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Comment by listenallyall | Hacker News Reader

Since you specifically asked for weird tips (not necessarily smart or healthy): consider smoking cigarettes. They do a pretty remarkable job at both suppressing hunger and substituting for a snack. You don't need to chain-smoke, something like 5 per day might be enough.

I'll take more shit for saying this, but I think the negative health effects of smoking are quite minimal, for most people, for the first 20 years or so, and are probably less than the health effects of obesity. But you still need to recognize that you can't do this for life, and quitting, whenever the time is right, will be very difficult. You also need to recognize the social externalities, like smelling bad, people not wanting to associate with you, and places you can't go or live.

(Just reiterating that this is unlikely to be a smart strategy -- but you requested "weird", not smart)

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Probably goes without saying but vaping the nicotine would be the 80/20 approach here (or perhaps just 100/20), and I'll second that oral administration is also good. Lozenges in particular seem to have no downsides as long as you can find a flavor you like. (gum is great but stains your teeth) (EDIT: the gum probably does not stain your teeth, or at least I can't dig up anyone claiming it does)

> gum is great but stains your teeth

I thought gum was supposed to clean your teeth and remove leftover food particles, is nicotine gum somehow different?

Nicotine gum surely does have the same teeth-cleaning function as regular gum. And, now that I look it up, it seems there's basically nothing online that claims nicotine gum itself causes staining (results are mostly just a study or two that establish that nicotine gum helps remove staining from prior smoking, which yeah that's probably true). I, or someone else talking to me, might've gotten confused about a claim originally made about smokeless tobacco products and thought it applied to gum too.

Nicotine gum isn’t “chewed” like regular gum (unless you have a huge tolerance for nicotine or want a tummy ache) —- usually you just chew it intermittently to release more nicotine and then keep it in your mouth. So while it won’t cause damage to the mouth, I can’t imagine it will have the same effect as chewing Orbitz

It’s not just the nicotine that acts as a appetite suppressant; it’s mostly the menthol. You can get the same effect just consuming cough drops. They’re cheaper and won’t cause cancer.

Aren't cough drops mostly sugar? Seems that would be a hindrance. As far as cigarettes, I understand there is a small amount of menthol in non-menthol cigarettes but is that enough to have an effect? Finally, I think part of the suppressant part is the length of time needed to smoke, it gets your mind off the immediate desire to eat -- versus a cough drop which typically lasts 15-30 seconds.

It's not just the oral fixation and act of smoking. Cigarettes genuinely suppress appetite. As an added bonus, after you smoke for a while (not that long), your taste buds don't work very well and eating becomes less pleasurable.

Can you elaborate? I dont think there is any meaningful relationship between menthol and weight or menthol and smokes.

You can ditch a lot of the bad health effects by just eating nicotine gum.

Chewing, not eating. The gum isn't really designed to be edible, just a medium to deliver nicotine.

Well corrected :-)

> and are probably less than the health effects of obesity.

This is somewhat true, from what I can see, but not enough of a difference where replacing obesity with a smoking addiction is worth it.

Might be true.

My father tried to quit smoking multiple times and sad he always gained weight, so he started again.

Or really, any stimulants.

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