Marijuana users are notoriously ravenous folk. We all know that's pretty much the only reason Taco Bell can afford to stay open so late. It's not just a hilarious stereotype--the drug is scientifically proven to increase appetite, and even has been medically used to stimulate hunger in certain cases. A group of researchers in France recently took it upon themselves to study the end results of pot hunger and found themselves some surprising data.

You might expect the average weed smoker to be a little more padded around the edges thanks to all that late night pizza, but the study actually found the opposite to be true. The first set of data surprised the doctors conducting the study so much that they had to turn to another independent sample. The data came up true either way: pot smokers tend to have lower rates of obesity than clean livers. 

As far as we know, there's nothing in marijuana itself that would help you stay thin. Unlike caffeine, it doesn't stimulate your metabolism or allow you to burn off calories more quickly. It's the opposite of an appetite-surpressing drug. So why are users thinner? 

We might be looking at a pretty clear case of correlation and not causation. My guess would be that weed smokers only eat badly while intoxicated and then eat pretty sparingly the rest of the time. Even if you get most of your calories from unhealthy foods, you won't necessarily gain weight if your total number of calories is within reasonable bounds. A few binges a week might not be enough to push you over the edge. Those who find themselves struggling with obesity tend to have consistently poor eating habits, which might not be the case with smokers. 

Or maybe there is some kind of chemical in marijuana that changes the way we metabolize food. The association is so strong that it's warranting further research, but in the meantime we have no way of knowing whether smoking weed would work as a weight loss tactic. I'm going with my correlation guess here, but who knows what France will dig up in their studies.