How Does Hashish Affect Your Appetite and Weight

Hashish is a form of cannabis, made from the resin of the cannabis plant, and one of its best-known effects is a change in appetite. Many people who use it feel suddenly very hungry, often for sweet, salty or fatty food, even when they have eaten recently. Others find the opposite happens over time: they lose interest in regular meals, eat at strange times, or forget to eat at all. Both patterns can be harmful, because the body needs steady, balanced food to stay strong, to think clearly and to recover from illness. When eating becomes irregular, weight can rise or fall in ways that are hard to control, and health can suffer in quiet ways that are easy to miss at first.

This article explains, in plain words, how hashish affects appetite and weight: why hunger changes, why cravings for sugary food are so common, why some people gain weight while others lose it, how poor nutrition builds up over weeks and months, and what may improve after stopping. It is general information only, not individual medical advice. It does not tell anyone how to use hashish, and it does not offer treatment. If you are worried about your eating, your weight or your use of hashish, a qualified health professional is the right person to talk to.

What Hashish Does to Appetite in the First Hours

Hashish contains a substance called THC, which is the main active chemical in cannabis. When a person uses hashish, THC travels through the blood to the brain, where it affects areas that control hunger, pleasure, smell and taste. Food can suddenly smell stronger, taste richer and seem more appealing than usual. A small snack can feel like a feast, and the urge to keep eating can feel hard to resist. This is often called the munchies, and it is not a joke or a harmless side effect. It is a real change in how the brain reads hunger signals, and it can push a person to eat far more than the body needs, especially late at night.

The effect does not last forever in a single session. Hunger usually rises in the first hour or two after use, then fades as the main effects wear off. But the pattern matters more than one evening. When a person uses hashish regularly, the strong hunger returns again and again, often at the same time of day, and the body starts to expect a large snack or a heavy meal at that hour. Over weeks, that expectation can become a habit. The person may begin to feel hungry mainly when they use hashish, and less hungry at normal meal times. That shift is one of the first signs that appetite is no longer following the body’s real needs.

It is also important to understand that the hunger caused by hashish is not the same as ordinary hunger. Ordinary hunger builds slowly, and it is satisfied by a balanced meal. The hunger linked to hashish can arrive suddenly, feel urgent, and point towards foods that are high in sugar, salt or fat, rather than towards a proper meal. A person may eat a packet of biscuits, a bag of crisps or a sugary drink, feel full for a short while, and then feel hungry again soon after. That cycle gives the body quick energy and then leaves it tired, which makes the next craving feel even stronger.

Why Hunger Feels Stronger and Less Predictable

The brain normally uses several signals to decide when to eat and when to stop. The stomach sends a message when it is empty, hormones rise and fall through the day, and the brain remembers when meals usually happen. THC interferes with that system. It can make the brain pay more attention to the smell and sight of food, and less attention to the feeling of being full. A person may therefore eat past the point where they would normally stop, simply because the food still tastes good and the brain is still asking for more.

Sleep also plays a part. Hashish can disturb sleep, making it lighter or more broken, and poor sleep itself changes appetite. After a bad night, many people feel hungrier the next day, especially for sweet food, because the body is looking for quick energy to make up for tiredness. When hashish use and poor sleep happen together, night after night, the hunger can feel constant and hard to predict. One day a person may eat very little, and the next day they may eat a great deal, with no clear reason for the change.

Mood is another factor. Some people use hashish when they feel bored, stressed or low, and eating can become part of the same routine. Food offers a quick comfort, and hashish can make that comfort feel stronger. Over time, the link between feeling low and reaching for food can grow, so that hunger is no longer about an empty stomach at all. It becomes a response to stress, boredom or the habit of using hashish in the evening. Breaking that link is difficult, because it involves changing two habits at once, not just one.

