Update: Someone at About.com has used this experiment of mine as a reference in her more scientific overview of this subject: http://chemistry.about.com/b/2012/05/24/does-nicotine-aid-weight-loss.htm
On Christmas Day, 2011, I ran out of nicotine lozenges. That was it. It’s over. A very expensive and annoying addiction to nicotine lozenges, started nearly 3 years ago when I got this hare-brained idea that: if people who stop smoking gain weight because they don’t have nicotine, can people lose weight if they take nicotine?
It took thousands of dollars and a nasty addiction to the stuff – including a delightful panic attack – to come to the conclusion: Nicotine lozenges will not help you lose weight. Don’t even try.
I am spelling this out because I still get traffic to the posts where I wrote about this in my enthusiastic, early trials on the stuff. While it did have an early effect of helping to stop overeating, the addictive nature of nicotine began to overshadow the endeavor as the effect on overeating diminished, leaving me with no positive effect on my weight loss – and an expensive addiction to boot.
Maybe you want to try anyway.
Like Dirty Harry, all I can say is: “do you feel lucky?” Substitute nicotine for 44 magnum in the clip that follows.
© 2012, LowCarbConfidential.com
Low Carb Confidential 
I am stunned!!!!!!!!!! But far be it for me to be shocked at this idea. I am the guy that lost weight by drinking coke and smoking cigarettes whenever I felt hungry. Worked though….but only while I drank coke and smoked cigarettes.
Was it Churchill that said: ‘Americans will always do the right thing once all other options have been exhausted?’
Im a New Zealander though!!!!!!!
Thank you for the latest post, I was just thinking to myself of trying something like this, I don’t do well with caffeine, so I was thinking “why not nicotine”.
I was not however thinking about the addiction factor. I remember how hard it was for me to stop smoking 10 years ago, even though I didn’t crave nicotine it was the inhaling of the smoke that was hard to kick.
Good Experiment,
Thank you for sharing.
Scientists say cigarettes’ most addictive component — nicotine — may also lead to degeneration in a region of the brain that affects emotional control, sexual arousal, REM sleep and seizures. The findings, reported in a new study, could help doctors pinpoint the part of the brain that gives some people increased susceptibility to chronic smoking or drug addiction, researchers said. “Nicotine causes the most selective degeneration in the brain that I have ever seen,” said the study’s lead author, neuroscientist Gaylord Ellison.*
I’ve been taking nicotine lozenges for months now, probably almost a year. I started for the same reasons, maybe it’ll help me lose weight. It hasn’t, at all, but I continue popping one several times a day because of the little calming buzz it gives me. I feel like I can focus better, on school work in particular. And a lozenge usually stimulates my bowels so I especially like to take them travelling with me when I know I usually can’t poop when I travel. TMI? Anyway, to reply to that last comment (Joselyn Dietzen), if anything I have increased sexual arousal, no problems whatsoever with sleeping solidly 8 hours and have never had a seizure.
Actually, nicotine has been shown to increase cognition and focus. It has been studied in connection with treating Alzheimer and ADHD and has some promising results so far. There is really no evidence that nicotine is harmful for relatively healthy individuals. It is the chemical reaction when smoking that makes cigarettes harmful. I recommend looking up verified medical data. Pharmaceutical researchers are also studying ways to incorporate nicotine effectively into medications.
I don’t disagree with anything you wrote. Nicotine isn’t particularly ‘bad’ for you, certainly compared to cigarettes, and might have a number of positive benefits like you mentioned. One benefit is ‘a feeling of well-being’. Most of us are in short supply of this, so why don’t we all take it?
1. It’s addictive
2. It’s expensive
Even #1 isn’t a big deal for me. I’m no moralist on these things. I’m addicted to sleeping, eating, and breathing, among other things. But addictions can be bothersome. They need to be maintained. Are a hassle. I feel nicotine that doesn’t come in cigarettes is a mostly benign addiction – if you like being addicted to something.
I also heard that while it doesn’t cause cancer, it’s not all that great for you if you HAVE cancer.
Lastly, it didn’t work for me for the reason I took it: to help with weight loss.