Can Vaping Cause Weight Gain?

For most people, the best evidence does not support the claim that vaping itself directly causes weight gain. Human research specifically measuring body weight after e-cigarette use is still limited, but the available trials and systematic reviews have not demonstrated that vaping independently causes a meaningful increase in weight, BMI, body fat or waist circumference.[1–3]

What is much better established is a different phenomenon: when nicotine exposure falls or stops, appetite can rise, food intake may increase and energy expenditure can fall slightly. This is one reason people often gain weight after stopping cigarettes, and it could also occur when a person substantially reduces or stops nicotine vaping.[4–6]

This distinction is crucial:

“Vaping causes weight gain” is not supported by good human evidence.

“Weight gain may occur when nicotine exposure is reduced or stopped” is biologically plausible and strongly supported by smoking-cessation research.

The evidence is strongest for cigarette smoking and smoking cessation. Evidence specifically following vaping cessation, particularly in people who have never smoked cigarettes, remains surprisingly sparse.

What the evidence shows overall

A 2022 systematic review specifically examined e-cigarettes, weight change and fat cells. Only 13 eligible studies were found across human, animal and laboratory research. The human evidence was predominantly observational and could not establish that vaping caused weight gain; animal findings sometimes suggested weight reduction, while laboratory findings were inconsistent. The authors concluded that better-designed studies were required before e-cigarettes could be assigned a causal role in weight change.[1]

That remains a fair description of the evidence. There are very few randomised studies in which weight was measured while nicotine-containing e-cigarettes, nicotine-free e-cigarettes and non-vaping groups were compared. The available trials have generally been conducted in cigarette smokers trying to quit, which means any subsequent weight change is difficult to separate from the powerful effect of stopping smoking itself.[2,3]

One useful analysis came from the E3 randomised smoking-cessation trial. Participants were allocated to nicotine e-cigarettes plus counselling, nicotine-free e-cigarettes plus counselling, or counselling alone. At 12 weeks, people who continued smoking had little average weight change, whereas participants who successfully stopped smoking gained roughly 2.1–2.7 kg, depending on the treatment group. After adjustment, neither nicotine nor e-cigarette exposure showed a convincing independent relationship with weight change.[2]

An earlier one-year randomised e-cigarette trial reached a broadly similar conclusion. Smokers received e-cigarettes containing different nicotine strengths, including a nicotine-free product. Weight did not differ significantly according to assigned nicotine strength. Those who successfully stopped cigarettes tended to gain weight, particularly during the earlier months of abstinence, regardless of which e-cigarette group they belonged to.[3]

That study needs considerable caution: relatively few participants achieved prolonged abstinence, the e-cigarette technology was much older and less efficient at delivering nicotine than many modern devices, and diet and physical activity were not comprehensively measured.[3]

How confident can we be?

Does vaping itself cause weight gain?

No convincing evidence of an independent causal effect

Does nicotine suppress appetite?

Yes, generally

Does nicotine increase energy expenditure?

Yes, modestly and acutely

Does stopping cigarettes cause weight gain?

Yes, commonly

Does switching from cigarettes to vaping sometimes result in weight gain?

Yes, but the gain appears predominantly related to smoking cessation rather than vaping

Does stopping nicotine vaping increase appetite?

Biologically likely and consistent with nicotine withdrawal

How much weight is gained after stopping vaping?

Not reliably known

Does nicotine-free vaping cause weight gain?

No convincing human evidence

Do sweet vape flavours make people eat more sweets?

Not demonstrated

Should vaping be used to control weight?

