Can CBD Oil Help You Lose Weight?
Obesity is a major epidemic in North America. Even though the main reasons for this are quite obvious — the SAD (Standard North American Diet) with lots of junk food and a severe lack of physical activity — each person might have a very different root cause for being overweight. It could be anything from leptin resistance, metabolic syndrome, or psychological addiction to a combination of multiple factors.
The key to healing anything is to target the root cause and bring balance back into the system, whether it’s hormones, appetite, or circadian rhythm.
How Does CBD Oil Help?
1. Balance Appetite With CBD Oil
It’s common knowledge that THC helps boost appetite by bringing out the munchies. However, CBD oil has more of a balancing effect on your appetite. If your body is out of homeostasis, you can experience either an extremely large appetite or no appetite whatsoever. Our appetite is controlled by two hormones: ghrelin, a hunger-stimulating hormone, and leptin, a satiety hormone, which are secreted by the hypothalamus. The part of the hypothalamus that regulates ghrelin is stimulated by CB1 receptors. CBD is a CB1 blocker, which means that it prevents the hunger hormone from being released. Animal studies show that rats given CBD ate much less food than the control group and that CBD increased leptin levels so the rats felt fuller. (1)
Living in cold climates like Toronto or Calgary can further cause imbalances of appetite, as most of us are prone to overeat during long dark cold evenings, and go for calorically dense comfort food during freezing days. CBD oil can help stabilize the signals to your brain that you are feeling full, so you don’t feel the need to consume more food.
2. Boost Metabolism With CBD Oil
Fat cells are metabolic, meaning that they don’t just hang there and do nothing; they burn energy, produce hormones, and are an active participant in our system. We have both brown adipose tissue that is high in mitochondria, the powerhouse of our cells, and white adipose tissue that is used to store energy. In vitro studies have shown that CBD is able to convert white fat into brown fat. This process is called browning. CBD can increase metabolic activity of white fat cells, thus increasing the amount of energy that is burnt. Since stored fat is stored energy, it should also assist in burning body fat and weight loss. Human studies are still needed to confirm this hypothesis.
3. Balance Cortisol For Weight Loss
CBD oil can help you lose weight by regulating the levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Since in our endocrine system all hormones are closely linked to each other, cortisol also affects other hormones. The most important relationship in the case of weight management is the link between cortisol and testosterone. Cortisol is known to decreases testosterone, and testosterone is needed for the stimulation of muscle growth and the burning of fat. So stress increases cortisol which decreasing testosterone, thus resulting in muscle breakdown and fat storage (specifically mid-waist). In addition, very often stress stimulates appetite too. Have you ever experienced stress eating?
Related: How Can CBD Oil Help You Balance Hormones?
4. Sleep More For Weight Loss
One of the other biggest root causes of weight gain is lack of sleep. When we just don’t get enough sleep we can promote imbalances in our hormones, like in the ones we previously talked about – ghrelin and leptin. Studies have shown that lack of sleep causes your body to have lower levels of leptin, the satiety hormone, in turn making your body feel hungry when it might not be. In addition, lack of sleep causes ghrelin, the hungry hormone, thereby making you feel hungrier than normal. Have you ever experienced jet lag where you have an abnormal appetite? That’s leptin and ghrelin being confused from abnormal sleeping patterns. CBD oil may help you lose weight by helping you relax at night and fall asleep more easily. It can also help you stay asleep throughout the night, thereby giving you more proper rest. Improving your sleep can help you to better manage your weight.
Related: Does CBD Oil Help With Sleep?
5. Balance is Key
The main goal of CBD is to bring balance back to our body, whether it’s appetite, mood, energy, sleep, immunity, reproduction, or any other system. Many women in our society struggle with excess weight, and there can be many reasons why a woman might not be able to lose that weight. These reasons can range from hormonal imbalances and slow metabolism, to lack of energy and psychological addiction to food. Whatever the reason is, the key is to find the underlying issue and work with that root cause. CBD oil may assist in the weight loss process by bringing all systems into homeostasis, thereby creating a healthier body overall.
The Bottom Line
As holistic nutritionists, we believe that each of us is unique and that we shouldn’t try to measure up to anyone. Every woman has her own body type and her own perfect weight, which fluctuates depending on where she is in life, her hormonal cycle, or even the season.
We also believe that if you want to lose weight, it should be coming from a place of self-love. Implementing a healthy lifestyle shouldn’t be from a place of punishment, deprivation, or self-abuse. Instead, it should be from a place of nourishment, satisfaction, and self-care. The best weight loss strategy is a long-term plan that involves making changes towards eating wholesome real food and moving your body regularly.
Curious to try out CBD oil for yourself? We suggest ICARIA’s flagship Aphrodite in the 30 mL size. We love this product since it comes with a pleasant nutty taste, and a little goes a long way. The larger bottle size also provides a better value and may be useful for daily use to balance hormones and manage weight.
You can also check out what other happy customers are saying here.
