Do vapes have calories- and can they make you gain weight?
Vapes use a sweet liquid made of glycerin that transports nicotine straight into your lungs. This might not be surprising if you’ve been regularly buying vapes (think of all those clouds of candy apple, iced strawberry, pina colada!), but no matter how sugary the flavor is, the amount of calories is actually quite low.
Still, understanding what's in your vapes and how they enter your body can help you avoid triggers and ultimately, quit.
What’s in Vape Juice? Can vaping add calories to your diet?
Vape juice, or e-liquid, is a potent fluid made of propylene glycol (PG), vegetable glycerin (VG), flavor, and of course, nicotine. To get really technical, it’s the vegetable glycerin that counts as the calorie source—about 4 calories a gram.
Since these ingredients don’t enter your digestive system, there’s not much that you can actually absorb calorie wise. A very small amount might get absorbed through your mouth or lungs, but not enough to outright affect your caloric intake.
However, vaping can and does affect your gut health, increasing inflammation and irritating your stomach lining. Nausea, bloating, irregular bowel movements, and stomach pain are common symptoms. What’s more, vaping can impair your body’s ability to absorb vitamins and minerals, leading to long-term nutritional deficiencies.
How Many Calories Are in a Vape Hit?
If we had to put a number on it, how many calories are you actually absorbing? To be honest, practically nothing. Each vape hit contains less than one calorie, and the body absorbs even less. While the aforementioned vegetable glycerin—a sugar alcohol that produces the vapor—does contain some sugar, you would have to ingest the e-liquid to make a dent. Even frequent vapers are unlikely to absorb enough to increase their caloric intake, and subsequently, their weight.
Not really. Vape calories aren’t usually listed in food tracking apps, and it’s hard to calculate exact absorption. But if you want to estimate, try 1–5 calories per 100 hits . That said, most apps don’t treat vaping as a dietary input.
So Can You Gain Weight From Vaping?
Just to be clear, it is near impossible to gain weight from vaping. While the e-liquid contains trace calories, it would take hundreds—if not thousands—of puffs a day to absorb any calories. If anything, nicotine often suppresses appetite (while simultaneously irritating your digestive system). When vapers quit, many notice an increase in appetite, not only because food actively tastes better, but because their neurons are signaling for you to chew! All of these new cravings—for food or nicotine—are normal and can be managed with support and NRT.
Want to quit but worried about gaining weight? Jones' co-founder, Caroline, was too. She quit without gaining weight — and you can too.
What about Candy Flavors? Do Vape Flavors Add Calories?
When we say it’s near impossible to gain weight vaping—we mean it, regardless of the flavor. Even flavors like cherry cola or fruit punch don’t actually contain real sugar or fat, so the calorie count remains the same. The flavoring makes the vape more appealing, and subsequently addictive, but it never meaningfully enters your digestive system, meaning no real calories.
Do Zero-Nicotine Vapes Have Calories?
Nicotine-free vapes use the same liquid as regular vapes, which means that they also contain propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin. So, just like a regular vape, trace amounts can be absorbed in the mouth and tongue, but the amount needed to actually gain weight would be astronomical. If anything, the lack of nicotine could lead to an increase in appetite; many people find nicotine-free vapes “lighter” and not surprisingly, less satisfying.
Read more: Do Zero Nicotine Vapes Help You Quit?
Does Nicotine Impact Appetite?
Absolutely. Nicotine suppresses appetite and can slightly boost metabolism. Taken together, nicotine users often eat less and can eat more poorly while maintaining the same weight. However, nicotine, again, has been proven to impair your body’s ability to absorb key vitamins and minerals (vitamin C&D, calcium, magnesium, iron, etc.) and irritate your digestive system. Overall, that means that while you might be maintaining a certain weight on nicotine, you aren’t necessarily fueling your body.
Does Vaping Replace Food Cravings?
If you’re thinking of starting to vape in order to suppress your appetite or to boost your metabolism, it’s important to know that the solution is only temporary. Vaping isn’t food, and the nicotine you inhale can actually mask real hunger cues, leading to nutrition imbalances or appetite dysregulation. So while you might be snacking less in the short term, in the long term, especially when you quit, those cravings might come back ten fold.
Ready to quit?
Even though vaping does not substantially lead to weight gain, vaping does impact your relationship with food. Quitting can bring about heightened hunger cues, and it’s not uncommon to use food as a substitute for vaping. At the end of the day, quitting has a measurable impact on your health: your cardiovascular system, your digestive system, or your immune system, and your circulatory system work more efficiently, meaning you feel better and more energetic. And the results come within minutes!
If you’re worried about quitting and how it will affect your relationship to food, we can help. Having a quit plan that addresses the physical and mental aspects of dependence not only doubles your success rate, but can ensure that you don’t replace one addiction with another. Gum, NRT mints, structured meals, and emotional support can all help you quit when your nicotine or food cravings feel out of control.
With just a little bit of help, you can decide what goes in your body—whether that’s nicotine or junk food. Quitting is hard, but it’s not impossible. After all, you deserve to fuel your body right.
Still curious? We’ve rounded up a few FAQs to answer any of your burning questions.
Do flavored vapes have more calories than unflavored?
No! No amount of additives or flavorings will add to the calorie count, since you aren’t actually ingesting the flavoring. But if you’re looking for extra flavor but still want to quit, our Cherry Nicotine Mints deliver a bold taste without any of the harmful ingredients or chemicals found in vapes.
Can vaping make you gain weight indirectly?
It can. When you stop vaping, your appetite returns, meaning you might want to eat more. Your taste buds also grow back, meaning that food genuinely tastes better after you quit. But with some planning, many users don’t experience any weight gain.
Do nicotine-free vapes help with weight loss?
No. Nicotine is the active ingredient that suppresses appetite, so vapes without nicotine neither reduce your appetite or burn more calories. Nicotine-free vapes may slightly help with hand-to-mouth impulses, but mints and lozenges often give the same effect.
The Author: Hilary Dubin
Hilary Dubin is the founder of Jones and quit nicotine herself using NRT. She knows the highs and lows of the quitting journey.