The absence of good evidence that vaping causes weight gain should not be misunderstood as proof that vaping has no health effects. It means specifically that increased body weight has not been established as a direct consequence of vaping.[1,13,15]

Nicotine, appetite and metabolism

Nicotine is probably the most important part of this question because nicotine has well-recognised effects on both sides of the body's energy balance equation: how much energy a person eats and how much energy they expend.[4–6]

Appetite, hunger and satiety

Nicotine generally reduces subjective appetite and hunger and can reduce food intake. It acts on receptors in the brain involved in appetite regulation, particularly pathways in the hypothalamus, a brain region that helps control hunger and energy balance.[4,6] [8]

A 2021 review identified 65 studies examining nicotine, food intake, appetite regulation and energy expenditure. It concluded that nicotine is associated with reduced appetite, food intake and body weight, although the exact hormonal mechanisms remain uncertain. Changes in central brain appetite pathways appear better supported than explanations involving circulating appetite hormones such as ghrelin, peptide YY or GLP-1.[4]

In simple terms, nicotine can make some people feel less hungry or delay the desire to eat. Once nicotine is removed, the appetite-suppressing effect disappears. Hunger can therefore feel stronger even when the person has not developed an underlying metabolic disease.[4,6]
Nicotine's effect on satiety — the feeling of fullness after eating — is less firmly established than its general appetite-suppressing effect. Human studies are heterogeneous, and there is not enough evidence to say that nicotine reliably makes every person feel fuller after a meal.[4]

Resting metabolic rate and energy expenditure

Nicotine also stimulates the sympathetic nervous system — the body's “fight or flight” system — and releases chemicals including adrenaline and noradrenaline. This can increase heart rate and energy expenditure.[4–6]

In a landmark controlled human experiment, 18 male smokers received nicotine by nasal spray. Resting metabolic rate rose by about 6% from baseline following nicotine, compared with approximately 3% following placebo. This demonstrated that nicotine itself, rather than tobacco smoke alone, can acutely increase metabolic rate.[5]

That does not mean that somebody vaping nicotine continuously burns 6% more calories every day. The experiment measured a short-term physiological response, tolerance develops to some nicotine effects, different devices produce very different nicotine concentrations, and resting metabolism is only one component of daily energy expenditure.[4,5]

Nevertheless, reviews of smoking cessation consistently conclude that removal of nicotine's thermogenic effect contributes to post-cessation weight gain.[6]

What happens to metabolism after nicotine is stopped?

Studies following smoking cessation have reported reductions in resting metabolic rate of roughly 4% to 16%, although estimates vary considerably between studies. Importantly, one recent review estimated that reduced metabolic rate accounts for less than 40% of post-smoking-cessation weight gain, meaning increased food intake and behavioural changes probably account for much of the remainder.[6]

To put that range into perspective, 4–16% of a resting energy expenditure of 1,500 kcal/day would be approximately 60–240 kcal/day. That is an illustration rather than a prediction for an individual: the published estimates are variable, may not persist indefinitely and come primarily from studies of cigarette smokers rather than exclusive vapers.[6]

This explains why metabolism may contribute to post-nicotine weight gain without the metabolism being “damaged”. The more accurate description is that nicotine had been artificially stimulating energy expenditure; removing it allows expenditure to move back towards the person's nicotine-free level.[4–6]

Food intake and snacking

Stopping nicotine can simultaneously remove appetite suppression and remove part of nicotine's metabolic stimulation. Some people also replace the hand-to-mouth activity of smoking or vaping with eating, which may further increase calorie intake.[6]

This combination matters more than either mechanism alone. A relatively small reduction in daily energy expenditure accompanied by slightly larger portions, frequent snacks or sweet foods can create a sustained positive energy balance and therefore gradual weight gain.[6]

Insulin sensitivity and glucose metabolism

Nicotine's weight effects should not be confused with metabolic health benefits.

