i know the munchies are caused by cannibinoids that affect the brain to trigger hunger, but not all people get the munchies like normal. some people i know actually lose their appetite when high. why is this? or are they just afraid they’re going to go to far with it and blow up like a whale?
Doesn’t fully answer your question, but Cecil discussed the munchies.
I will offer some WAGs, however:
Perhaps the people you’ve seen who lose their appetites are inexperienced smokers, and paranoia and/or random thoughts overpower the munchies. If you’re so stoned that you can’t form a coherent thought, Twinkies might not occur to you.
If they’ve been drinking alcohol before toking up, they might get the spins which is a sickly feeling not congruent with raiding the kitchen.
If someone does a huge bong hit and coughs up their right lung, that might also be a factor.
Your hypothesis regarding weight gain could definitely be a factor in some people.
I don’t think there’s really going to be a factual answer here because different people will have different reasons for losing their appetite while partaking of the herb.
nope, i don’t think any of those are it; but i don’t think it’s purely fear of obesity. my sister was one of those people. she just didn’t like eating while high. maybe drymouth was a factor too.
Well, I don’t even get thirsty when high and I just get the munchies occasionally. The effects just vary from person to person. I used to get such a dry-mouth that I could hardly speak and munchies like there was no tomorrow but these days I am free of both, so it could be a …thing.
…dammit, I had such a good word there…
Stay in school, winners don’t use drugs.
Define “winners”.
eh, the only thing weed does is get people addicted. it lowers IQ by 4 points, but what is 4 points?
Bullshit. Why are you posting soapbox opinions in GQ disguised as factual questions?
Actually, it does quite a lot of things. It gets me high, for one. Reduces stress. Increases enjoyment of the arts. Makes everything I say seem profound. But what about increasing appetite in chemotherapy patients? Or reducing intraocular pressure in glaucoma patients?
Maybe you should take these gripes to GD or IMHO or the PIT. GQ is not the place for unsubstantiated hysterical rhetoric.
Cite?
After smoking for a while, some people get better at ‘controlling’ the side effects. By the end of college, (well, after the first year or two) my eyes didn’t even turn red anymore. But I could always go for a nice pizza.
Eleusis, sorry i didn’t phrase that right. i actually meant that as a pro-weed statement. as in the only negative thing it really does is get people addicted. as for the I.Q. statement, Google it.
I think inexperienced smokers and using weed with alcohol are certainly factors contributing to “missing munchies,” but I also believe there’s another.
In my experience, there’s a period of 1-2 hours after smoking where I’m actually less hungry. The munchies tend to occur as the effects begin to wear off. Perhaps it is the physiological process of coming down that triggers the munchies. I’ve got a personal theory that it may even be caused by a chemical released by your body in order to try and purge the intoxicant from your body, rather than by the weed itself.
Anyway, that’s just anecdotal. Anyone else noticed the same thing?
That’s cool, gypsymoth3. I’m also sorry that I flew off the handle. I get a little defensive sometimes regarding the evil death weed 
By Jove, I think so!
I used to be the same, how much?often do you smoke?
Ummm…Sorry to burst your bubble, but pot’s not addictive.
Ok, none of these say that it’s not addictive. But the point is that none say that it is. The mention that Cocaine, Herion and the like are, but not pot.
From well.com
Does that mean it’s addictive? Well, no more than exercise, prayer and soap operas.
My old roommate had a very interesting theory on her own munchies:
If she smoked on a full stomach, she got mad munchies, and could not stop eating. If she smoked when she was already hungry, the munchies were avoided. She believed that once high, her stomach went on a quest to keep its volume unchanged. Full stomach + getting high = continuing to eat so the stomach stays full.
I don’t know how true that was, but I always liked the theory.
Personally, once the munchies hit, I often fixate on one particular food, and can’t eat anything else until I have it. Which really sucks when all I’m thinking about is a Grand Slam and the closest Denny’s is an hour away.
Man, I could fast for a week and then smoke a pound of dope, and I still wouldn’t want to eat at Denny’s. Ewwwww.
Me three. Maybe we are normal? Or strange wierdos untied by SDMB? What do you think?
dammit, untied = united
/not hungry 
Hm. That kinda parallels with what I was going to say. Tokers often experience inertia. If you start doing something, or were already doing something, you’ll end up doing it until some outside force stops you. But you’re less likely to start a new activity. So if you toke up before a movie, and you normally get popcorn with a movie, that popcorn is going to be the best you ever tasted, and you’ll savor every grain of salt on every kernel, and then head to concessions for another tub (during which you’ll get distracted, because, hey, you never noticed that the lights in the lobby were set up like that!). Conversely, if you’re watching a video at home, and you don’t normally eat while you’re doing that, you’ll keep ignoring your growling tummy because you never realized Adam Sandler was so deep, and you don’t want to pause the movie to go to the kitchen.
My old roommate 
was one of those “cruncy, salty, sweet” purists. The three munchie food groups.