannabinoids bind with cannabinoid receptors (cb receptors), it can trigger a biological response. Cb receptors exist in the brain, muscles, digestive tract, immune cells, and most major organs.
By utilizing endocannabinoids, cb receptors, and enzymes, the ECS can help regulate sleep, mood, appetite, pain signals, and more.
And because CBD is a phytocannabinoid that is structurally similar to our own endocannabinoids, CBD can work within the ECS to help support a wide range of body functions.
Can CBD Aid in Weight Loss?
The effects of CBD on weight loss are still being studied, and current findings are somewhat inconclusive. Some studies suggest that CBD may help you lose weight, while others have found no strong evidence of this. However, it does seem that CBD’s effect on metabolism, digestion, sleep, and more may help play a role in weight loss for some.
CBD and Metabolism
Our body’s metabolism is the chemical reaction responsible for converting food into energy. The endocannabinoid system is thought to support metabolic function, as endocannabinoids can bind with cb receptors in the parts of the body responsible for food-to-energy conversion.
When CBD interacts with endocannabinoids and cb receptors within the lymphoid tissue and brain, they may help trigger biological responses that can provide a boost to the metabolism.
Some studies suggest that CBD can also help break down fats by working within the ECS to help stimulate certain genes and proteins known to help the body convert fat into energy.
CBD and Sleep
Metabolic function is given a natural boost during sleep, and there is much evidence showing that good sleep quality can improve metabolic function.
CBD’s ability to help promote restfulness, then, may indirectly aid in weight loss. The endocannabinoid system naturally regulates sleep cycles. However, all of us can likely attest to how easily our sleep quality can be thrown by stress, nervousness, or an active mind that won’t settle down at bedtime.
Because CBD can engage with the bliss-producing endocannabinoid anandamide and the feel-good neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine, it can help reduce stress levels and calm the mind. When taken shortly before bed, CBD can help settle the mind, making it easier to fall asleep and stay asleep. CBD may lead to improved sleep quality, resulting in better metabolic function.
CBD and Exercise
Like sleep, moving your body can also help boost metabolism and often play a role in weight loss. And CBD can serve as a powerful addition to your fitness routine.
By helping relieve mental and physical tension, CBD taken before exercise can help get you in the right headspace for a stellar workout, and can also help reduce risk of injury. Taking CBD in the days following a workout is also beneficial, as it can help aid in muscle recovery.
If you’ve experienced sore muscles in a day or two following an intense body-moving session, you’re familiar with the muscle repair process.
Basically, when you exercise, you are putting stress on your muscles that cause micro-damages to the muscle fiber. This leads to muscle swelling and soreness as your immune system repairs the damage, leading the muscles to grow back stronger and larger.
The muscle recovery process allows you to build strength and stamina and makes you capable of progressing in any long-term fitness goals you may set for yourself.
Giving our body’s the space to function during muscle recovery is vital. This is why rest days are so important, and why you should always listen to your body if you aren’t feeling up to a particular exercise just yet.
But, if ongoing muscle soreness is keeping you out of the game for longer than you’d like, CBD may help quicken the recovery process. CBD can work with cb2 receptors in immune cells to aid with muscle recovery and ease muscle soreness.
CBD’s effect on sleep can also help prepare your body for its next moving session, as much of the recovery process takes place when we are resting. Production of insulin growth factor, a hormone that supports muscle growth, also naturally increases during sleep.
Can CBD Cause Weight Gain?
While CBD is not thought to directly lead to weight gain, CBD has been effective in helping to ease symptoms associated with loss of appetite or weight loss, such as nausea and vomiting.
CBD and Appetite
Because the endocannabinoid system helps regulate appetite, CBD can work with endocannabinoids to help stimulate appetite by easing nausea and reducing stress that may present itself as an upset stomach.
CBD and Digestion
With CB receptors throughout the digestive tract, CBD may also support digestive function. When endocannabinoids bind to receptors in the digestive tract, they can activate the receptors to help support the movement of stomach muscles during food intake.
This process can aid in the absorption of nutrients and help keep the digestive tract healthy.
Does CBD Cause Hunger?
CBD and THC are closely related cannabinoids found naturally in hemp and cannabis plants. Because of their similarities, many people wonder if taking doses of CBD can also cause the munchies associated with THC use.
While CBD may stimulate appetite for some users, the cannabinoid does not directly cause hunger the same way that THC does.
While CBD and THC are molecularly similar, a change in their structural arrangement causes them to work differently within the body. One main difference is that CBD doesn’t bind directly to cb1 receptors in the brain.
Instead of binding with receptors to produce effects, CBD helps block enzymes from breaking down endocannabinoids as quickly, prolonging the effects of the endocannabinoids our bodies naturally produce.
So, while CBD can help support the endocannabinoids that calm the nerves and promote appetite, it won’t activate receptors known to trigger hunger signals.
Does THC Cause Hunger?
Unlike CBD, THC can bind directly to cannabinoid receptors in the brain. This is why THC is psychoactive while CBD is not, and also why THC can cause food cravings.
When THC activates cb1 receptors, it can trigger changes in hormone production. Studies show that THC can directly impact three hormones related to hunger: ghrelin, PYY, and leptin.
THC can work with cb receptors to increase ghrelin and leptin levels, both of which play a role in increasing feelings of hunger. At the same time, THC lowers the production of PYY, which is a hormone that suppresses feelings of hunger.
THC use can effectively make you feel hungry by producing these hormonal changes.
CBD Without THC
Most CBD products are extracted from hemp plants, containing trace amounts of THC, even after the extraction process is complete. But here at Peels, we do things a little differently.
Instead of hemp, we source our CBD from orange peels.
We use a cyclic terpene assembly process to turn the aromatic terpenes found in citrus into molecularly identical CBD. And since there is no THC in citrus fruits, there is no risk of THC making it into your freshly squeezed Peels CBD oil.
How Long Until I Feel The Effects Of CBD?
While you may feel more relaxed or less sore within an hour of using CBD oil, CBD works best when used consistently over time. You’ll get the most out of your CBD if used daily for at least a month, especially when it comes to regulating sleep or supporting metabolic function and digestive health.
When you get the right amount of quality sleep and energy, you will feel the effects with your new lifestyle.
Bottom Line
While CBD’s overall impact on weight is still being studied, CBD can help support metabolic function, improve sleep quality, aid in your fitness routine, and impact digestive health.
At Peels, we ensure our citrus-flavored CBD oil is third-party tested and 100% THC-free so that you can incorporate it into your daily wellness routine completely worry-free.
Sources
Cannabidiol promotes browning in 3T3-L1 adipocytes | SpringerLink
The Metabolic Consequences of Sleep Deprivation | Sleep Medicine Review
Cannabinoids as novel anti-inflammatory drugs | Future Med Chem
Cannabinoid Agonists for Nausea and Vomiting | Gastroenterology Nursing
Cannabinoids: the lows and the highs of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting | Future Oncology