Cigarette smoking is associated with insulin resistance, meaning the body does not respond as efficiently to insulin. In a human mechanistic study, smokers were less insulin-sensitive than controls, and insulin sensitivity improved after one to two weeks of smoking cessation. Laboratory experiments from the same study also supported a direct adverse effect of nicotine on insulin signalling in muscle cells.[7]

Smoking contains thousands of combustion products, however, so these findings cannot be used to assign all smoking-related insulin resistance to nicotine. Human evidence isolating the long-term metabolic effect of vaped nicotine alone is much weaker.[7]

There can also be an apparent paradox after quitting cigarettes: insulin sensitivity may improve, yet substantial weight gain can temporarily worsen blood glucose, particularly in someone who already has diabetes or pre-diabetes. The long-term health benefits of quitting smoking nevertheless greatly outweigh the metabolic disadvantage of modest post-cessation weight gain.[6,7]

Vaping, smoking history and weight outcomes

Do nicotine vapers weigh less than people who do not use nicotine?

Some observational studies suggest that they do, but this is not evidence that vaping causes weight loss.

For example, an analysis of more than 200,000 electronic medical records found that current e-cigarette users had a lower average BMI than people who did not report current e-cigarette use. Current cigarette smokers also had a lower BMI in the same dataset.[8]

The study was observational. Participants were not randomly assigned to vape. The researchers therefore could not establish whether vaping produced the lower BMI.[8]

There are several particularly important problems.

Previous cigarette smoking is a major confounder. Many adults who vape began vaping after years of cigarette smoking. Smoking itself influences appetite, metabolism and body weight, so a former smoker who now vapes cannot automatically be treated as though vaping created their current weight.[1,2,8]

People choose nicotine products for different reasons. Some people deliberately smoke or vape because they believe nicotine helps them control appetite or weight. In that situation, lower body weight could partly influence the decision to use nicotine rather than being a consequence of nicotine use. This is known as reverse causation.[1]

Age, sex, alcohol intake, socioeconomic circumstances, diet, physical activity, mental health and baseline weight can also differ substantially between people who vape and people who do not.[1,8]

Consequently, the scientifically justified answer is:

Nicotine vapers may have a different average BMI from non-users in some observational datasets, but there is not good evidence that vaping itself independently produces that difference.

Body fat and waist circumference

Evidence is even weaker for outcomes such as body-fat percentage, visceral fat and waist circumference than it is for body weight and BMI.

The dedicated systematic review identified insufficient high-quality human research to determine whether e-cigarette use independently increases or decreases adiposity.[1]

Cross-sectional studies can find differences in body composition between vapers and never-users, but they cannot determine whether vaping preceded the difference or whether smoking history, diet, exercise and other characteristics explain it. There is currently no persuasive prospective or randomised human evidence demonstrating that vaping causes a clinically meaningful increase in waist circumference or body fat.[1,2]

Association is not causation

This distinction matters especially in vaping research.

Suppose a survey finds more obesity among vapers. At least four explanations are possible: vaping caused weight gain; people with higher weight were more likely to start vaping; former smokers gained weight after stopping cigarettes and happened to use vapes during that period; or another factor such as diet, deprivation, alcohol or physical activity influenced both vaping and weight.[1]

A cross-sectional association cannot distinguish those possibilities. Randomised or carefully designed prospective studies are therefore much more informative, and those studies have so far not demonstrated an independent weight-gaining effect of vaping.[2,3]

Switching or stopping nicotine

Can switching from cigarettes to vaping cause weight gain?

People certainly can gain weight after switching from cigarettes to vaping, but saying that vaping caused it is usually misleading.

Cigarettes expose smokers to nicotine repeatedly throughout the day. Nicotine suppresses appetite and raises energy expenditure to a modest degree. When cigarettes are stopped, those effects can diminish, particularly if the vape delivers less nicotine than the person's previous cigarettes or if vaping frequency subsequently falls.[4–6]

At the same time, smoking cessation can alter eating behaviour. Appetite may increase, food may become more rewarding, snacking may replace cigarette breaks and taste and smell may change after smoking stops. All of those effects can increase calorie intake independently of anything in the e-cigarette aerosol.[6]

The E3 trial is particularly informative here. Continuing smokers changed very little in weight, whereas successful quitters gained approximately 2.1–2.7 kg by 12 weeks irrespective of whether they had been assigned nicotine e-cigarettes, nicotine-free e-cigarettes or counselling. The strongest signal was therefore smoking abstinence, not e-cigarette exposure.[2]

The earlier randomised trial likewise found weight gain among successful quitters but no significant overall difference according to whether the supplied e-cigarette contained higher, lower or zero nicotine.[3]

So, for a smoker who says, “I changed to vaping and then gained weight”, the most evidence-based explanation is often:

The timing is real, but the likely driver is stopping or reducing cigarette smoking and nicotine exposure rather than vaping itself.