Tolerance adds another twist. When a person uses hashish often, the body gradually gets used to THC, and the same amount may no longer bring the same strong hunger it once did. Some people then use more, or use it more often, chasing the old feeling, which only deepens the habit. Others find the opposite problem: on days when they do not use it, their appetite drops below normal, and ordinary food seems dull and unappealing. Breakfast is skipped, lunch is picked at, and only the evening session brings back a real desire to eat. That is a worrying sign, because it means the body’s own hunger signals have gone quiet and eating has started to depend on the drug. A healthy appetite should be there in the morning, at midday and in the evening, whether or not a person has used anything. When hunger only arrives with hashish, the body is no longer in charge of its own eating.

Eating at Odd Hours and Losing a Normal Routine

One of the most common changes linked to regular hashish use is a shift in when meals happen. A person who used to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at fairly regular times may start to skip breakfast, eat little during the day, and then eat a large amount late at night. This often happens because the effects of hashish are strongest in the evening, when there is more free time, and the hunger that follows arrives when most people would be winding down for the night. Late-night eating can then disturb sleep, because a full stomach and a rush of sugar make it harder to fall asleep, and poor sleep makes the next day harder still.

Skipping meals is not harmless, even if the person eats a lot later. The body works best when it receives food steadily through the day. When meals are missed, blood sugar can drop, energy falls, and concentration becomes harder. A person may feel shaky, irritable or unable to focus, and may then reach for a sweet snack or a sugary drink to feel better quickly. That quick fix raises blood sugar fast and lets it fall again soon after, which keeps the cycle going. Over weeks, this pattern can leave a person tired during the day and restless at night, even if the total amount of food eaten seems roughly normal.

Routine also matters for the stomach. Eating at very different times each day, eating quickly, or eating large amounts in one sitting can upset digestion. Some people feel bloated, sick or uncomfortable after eating, and that discomfort can make them avoid proper meals the next day, which makes the problem worse. Others develop a pattern of grazing all evening, picking at food without ever sitting down to a real meal. Neither pattern gives the body the balanced mix of protein, vegetables, fruit and whole grains that it needs, and over time the lack of balance starts to show in energy, skin, immunity and general health.

When Weight Goes Up: Snacking, Sweet Food and Less Movement

Weight gain is a common result of regular hashish use, and it usually happens slowly, which is why it can take people by surprise. The extra food eaten during cravings adds calories, and those calories are often from foods that are high in sugar and fat and low in nutrients. A few hundred extra calories a day, repeated over months, can add up to several kilograms. The person may not notice the change week by week, but clothes may start to fit differently, walking up stairs may feel harder, and energy may fall.

Less movement often adds to the problem. Hashish can make a person feel relaxed, sleepy or less motivated to move, especially in the hours after use. A walk, a game, or a household task that used to be part of the day may be put off, and sitting for long periods becomes more common. When less energy is used and more food is eaten, weight rises more quickly. This is not about laziness or a lack of willpower. It is about how a substance changes motivation, energy and appetite at the same time, which makes the usual balance between food and movement harder to keep.

Slow weight gain is easy to dismiss, and that is part of the danger. A kilogram here and a kilogram there does not feel like a crisis, so many people tell themselves they will deal with it later. But later rarely comes on its own, because the habit that caused the gain is still there every evening. Clothes fit a little tighter, stairs feel a little harder, and a routine health check may show blood pressure creeping up. Knees and ankles can start to ache under the extra weight, which makes walking even less appealing, and less walking makes the weight rise faster. Breaking that loop takes a change in the evening routine itself, not just a promise to eat less tomorrow. Until the pattern of late-night snacking and long sitting changes, the weight usually keeps moving in the same direction.

Weight gain brings its own risks. Extra weight, especially around the waist, is linked with a higher risk of type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart problems and joint pain. It can also affect mood and confidence. A person who gains weight may feel less comfortable in their clothes, less keen to go out, and more likely to stay at home, which can lead to more sitting and more snacking. That loop is hard to break, and it is one of the reasons why early attention to eating habits matters more than waiting until the weight has risen a lot.

