Now, smoking shows you the way to weight loss!

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: In what could be called as a not so healthy step to take, researchers say that smoking could help fat people lose weight.

In an experiment conducted by scientists, self-consumption of nicotine by rats has resulted in weight loss.

The authors of the study investigated the impact of reducing nicotine doses on body weight, and results revealed that reduction of nicotine dose from a large self-administered dose to very low doses resulted in substantial weight gain.

In rats self-administering a maximally-reinforcing dose of nicotine, body weight gain during the 20-day study period was attenuated by 40 percent despite no change in food intake.

Lead author Laura Rupprecht said that the findings are important in the context of potential product standards requiring very low nicotine levels in cigarettes, as they indicate that low nicotine levels may still reduce body weight, possibly motivating continued use and maintaining exposure to harmful chemicals in cigarette smoke.

The results of the four experiments in the study also indicate that the weight-suppression properties of nicotine may act through processes that are separate from those that contribute to nicotine addiction.

(With ANI inputs)