How much weight is usually gained after stopping cigarettes?

This question has much stronger evidence than vaping cessation.

A major meta-analysis found that people who successfully stopped smoking gained an average of approximately 4–5 kg during the first year, with most gain occurring within the first three months.[9]

There was enormous individual variation. Around 16% lost weight, whereas approximately 13% gained more than 10 kg.[9]

The average therefore should never be presented as an amount that every person will gain.

Post-smoking-cessation weight gain also does not negate the health benefit of quitting. Cigarette smoking carries risks that greatly outweigh the consequences of the usual degree of cessation-related weight gain.[6,9]

A Cochrane review of interventions intended to prevent this weight gain found that nicotine replacement therapy and several smoking-cessation medicines can modestly delay weight gain during treatment, but there is no well-established intervention that reliably prevents clinically important long-term weight gain in everyone who stops smoking.[10]

That finding also supports the biological importance of nicotine: maintaining nicotine exposure temporarily can blunt some early weight gain, but it is not an effective or appropriate long-term obesity treatment.[10]

What about reducing or stopping vaping?

This is where evidence becomes considerably thinner.

Nicotine dependence can develop with vaping, and stopping nicotine can produce withdrawal symptoms. Increased appetite and food seeking are well-recognised features of nicotine withdrawal.[11] The NHS therefore advises people who are stopping vaping that gradual nicotine reduction or nicotine replacement therapy may be useful for controlling withdrawal and cravings.[13]

It is therefore quite plausible for someone who stops a high-nicotine vape to experience:

increased hunger, stronger food cravings, more snacking, greater interest in rewarding foods and some reduction in nicotine-stimulated energy expenditure.[4–6,11]

However, there is no reliable estimate equivalent to the 4–5 kg figure for people stopping vaping.

The 4–5 kg smoking-cessation figure should not simply be transferred to vaping cessation. Cigarette quitters are simultaneously withdrawing from cigarette nicotine, stopping exposure to tobacco smoke, changing a long-established behavioural routine and often recovering taste and smell. Someone stopping an e-cigarette may have a different nicotine dose, different dependence, different behavioural patterns and no cigarette-related changes at all.[9,11]

The accurate public message is therefore:

Stopping nicotine vaping could cause some people to gain weight because nicotine withdrawal increases appetite and removes nicotine's small metabolic effect, but good studies have not established the average amount of weight gain after vaping cessation.

Nicotine-free vaping, flavours and indirect pathways

Does nicotine-free vaping cause weight gain?

There is currently no convincing human evidence that nicotine-free e-cigarettes cause clinically meaningful weight gain.[1–3]

This is supported, albeit imperfectly, by the randomised trials.

In the E3 trial, participants allocated nicotine-free e-cigarettes did not show evidence of a distinctive weight-gaining effect attributable to the device itself. Weight gain was concentrated among people who had successfully stopped smoking.[2]

Likewise, in the earlier one-year trial there was no significant difference in body weight between groups assigned different e-cigarette nicotine concentrations, including a zero-nicotine product.[3]

These studies are not large enough to prove that nicotine-free vaping has absolutely no effect on weight. They do, however, make the stronger internet claim that “nicotine-free vapes make you gain weight” unsupported by current clinical evidence.[1–3]

Propylene glycol, vegetable glycerine and flavourings

Propylene glycol and vegetable glycerine are commonly used as carriers in e-liquids, alongside flavourings and, in many products, nicotine. UK regulators set compositional, labelling and notification requirements for nicotine-containing vaping products.[16]

No good human clinical evidence was identified showing that inhalation of propylene glycol, vegetable glycerine or standard vape flavourings produces a meaningful increase in body weight, body fat or waist circumference.[1,15]

That is a statement specifically about weight gain, not about overall safety. Heated e-liquid ingredients can expose users to chemicals that are not present in clean air, and authoritative UK bodies do not describe vaping as harmless.[13,15,17]

Do sweet vape flavours increase cravings for sweet food?