When Weight Goes Down: Missed Meals and a Poor Diet

Not everyone who uses hashish gains weight. Some people lose weight, and that loss can be just as worrying. This often happens when regular use reduces interest in food during the day, so meals are skipped or replaced by a drink, a snack or nothing at all. A person may go for hours without eating, feel too tired or too unfocused to cook, and then eat only a small amount late at night. Over weeks, the body receives less food than it needs, and weight falls.

Loss of appetite can also be linked with nausea or an unsettled stomach. Some regular users report feeling sick in the morning, having a poor appetite, or finding that food does not taste appealing unless they have used hashish. That pattern is a warning sign, because it means eating has become dependent on the substance, rather than on the body’s natural hunger. When food only appeals after using hashish, the person may eat less on days when they do not use it, and the total amount of food over a week can fall well below what the body needs.

Weight loss from missed meals is not the same as healthy weight loss. It often comes with a loss of muscle, not just fat, and with a lack of vitamins and minerals that the body needs to stay strong. A person may feel weak, catch colds more easily, take longer to recover from illness, and find it harder to concentrate. Hair, skin and nails can also suffer when the diet is poor for a long time. These changes develop slowly, and they are easy to blame on tiredness or stress, when the real cause is a diet that has become too thin and too irregular.

How Poor Nutrition Slowly Affects Energy, Sleep and Mood

Poor nutrition does not cause one sudden problem. It causes many small problems that add up. A diet that is high in sugar and low in protein, vegetables and whole foods can leave a person with energy that rises and falls sharply through the day. Mornings may feel slow, afternoons may bring a crash, and evenings may bring a burst of hunger that leads to more sugary food. That pattern makes work, study and family life harder, because the body never has a steady supply of fuel.

Sleep is closely linked to food. Eating a large, sugary meal late at night can make it harder to fall asleep and can lead to broken sleep. Poor sleep then increases hunger the next day, especially for sweet food, which keeps the cycle going. Over months, this can leave a person feeling tired even after a full night in bed, because the sleep was not deep or restful. Tiredness affects mood as well. A person who is tired and poorly fed is more likely to feel irritable, low or anxious, and less likely to have the energy to cook a proper meal or go for a walk, which makes the nutrition worse still.

The stomach itself can also suffer. Irregular eating, large late meals and a diet low in fibre can lead to bloating, heartburn, constipation or stomach pain. Some people find that their digestion never quite settles, and they start to avoid certain foods or skip meals to avoid discomfort. That avoidance narrows the diet further, which makes nutrition worse. It is a slow, quiet process, and that is why it is often missed until the person feels unwell in several ways at once.

Vitamins and minerals are the quiet casualty in all of this. A body that lives on biscuits, crisps and sugary drinks may get enough calories, yet still be short of the nutrients it needs to stay strong. Iron, for example, comes from foods like beans, lentils, leafy greens and meat, and a person who skips proper meals may not get enough of it, which can leave them pale and tired. A lack of other vitamins can slow healing, so a small cut or a cold takes longer to get better. The immune system, which defends the body against illness, also needs a steady supply of varied food to work well. When the diet is narrow for months, colds come more often and last longer, and the person may feel run down without knowing why. None of this shows up in a single day. It builds up quietly, meal by missed meal, until the body is running on empty even while the person is eating plenty of calories.

Who Is More Likely to Be Affected

Not everyone who uses hashish will have the same effect on appetite and weight. The risk is higher for people who use it often, in larger amounts, or over a long period, because the changes to hunger and routine have more time to build up. Teenagers and young adults are more at risk, because their bodies and brains are still developing, and because eating habits formed at that age can last for years. People who already have a poor diet, a low income, or limited access to fresh food may also find it harder to keep a balanced diet when cravings point towards cheap, sugary food.

