Step aside, Ozempic — Zyn is being touted as the new (delusional) weight-loss quick fix

People are calling Zyn nicotine pouches O-Zyn-pic. But experts say using nicotine for weight loss is a potentially risky idea.

• Zyn pouches are surging in popularity for their stimulant effects.
• Some users are also buzzing about the appetite-suppressing effects of the nicotine in Zyn.
• Experts say we understand very little about how safe nicotine is for weight loss.

Zyn has captured the hearts, minds, and mouths of Americans.

The wildly popular nicotine pouches, which sit in your gumline like hard candy, ostensibly give users a "high" and a boost of energy. Truck drivers use them for endurance, gym bros pop them before a workout, Tucker Carlson said they can "free your mind." Carlson, who says he uses Zyn every second he's awake, also claimed (incorrectly) that Zyn improves sexual performance.

Now, Zyn users are buzzing about another purported side effect: Some claim that their habit has triggered weight loss.

Andrea Hernández, author of consumer trend newsletter Snaxshot, pointed out this craze this week, sharing a collection of social media posts about Zyn and weight loss.

"Your boy's down like 30 pounds in a month. O-Zyn-pic. It works," an Instagram user, who runs a popular golfing page, said in one of the videos.

Diet pages on Reddit are filling up with Zyn chatter, too. "I've used Zyn nicotine pouches occasionally over the past few years but have started to use them regularly because they help me focus and curb my hunger," a Reddit user wrote in r/intermittentfasting.

If history has taught us anything, it's that nicotine products do suppress appetite somewhat and they will be used for weight loss. Plus, there's high demand for a quick and inexpensive hack to replace new blockbuster drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy, which are currently in shortage, causing widespread anxiety.

Dr. Carolyn Bramante, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota, said while it "makes sense" that people are trying this out, she has concerns about the unknown potential effects of nicotine pouches on a person's heart and blood vessels.

Nicotine may trigger inflammation of the molecules that fat cells release. None of this is well-studied, Bramante, who works in adult and pediatric weight management clinics, told Business Insider.

"There are so many FDA-approved treatments for obesity now. It's important to think about safety," she said.

The history of nicotine marketed for weight-loss

In the 1920s, Lucky Strike cigarettes were marketed as a healthier, less "fattening" alternative to candy, helping smokers "keep a slender figure." It's an idea that persisted in cigarette ads for the next 50 years, despite regulations introduced in the 60s to block tobacco companies from advertising cigarettes as slimming.

When e-cigarettes and vapes came on the scene it was no different. A 2014 ad in Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue has a woman on the beach wearing a tiny triangle bottom, promoting Blu e-cigarettes as "Slim. Charged. Ready to go."

Zyn is different. It is not marketed as slimming or feminine. Its branding is simple and masculine. And it's gamified: When you buy a can of 15 pouches for $4.90 — in flavors like citrus, smooth, and chill — you can generate points. 5630 points earns you a pair of Apple AirPods, 9000 points earns you a Samsung TV, 8650 points earns you a pizza oven. You get 15 points per can.

In fact, this is not a marketing ploy by Philip Morris, which owns Zyn. It is Zyn users who are driving the narrative of these pouches as a diet hack — like a cheat code you can unlock if you buy in. Forget a Sonos sound system, what about losing that belly weight you can't seem to shift?

"It's like… 'this is something that I can literally buy in a gas station, that I'm still getting points on, that has this byproduct effect that it wasn't intended for, but I've found it,'" Hernández, who has been watching this trend bubble up for years, told BI.

Many male celebrities (Elon Musk, Charles Barkley) have reported dramatic weight-loss after taking GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro. But those drugs cost over $1,000 for one month's supply, and are incredibly hard to access.

"That's why I said it's the Ozempic for the masses," Hernández said, jokingly. "People want to lose weight, but it's something people can't afford and don't want to talk about. This feels like a discreet way to lose weight."

Zyn may suppress appetite short-term but the collateral damage is huge

Scientists suspect the reason nicotine works as a mild appetite suppressant is because it activates neurons in the brain that control hunger.

And because Zyn users absorb more nicotine than cigarette smokers, the appetite-suppressing effect of popping a Zyn pouch in your gumline might be even greater than lighting up.

There has even been some recent study (in mice) combining Ozempic and nicotine together to produce a greater weight loss effect, Dr. Beverly Tchang, an endocrinologist at Weill-Cornell's comprehensive weight control center in New York, said. But, Tchang emphasized, that doesn't mean people should use nicotine as a weight loss aid. We have no idea how toxic this might be for people, nor what a proper dose might look like.

Ozempic boosts the action of a hormone we produce naturally in our gut. That's how it helps people feel full quickly, and manage blood sugar. "It's almost like hormone replacement for people who have low levels of GLP-1," Bramante said.

Nicotine isn't like a hormone. It's an addictive stimulant, and one that (unlike Ozempic) has not been studied in randomized, controlled trials, to evaluate safety and efficacy.

While nicotine pouches circumvent the health effects of cigarettes that are caused by tobacco, they still do a number on your body. They're highly addictive, and bump up your blood pressure. This gives Bramante pause. She worries that "we don't fully understand how nicotine works to regulate appetite in people, specifically with obesity."

Inflammation, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular issues are all at play when people carry around excess weight, and popping a Zyn could tip the scales even further.

Bramante is especially concerned about people with obesity trying nicotine out for weight loss, because it could increase the amount of inflammatory molecules that fat cells release (leptin).

"I would advise them to seek care for obesity treatment from their primary care clinician and/or an obesity medicine specialist, with the mindset that it's a long-term relationship with follow-up and with multiple treatment options that we can now adjust to meet an individual's needs," she said.

"Philip Morris International and its affiliates — including Swedish Match, the manufacturer of ZYN — fully meet and exceed the regulations governing the industry," a Philip Morris spokesperson said in response to BI's previous reporting on the health effects of Zyn.