Smoking and Exercise

ngj387

I have been smoking for 15 years now. I’m 37 now. I have been working out - walking and running for 2.5 years now and have brought down all my stats- BMI, glucose, BP, cholesterol and most of the smoking and alcohol related parameters to “Ideal” or “perfect” numbers. I have been doing 10,000 steps continuously for close to 600 days now- running for about 45-50 mins per week, every week for about a year and a half. But I still smoke 10-12 cigarettes a day. Considering all the above - am i at risk to develop smoking related diseases in the next 15-20 years if I continue to smoke and keep the fitness related parameters in check.

ninerbuff

Exercise DOESN'T negate the risks of smoking. You still get tar in your lungs, you still elevate your blood pressure, you constrict capillaries and disengrate your lung air sacs.
You'll be a FITTER smoker, but you're still at risk. Just quit. I smoked for 20 years and quit cold turkey. I've been smoke free for over 20 years now. Wish I NEVER started the habit because my fitness would be way better than now.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

AnnPT77

You've improved your odds, but that's it . . . it's all about probabilities. No one can tell you that you've insured against negative effects of smoking because you smoke only a small-ish amount, plus work on your fitness. Think about this: There's evidence of bad health consequences for people who never smoked, but who lived with a smoker and got second-hand smoke.

If smoking is important to you, and you're willing to accept a level of health risk to do it, that's your call. No one, not even an expert, will give you any accurate exact and reassuring answer about your personal case.

I'd pretty much guarantee that it's having a negative effect on your athletic performance even now - and that can be true even if your performance is excellent.

I was diagnosed with early COPD. My fitness device thinks my VO2max is "superior" for my demographic, after a couple of decades of training a short-endurance sport (on-water rowing). In my whole life, I've only ever smoked as many cigarettes as you smoke in 2 or 3 days, but lived with smokers my whole life.

As a general observation, people do this: Keep some negative health habit that they know is negative, but do other things that they think might counterbalance, then want to think of those things as a sort of magic talisman that nothing bad will happen to them. It's not true. They may improve their odds, and that's good, but it's still a matter of reducing probability, not eliminating the possibility.

If you can stop, you'll do your future health a favor . . . probably.

AndreWTurneR8118

It’s awesome that you’ve made such great progress with your fitness and health! Staying consistent with 10,000 steps a day and regular running shows real dedication, and it sounds like you’re on the right track with those improvements.

In terms of maintaining your fitness, I can tell you from my own experience that vaping helped me keep up with my exercise routine while still getting my nicotine fix. I switched to vaping and noticed I could breathe better and recover faster after workouts compared to when I was still smoking. I’ve used an Insta Bar for a while now, and it’s been a smoother transition, letting me keep my fitness gains intact while cutting out the harmful effects of smoking.

yakkystuff

Worth quitting...

After quitting, understand the risks can decrease over time - like 15 to 17 years IF disease had not already progressed too far. So, sooner the better for future you.

Recently celebrated 20yrs quit - took a bit over 5 years to really get past it and still have an urge occasionally, especially when tough stress happens. Really important to find other positive ways to deal with calming stress that are not food, drugs or harmful to the bod.

When the urge hits, quit. As many time as it takes, until you cross through the hurdle.

Started socially as a teen, smoked many years. Took me a long time to quit and many tries. Now regret ever starting... oh well, is what it is... better to quit than not. Hope you kick it!

yakkystuff

Here's a link to an article with a timeline about how/when quitting helps body. Good Effects start right away.

(edit note- 1st link was bad, had to find different one.)

I found these kinds of timelines encouraging - it helped me embrace the benefits and release what I was missing.

nossmf

@yakkystuff your link is missing the final "time" in the link.

yakkystuff

15 years is buried in the index as part of 1 year plus.

article for 15 years has (bold etc from article format):

15 Years After Quitting: Your Body Is Like a Non-Smoker’s

✅ Your risk of heart disease and stroke is now the same as someone who never smoked.

yakkystuff

I had a question at a quit smoking class I went to... "is it too late?" - the class leader said something like "depends on whether disease already set in."

So, the caution there in these timelines - I take as maybe, best case scenario, knock on wood...

Long term smoking for my SO and I did have long term impact on breathing and heart.... BUT.... we figure we may have died lots sooner if we did not quit - so, continue to feel - better sooner than later! And totally worth breaking that addiction.