People with existing health problems need to be especially careful. Someone with diabetes may find that sugary snacks and irregular meals make blood sugar harder to control. Someone with a stomach problem may find that late eating makes symptoms worse. Someone who is already underweight may lose more weight, while someone who is already overweight may gain more. Mental health matters too. A person who uses hashish to cope with stress, low mood or anxiety may find that eating becomes part of that coping pattern, which makes it harder to change without support.

It is also worth remembering that mixing hashish with alcohol or other substances can make appetite and eating even more unpredictable. Alcohol itself adds calories and can increase hunger, while also making it harder to make sensible food choices. When two substances are used together, the effects on appetite, sleep and judgement can be stronger than either one alone, and the risk of poor nutrition rises.

Appetite, Weight and Health Over the Years

Over years rather than weeks, the eating pattern linked to hashish can shape a person’s health in ways that are hard to undo quickly. Weight that rises slowly year after year puts a steady strain on the heart and on the joints, and it raises the risk of type 2 diabetes, because the body has to work harder to manage blood sugar when meals are large, sugary and irregular. A person may not feel ill at all while this is happening. The first warning is often a number on a scale, a blood pressure reading, or a blood test at a routine check-up. By then, the pattern has usually been in place for a long time, and changing it means changing an evening routine that has become deeply familiar.

Weight loss over years carries its own long-term costs. A person who has eaten too little for a long time may have lost muscle as well as fat, which makes the body weaker and slower to recover from illness or injury. Bones can also suffer when the diet lacks variety over years, and a person may break a bone more easily from a small fall. These are not dramatic effects, and they do not happen to everyone, but they are the reason health professionals take long-term poor eating seriously even when the person feels fine. The body can cope with a poor diet for a while, but it keeps a record, and the record shows up eventually.

There is also the question of what a person misses out on. Meals are not only fuel. They are the time when families sit together, when children learn what good food looks like, and when the day has a shape. A person whose evenings revolve around hashish and snacking can drift away from the family table, eating alone, late, and in a hurry. Children notice that, and they copy it. A teenager who grows up watching a parent skip meals and snack late at night may carry the same habits into adult life, even if they never touch hashish themselves. So the effect of one person’s changed appetite can reach further than their own body, into the eating habits of the whole household.

That is why it helps to think of appetite and weight not as a private matter of willpower, but as part of a person’s whole life. The food a person eats, the times they eat, the sleep they get and the mood they carry are all tied together, and hashish touches every one of them. Fixing only one part, such as eating less sugar, rarely works while the rest of the pattern stays the same. The changes that last are the ones that give the day a new shape: regular meals at regular times, an evening that does not centre on hashish, a walk after dinner, and a home where food is shared rather than eaten alone in front of a screen. Those are simple things, but they are the things that let appetite and weight find their way back to normal.

What May Improve After Stopping

The body can recover, but recovery takes time and it is rarely instant. In the first days and weeks after stopping hashish, appetite may feel strange. Some people feel less hungry at first, because their body has become used to feeling hungry mainly after using hashish. Others feel hungrier as their normal hunger signals return. Both reactions are common, and both usually settle as the body relearns its own rhythm. Eating regular meals, even small ones, at roughly the same times each day can help that rhythm return more quickly.

Over weeks, many people find that their taste for food changes. Proper meals start to taste better, and the urge for very sweet food becomes less urgent. Energy often improves as sleep settles and meals become more regular. Weight may move slowly back towards a healthier range, although this depends on the person, their diet and how much they move. The important point is that change is gradual. A person should not expect appetite and weight to return to normal in a few days, and should not be discouraged if the first week feels unsettled.

Support can make a real difference. A doctor, a dietitian or a local health service can help a person plan simple, affordable meals, and can check whether weight loss or gain has caused any other health problems. Family support matters too, because eating is often a shared activity, and a regular family meal can help rebuild a routine. The goal is not a perfect diet, but a steadier one: regular meals, a mix of foods, less sugary snacking late at night, and enough movement through the day. Those simple changes, kept up over months, are what allow the body to recover.

