The current therapeutic arsenal to treat obesity is very limited. Besides lifestyle interventions focusing on diet, exercise, or behavioral changes (32,33) there is a paucity of available pharmacological treatments (34). For this reason, and given the urgency of the problem, we decided to focus on current situations where there is evidence of interventions leading to weight loss. One of these is smoking, such that there is no doubt that nicotine promotes weight loss and, conversely, those individuals who stop smoking gain weight. Extensive epidemiological studies have shown a strong relationship between smoking and body weight, with nonsmokers weighing more than smokers at any age (1,4,35,36). In keeping with this, nicotine replacement therapy and in particular the nicotine gum, has proved to be effective in delaying postcessation weight gain (1,37).