There is no convincing evidence that a sweet-tasting vape makes people subsequently eat enough extra sweet food to cause weight gain.

A qualitative study involving young adults who vaped explored how vaping related to food and weight. Participants described complex relationships between sweet flavours and food, including using sweet-flavoured vaping as a substitute for eating sweet foods or as part of appetite/weight control. Because the research relied on interviews rather than experimentally measured food consumption, it cannot establish whether flavours actually increase or decrease calorie intake.[12]

This distinction is important. A dessert-flavoured aerosol can activate taste- and reward-related experiences, but experiencing a sweet flavour is not equivalent to consuming sugar or calories, nor does it establish that the person will eat more afterwards.

There is currently insufficient evidence from controlled feeding studies to conclude that fruit, confectionery or dessert vape flavours increase subsequent sugar intake, calorie consumption or body weight.[1,12]

Claims that sweet vape flavours definitely “trigger sugar cravings” should therefore be regarded as unproven

Could vaping indirectly contribute to weight gain?

Several mechanisms are conceivable, but they need to be separated from mechanisms that have actually been demonstrated.

Physical activity: vaping can affect respiratory and cardiovascular physiology, but evidence that vaping causes people to become sufficiently less active to produce weight gain has not been demonstrated in good prospective human studies. Reduced exercise performance and reduced habitual physical activity are also not the same outcome.

Sleep: nicotine is a stimulant and nicotine use or withdrawal can disturb sleep. Poor sleep can influence appetite and eating behaviour, but there is no established causal evidence showing a pathway of vaping → sleep disturbance → clinically important weight gain.

Stress and anxiety: nicotine can temporarily alter mood and withdrawal can produce irritability or anxiety. Some people may respond to these feelings by eating, but there is no strong evidence that stress-mediated eating produces systematic weight gain specifically among vapers.

Replacement with food: this is more plausible when nicotine is stopped. Smoking-cessation evidence shows that increased appetite and changed eating behaviour contribute to weight gain, and similar behaviour could occur when a nicotine-dependent vaper stops.[6,11]

Reward pathways: nicotine activates brain reward circuits. When nicotine is withdrawn, food or other rewarding activities may become relatively more attractive. This is biologically plausible, but the size of its contribution to weight gain after quitting vaping has not been established in humans.[4,11]

Taken together, these indirect pathways should not currently be presented as evidence that vaping makes people obese. Most remain plausible mechanisms requiring better longitudinal research.

What UK authorities currently say

NHS

Current NHS advice describes nicotine vaping as less harmful than smoking and an effective smoking-cessation tool, while emphasising that vaping is not completely harmless. It specifically advises that children and non-smokers should not vape and states that people vaping to quit smoking should ultimately aim to stop vaping as well.[13]

For people already vaping who wish to stop, NHS Better Health provides a nicotine-reduction approach and information about nicotine replacement therapy for managing withdrawal and cravings.[13]

NICE

NICE guideline NG209, Tobacco: preventing uptake, promoting quitting and treating dependence, contains specific recommendations on nicotine-containing e-cigarettes for adults receiving stop-smoking support. NICE treats vaping in the context of tobacco dependence and cessation, not weight management.[14]

NICE also advises practitioners to explain how sufficient nicotine can help overcome withdrawal symptoms in adults choosing an e-cigarette to stop smoking.[14]

Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID's)

