Why Do Cigarettes Make You Skinny?

But smokers are, on average, skinnier than nonsmokers. New research reveals how nicotine, the active ingredient in cigarettes, works in the brain to suppress smokers' appetites. The finding also pinpoints a new drug target for nicotine withdrawal—and weight loss.

Will smoking cigarettes make you skinny?

Myth: Smoking makes you skinny

But that's not the complete picture. “All smokers are not skinny,” says Karen Johnson, MD, endowed professor of women's health at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center's department of preventive medicine. “The myth that cigarette smoking keeps you thin is incorrect.”

Why does nicotine make you lose weight?

Nicotine reduces body weight by raising the resting metabolic rate while blunting the expected increase in food intake in response to the increase in metabolic rate.