My Take:

I want to start with something people rarely say out loud about hashish and food: the hunger it causes is not funny. People joke about the munchies as if it were a harmless party trick, a funny story about eating a whole packet of biscuits at midnight. But when I look at it honestly, I see a substance reaching into the brain and switching off the signals that tell a person when they have had enough. That is not a joke. That is a loss of control over one of the most basic things a body does. A person who cannot trust their own hunger is a person whose body is no longer giving them honest information, and that is a serious thing, not a punchline.

What worries me most is how slow the damage is. Nobody wakes up one morning twenty kilograms heavier and wonders what happened. The weight comes on a little at a time, a few hundred extra calories each evening, a few evenings each week, month after month. By the time a person notices their clothes do not fit, the habit is already deep, and the food, the late nights and the tired mornings have become normal life. I think that slowness is what makes this effect so dangerous. A sudden harm gets attention. A slow harm gets ignored until it is hard to reverse, and by then the person has to fight not one habit but a whole way of living.

I also think we need to be honest about the other side, the people who lose weight. There is a strange idea in some places that losing weight is always a good thing, as if a thinner body is automatically a healthier body. That idea is wrong, and it is dangerous here. A person who loses weight because they skip meals, forget to eat, or only feel hungry after using hashish is not getting healthier. They are running short of food, and their body is paying for it in muscle, in energy, in the strength of their immune system and in their ability to think clearly. I have no respect for a habit that makes a person thinner by starving them in slow motion, and I think anyone who sees a friend or a family member getting thinner like that should take it seriously, not compliment them on it.

Food, for me, is about more than calories. A meal is the moment when a family sits down together, when a parent shows a child what a proper plate looks like, when the day gets its shape. Hashish takes that shape away. It moves eating to midnight, it turns a meal into a bag of crisps eaten alone, and it teaches the body that food is something you grab in a hurry when a craving hits, not something you sit down to and enjoy. I think that loss matters, and I think it matters most for children, who learn how to eat by watching the adults around them. A child who grows up in a house where nobody eats a proper meal together is learning a lesson that will follow them for life, even if they never touch hashish themselves.

I am often asked whether the appetite effect goes away, and my honest answer is that it does, but slowly, and only if the person gives their body a chance. Appetite does not snap back to normal the day after a person stops. The body has to relearn its own rhythm, and that takes weeks of regular meals at regular times, even when the person does not feel particularly hungry. That is hard, and I understand why people get discouraged in the first week. But I have also seen the other side of it, which is that the body is remarkably willing to recover. Taste comes back. Proper food starts to taste good again. Energy steadies. The person who sticks with regular meals for a month usually feels better than they have felt in a long time, and that feeling is worth the difficult first weeks.

One thing I would say to anyone who uses hashish and notices their eating has changed is this: do not wait for a crisis. You do not need to be very overweight or very underweight before the problem is real. If your meals have moved to midnight, if you only feel hungry after using hashish, if you eat sweets every evening and skip breakfast every morning, the pattern is already there, and it is already doing its quiet work. The best time to change a pattern is when you first notice it, not when a doctor shows you a worrying test result a year later. Small changes now are worth far more than big changes later.

I think families have a bigger role here than they realise. Eating is a shared activity, and a family that eats together gives a person a reason to sit down at a normal time and eat a normal meal. If someone in your family is drifting into late-night snacking and skipped meals, the most helpful thing you can do is not to lecture them about their weight. It is to cook a proper meal, put it on the table, and invite them to sit with you. That sounds too simple to work, but I believe it is one of the most powerful things a family can do. A shared meal is a gentle way of saying that the person matters, that their health matters, and that there is a normal rhythm waiting for them whenever they are ready to come back to it.