OHID's 2022 evidence update was the eighth and final annual evidence review in the series begun by Public Health England. It comprehensively reviewed vaping health risks, nicotine, flavours and population use. Its purpose is harm reduction and tobacco control rather than weight treatment.[15]

MHRA

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is the competent authority for the notification scheme for nicotine-containing vaping products in the UK. Current regulation includes limits on nicotine concentration and requirements around product quality, packaging and consumer information. MHRA regulation should not be interpreted as approval of vaping for weight management.[16]

Royal College of Physicians

Its 2024 evidence review concluded that e-cigarettes remain an important tobacco-harm-reduction tool and can support adults attempting to stop smoking, while calling for measures to discourage uptake by young people and never-smokers. The RCP does not recommend vaping as an appetite suppressant or weight-management intervention.[17]

Across these UK authorities, the message is remarkably consistent: vaping has a legitimate potential role for smokers trying to stop combustible tobacco; it is not recommended for non-smokers and is not a weight-loss treatment.[13–17]

Conclusion: Can vaping make you gain weight?

The best available human evidence does not demonstrate that vaping itself causes weight gain.

Studies have not established that using an e-cigarette independently increases body weight, BMI, body fat or waist circumference. Observational studies reporting differences in BMI among vapers cannot prove causation, particularly because adult vapers often have a history of cigarette smoking and differ from non-vapers in many other ways.[1,8]

Randomised evidence provides the most useful clue. When smokers trying to quit were assigned nicotine-containing e-cigarettes, nicotine-free e-cigarettes or non-vaping counselling, weight gain was associated much more strongly with successfully stopping cigarettes than with vaping or with the nicotine content of the vape.[2,3]

Nicotine itself helps explain why. It generally suppresses appetite and can modestly increase resting energy expenditure. When nicotine exposure falls, these effects diminish; hunger can increase, calorie intake may rise and metabolic rate can fall slightly towards its nicotine-free level.[4–6]

After cigarette smoking cessation, average weight gain is around 4–5 kg during the first year, with most gain occurring early, although individual results vary enormously.[9] That figure should not be quoted as the expected weight gain after stopping vaping because comparable vape-cessation studies do not exist.[9,11]

Someone who switches from cigarettes to vaping can therefore gain weight, but the most likely explanation is the removal or reduction of cigarette-related nicotine exposure and smoking-associated appetite suppression, combined with altered eating behaviour. The evidence does not show that inhaling e-cigarette aerosol itself is responsible.[2,3,6]

Likewise, somebody who reduces or stops a high-nicotine vape may temporarily become hungrier or snack more as nicotine withdrawal develops. Some weight gain is biologically plausible, but we currently cannot give a reliable average number of kilograms for vaping cessation.[4,11,13]

There is also no convincing human evidence that nicotine-free vaping, propylene glycol, vegetable glycerine or vape flavourings cause meaningful weight gain.[1–3] Sweet flavours have not been shown to increase subsequent calorie consumption or body weight; current evidence on the relationship between sweet vaping and food cravings is exploratory and insufficient for a causal conclusion.[1,12]

Finally, vaping should never be started or continued for the purpose of losing weight or preventing weight gain. Nicotine's appetite effects do not make it a weight-management medicine: nicotine is addictive, withdrawal can itself disturb appetite, and vaping carries health risks and unresolved long-term uncertainties. UK guidance supports vaping principally as a harm-reduction option for adults who smoke and are trying to stop — not as a strategy for controlling body weight.[13–17]

References

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Alqahtani MM, Alanazi AMM, Almutairi AS, Pavela G. Electronic cigarette use is negatively associated with body mass index: an observational study of electronic medical records. Obes Sci Pract. 2021;7(2):226–231. doi:10.1002/osp4.468. PMID: 33841892. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33841892/
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Disclaimer

This content was prepared with the assistance of AI and has been reviewed, edited and approved by Hassan Bhatti (Pharmacist Independent Prescriber), before publication. It is intended for general information only and does not replace individual medical advice

Reviewed on : 16.09.2026