Stop smoking and gain weight? Why?

kevinellis

I was talking to a friend the other day about the subject of smoking and I had a question for her. I asked her why people tend to gain weight after they stopped smoking. The answer she gave was a good answer and one that everyone uses, “they stop smoking and just eat more”. Many people think that. Many people think that if they stop smoking their appetite will increase in some way and that is why they gained the weight. Well my argument to that is, I don’t believe that the statement made is the truth and nothing but the whole truth. I believe that there is a hidden, true reason why people gain weight after they stop smoking and it has little to do with the food we consume.

My argument is based on my understanding of our metabolic system and how it operates. Our metabolism is the energy needed for the body’s functions, such as the functions of the heart, lungs, brain and liver. About 70% of the calories burned each day are for these functions. Nicotine in itself is a stimulant and raises our metabolic rate which increases the amount of the calories we use on a daily bases. Are you with me so far? After smoking a cigarette your heart could beat 10-20 times more per minute which means that more calories are being consumed by the body.

Now most people that smoke usually have a cigarette after each meal and when they are bored and for purposes of getting outside because they don’t want to be cooped up all day in their office cubical. I don’t know how many cigarettes the average person has but humor me and say 7 a day, after each meal (3), while driving to and from work (2), and for each break at work (2). That means that their heart rate will be increasing at least 7 times in one day. This means that throughout the day you are burning just not the necessary calories for sustain your bodily functions but also to fight off the foreign matter (poison) you put in your body. Yes in that whole day you burn big time energy just to stay alive.

Now you decided to stop smoking. Now you know longer have that artificial stimulant to increase your heart rate but you still need to eat and function on a daily basis. So what happens? Well your body no longer needs the total number of calories you are giving it because it is not reviving 24/7 anymore. Your heart rate goes back to a healthy level so the extra calories are not necessary. However you are accustom to eating in a particular fashion and even though you stopped smoking you did not, nor did you have to, change your eating habits. Your body is just not burning the extra calories as it use to. Because of that you will gain weight.

Now the question here is how much weight. Well that depends on how much of a smoker you were. If you are a one pack per day smoker then you will gain less weight than a person who is a two or three packs per day person. The average person gains 30 pounds and in some extreme cases 50-70 pounds. At first when you stop smoking you think that this will not have an effect on you. But then you look at yourself in six months and you scream, “My goodness, who is that person!” Now what do you do?

Well you can’t stop eating; you have already cut back to a point where food doesn’t even enter your mouth anymore and if it does you feel guilty and try and keep your calories down to about one per day whether you need it or not. Or you go to your local gym and join membership with the hopes that as quickly as you put on the weight you can get the weight off and nothing seems to be working. In most cases people get discouraged and resign to the fact that they will be obese for the rest of their lives.
I can’t find any statistics on for every ten people who quit, how many are still not smoking after one year but I can tell you that the odds of you picking up the habit again are great.

Now what happens to those people that pick up the habit again is that they don’t lose that initial weight as they once did. They are now starting with a new weight, higher than the first. Now after a few years of smoking you then decided to try and quit again and you end up putting more weight on. Are you following me here? In essence, the more times you stop and start and then stop again, the more weight you are going to gain.

In conclusion, I don’t believe that it is totally our eating habits that have caused us to gain the weight we have put on after we stopped smoking. It is much simpler than that.

Ok so on a different topic, what is a Calorie and were does it come from and how is it generated?

Have a great day.

hummzz

That makes sense, but as a smoker trying to quit I can tell you that a lot of it has to do with needing something in my mouth to curb the urge. Thank God I am on MFP because if not I'd probably be gaining with all the "bad" foods I'd replace a cig with. So I think that people that quit do eat more to satisfy that "in my mouth" feeling until they've really kicked the habit. Just my opinion although your argument is quite good. (wink)

LaylaClapton

I've always heard that nicotine is a appetite suppresant. Probably is.

loseit4ever

I see your point, but have heard a lot of people that have quit say that the reason they put on weight has less to do with being hungry and more to do with the idea of replacing one habit with another habit. Putting food in your mouth seems to be a substitute for many for putting a cigarette there. So, I think there are probably different explanations that work for different people.

justann

Keep trying hummzz. One of these days you WILL be successful. As a nonsmoker for over a year now I completely understand your struggles. I started exercising and tracking all my calories as a way to distract me from those nasty urges. That and sugarless hard candy, gum, and carrots helped a lot.

Mads1997

It's been 1 year for me smoke free. Gaining weight was more to do with breaking the habit of having my hands and mouth occupied constantly like I did while smoking. I chose to eat lollies and junk.

anubis609

While I didn't officially quit nicotine intake, I did stop smoking cigarettes. I use a PV [personal vaporizer AKA "e-cig"]. It does help with any nicotine withdrawals that a heavy smoker would normally experience. It satisfies the oral fixation to inhale and exhale a cloud, which is my psychological addictive behavior pattern with smoking, and I'm not getting any outside chemicals and toxins other than nicotine itself. At the same time, there are liquids that have no nicotine and are just vegetable glycerin and propylene glycol with flavor. So, though it may not be "quitting" nicotine, I quit lighting up a inhaling carcinogens. And I'm happy to say it hasn't hindered my weight loss in the slightest. I'm able to breathe like a normal non-smoker, with the lung capacity to match.

A calorie is a unit of energy that is expended when it is heated and burned. Rudimentary calorimeters measure approximate calories by a calculated formula that involves literally burning a product, and measuring the change in temperature [of water], along with the amount of time it takes for that product to burn completely.

anubis609

I've always heard that nicotine is a appetite suppresant. Probably is.

Nicotine is an appetite suppressant because it's a stimulant. Stimulants decrease the feeling of hunger. So, logically speaking, it is. You are correct.

peteyTwang

everyone's different! i quit smoking cigs in 1996... weight gain was very negligible ...a few lbs at most.

to anybody working on tobacco control, it's a very worthy pursuit!... go for it! the skills i picked up quitting nicotine have been very useful helping me to finally tackle my weight issue, and find a better balance... instead of over-eating and under-exercising!