Money is another angle that does not get talked about enough. The snacks, the sugary drinks, the takeaway food ordered late at night, all of it costs money, and it adds up. A person who spends a little extra on food every evening may not notice the cost week by week, but over a year it is a real sum, money that could have gone to better food, to the family, or to savings. And that is before counting the cost of the hashish itself. I am not saying money is the most important reason to change, but I am saying it is a concrete one, and concrete reasons help people act. When a person adds up what the habit costs in a year, the number often surprises them, and surprise is sometimes what starts a change.

I want to be clear about something else too. I do not think people who use hashish are weak, and I do not think their eating problems are a matter of willpower. The brain’s hunger system is powerful, and when a substance interferes with it, the person is fighting their own biology, not just a bad habit. Telling someone to simply eat less, or simply eat more, is not helpful, because the signals they are supposed to listen to are the very signals that have gone wrong. What helps is structure: regular meal times, food already prepared, someone else at the table, and a day that has a shape. Willpower is a poor tool for fixing a broken hunger signal. Routine is a far better one, and routine is something a person can build one small step at a time.

Young people worry me most of all in this. A teenager’s body is still growing, and their brain is still learning how hunger, food and mood fit together. A teenager who uses hashish regularly and starts skipping meals or living on sweets is not just having a bad few months. They are building eating habits that can last for years, and they are doing it at the very age when good habits matter most. I would say to any young person reading this: your appetite is one of the most honest guides your body gives you, and it is worth protecting. If a substance is changing when you feel hungry and what you want to eat, that is your body telling you something is wrong, and it is worth listening to it now, while the change is still easy to undo.

I also want to speak plainly about mixing hashish with alcohol, because the two together make eating even more unpredictable. Alcohol adds its own calories, it loosens judgement about food, and it can make a person eat far more than they planned, or skip a meal entirely because they feel too unwell to eat. When both are used in the same evening, the next day often starts with no appetite at all, and the day ends with another round of heavy snacking. That is a hard cycle to break, because it involves two habits, not one, and I think anyone who uses both should know that the combination is worse for their eating than either one on its own. If a person is going to change one thing, changing the combination is a good place to start.

There is one more thing I think people get wrong about this, and it is the idea that the answer is a diet. A diet is a plan for eating less, or eating differently, and it assumes the person’s hunger signals are working properly. But when hashish has disturbed those signals, a diet is the wrong tool. A person who cannot tell when they are hungry and when they are full does not need a stricter set of rules about food. They need their hunger back. And hunger comes back through regular meals, regular sleep and time away from the substance, not through a new set of restrictions. I would rather see a person eat three simple, regular meals a day than follow a complicated diet plan that falls apart in a week. Simple and steady beats clever and short-lived, every time.

Sleep deserves a mention here too, because it is the hidden partner in this whole story. Poor sleep makes people hungrier the next day, especially for sweet food, and hashish can disturb sleep even when the person thinks they slept well. So a person can end up in a loop where the evening brings hashish, the night brings broken sleep, the morning brings no appetite, and the next evening brings strong cravings again. Breaking that loop means looking at the whole day, not just the food. A person who sleeps at a regular time, eats at a regular time and moves their body during the day is giving their appetite the best chance to settle. None of that is glamorous, and none of it makes a good headline, but it is what actually works.

If someone I loved was in this situation, I would not start by talking about their weight. I would start by asking how they are sleeping, whether they enjoy their food any more, and whether meals feel normal to them. Those questions get to the real problem faster than a number on a scale does, and they show the person that I care about how they feel, not how they look. Weight is a symptom here, not the disease. The disease is a broken appetite, a broken routine and a broken night’s sleep, and those are the things worth fixing. When they are fixed, the weight usually follows, slowly and in the right direction.

I am also honest that change is uncomfortable at first. The first week of regular meals can feel strange. Food may taste dull. Hunger may arrive at odd times or not at all. A person may feel irritable or tired as their body adjusts. That discomfort is real, and I do not want to pretend it away. But it passes, and it passes faster than most people expect. By the second or third week, most people find that breakfast starts to taste good again, that they feel hungry at proper meal times, and that the evening craving for sweets has lost some of its urgency. The hard part is short, and the reward is a body that tells the truth about hunger again. That is worth a few uncomfortable weeks.

Finally, I would say this to anyone who is worried about a family member or a friend. Do not wait for them to ask for help, because they may never ask. People are often embarrassed about their eating, and they may not connect it with hashish at all. A gentle conversation, a shared meal, and a suggestion to talk to a doctor or a health service can make a real difference. You do not need to have all the answers. You only need to show that you have noticed, that you care, and that help is available. Sometimes that is enough to start a change that the person could not start on their own.

And if you are the person reading this about yourself, I want you to know that your appetite can come back. Bodies are patient. They wait for us to give them regular food, regular sleep and a break from the things that disturb them, and when we do, they recover. It will not happen in a day, and it will not happen by itself. But it will happen if you give it time, structure and a little support. Your hunger is not gone. It is only confused, and confusion can be cleared. Start with one regular meal tomorrow, at a normal time, sitting down, with real food on the plate. That one meal is a small step, but it is a step in the right direction, and the next step will be easier than the first.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does hashish make you feel hungry?

Hashish contains THC, which affects the parts of the brain that control hunger, smell and taste. It can make food smell stronger and taste richer, and it can weaken the brain’s sense of being full. That is why the hunger often feels sudden and urgent, and why it points towards sweet, salty or fatty food rather than a balanced meal. The effect is strongest in the first hour or two after use, and it usually fades as the main effects wear off.

Can hashish make you gain weight?

Yes, it can. The strong cravings that follow use often lead to extra snacks, especially late at night, and those snacks are usually high in sugar and fat. A few hundred extra calories a day, repeated over months, can add up to several kilograms. Less movement adds to the problem, because hashish can make a person feel sleepy and less motivated to walk or do tasks. The gain is usually slow, which is why it can take people by surprise.

Can hashish make you lose weight?

Yes, it can, and that loss can be just as worrying as gaining weight. Some regular users lose interest in food during the day, skip meals, or find that food only appeals after they have used hashish. Over weeks, the body receives less food than it needs, and weight falls. This kind of weight loss often comes with a loss of muscle and a lack of vitamins, which can leave a person weak, tired and more likely to catch colds.

Does hashish change what foods you want to eat?

Yes. The hunger linked to hashish usually points towards foods that are high in sugar, salt or fat, such as biscuits, crisps, chocolate and sugary drinks, rather than towards a proper meal with protein, vegetables and whole grains. These foods give quick energy and then leave the person tired, which can make the next craving feel even stronger. Over time, the diet can become narrow and low in the nutrients the body needs.

Will appetite return to normal after stopping hashish?

For many people, yes, but it takes time. In the first days and weeks after stopping, appetite may feel strange. Some people feel less hungry at first, while others feel hungrier as their normal hunger signals return. Eating regular meals at roughly the same times each day helps the body’s rhythm return more quickly. Most people find that proper meals start to taste better and the urge for very sweet food becomes less urgent over a few weeks.

When should someone seek advice about appetite or weight changes?

You should seek advice if your appetite or weight has changed a lot, if you are skipping meals most days, if you only feel hungry after using hashish, or if you feel weak, tired or unwell. A doctor, a dietitian or a local health service can check whether the change has caused other health problems and can help you plan simple, affordable meals. Anyone who feels sick in the morning, has ongoing stomach pain, or is losing weight without trying should speak to a health professional promptly.

Sources

• National Institute on Drug Abuse — https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/cannabis
• U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration — https://www.dea.gov/drug-information
• Mayo Clinic, Drug addiction — https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/drug-addiction/symptoms-causes/syc-20365112
• World Health Organization, Substance abuse — https://www.who.int/health-topics/substance-abuse
• NHS, Drug addiction: getting help — https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/addiction-support/drug-addiction-getting-help/

This article is general information only. It is not medical advice. If you are worried about your health or about someone else, speak to a qualified health professional.