How long after quitting smoking will exercising get easier?

hi there, i cant answer this but i gave up smoking a week ago and have now started jogging and exercising so hopefully someone out there will know the answer!! good luck to your sister :-) xxx

there's no easy answer, it takes a long time. I smoked for 3 years and quit in March 2009. I still can't run, I can jog though (I don't do it often) because she is exercising every day I honestly don't think she'll gain that much weight. I gained weight because I replaced the cigarettes with food.
Really though, how long did she smoke for? think of all the damage she's done to her lungs. it'll take a long time for them to heal. at least as long as she smoked if not more time depending on her age to breathe like a non smoker.
Kudos to her! smoking is the most useless habit ever. it hurts you for a long time and rewards you with a good feeling, yellow teeth, stinky clothes, freezing outside in the winter (if you have winter, and it's illegal to smoke inside any public building where I live)
Keep working, it's worth it, she will make progress, it's just slow.

I quit smoking 13 months ago. I smoked for 13 years. I didn't even consider exercising until February of this year and that is when I really noticed a difference. I've never been much for running, but when I do now, my body tires before my lungs do. It is so worth it and be healthier. I did gain weight, but like I said I wasn't exercising and I replaced the cigarettes with junk. Most people gain weight because they need to find something to do with their hands and usually choose food to cope. The hardest part of quitting is learning to cope without smoking or eating. i wish your sister the best of luck!!

Bump.

Nicotine out of the system over the first two - three days

Carbon Monoxide clears the body in 72 hours. Damaged nerve endings will start to repair and your senses of smell and taste will begin to return. This is where temptation to eat more start to emerge.

Breathing becomes easier over the next three weeks to three months. Heart attack is far less likely now.

One year: Your excess risk of coronary heart disease, heart attack and stroke have dropped to less than half that of a smoker.

and so on. Benefits start as soon as you quit smoking and get increasingly better from then on.

What Carlos said....and it takes about 2-3 years for lungs to completely heal and be as a non smoker. Providing COPD has not set in yet. Running greatly increases the lungs capacity as well as strengthen the heart. That is why some of you are seeing good improvement with running.
The sleeplessness and anxiety stops in about two-three weeks. Some people take a month.
Physical nicotine is out of your system with in three days after stopping.
Think of it as going low carb....your body screams for sweets and brain gets foggy the first week then tapers off and could care less after two-three weeks. Smoking same thing.

I wonder why the heck I smoked for so long, I wish I had given up sooner. I no longer crave any ciggies and find the smell on others disgusting.

Agree - plus I can smell a cig from a mile away and pinpoint its exact geographical location on google maps. And I can smell it on people too and am like did I always smell like shi+?

About 2 months after working out running got a little easier, but I still hate running lol.

The 16th of January will be my one year anniversary for quitting. I hate running, so I don't do well with it ANYWAY. Breathing became easier for me within a month. I noticed it when I sang. I used to get winded just singing in choir practice for an hour, but now I can go two hours and hold my own. :glasses:

I smoked on and off, mostly on, for around 35 years and quit 2 years ago. It gets a lot easier to run after about 2 weeks. After a few months most of the coughing up mucus problems are gone. Sometime around a year it seems that the lungs are back to full functionality. At least that is my experience training for and running two marathons and a lot of other races since I quit smoking.

I smoked on and off for 20 years and have run regularly for the last 10. I quit smoking in September 2012 and I noticed a massive difference within the first week or so. If I have to stop or slow down now it is not due to wanting to hack a lung up and my 5k time is 3 mins quicker than my previous average!

I quit smoking July 2012 with the help of a research study being held at a local hospital. We were given Chantix, counseling, and were put in either a relaxation group or an exercise group. I was lucky enough to get the relaxation group because I thought learning relaxation techniques would help with stress which triggers lighting up. The deep breathing exercises were difficult at first, but in a few weeks I had noticed my lung capacity had improved immensely. I know that I can push myself further while I exercise now and that my heart and lungs are healing. Good luck to your sister

I am on day 3 of body revolution and I tell ya I am so sick of not being able to breathe during cardio. So as of tonight I am quitting cold turkey. I am on a 6 day a week workout regime and a good diet with minimal treats (maybe an icecream here or there) so hopefully I will not put on any weight keeping active and eating healthy. When does it get easier to breathe during cardio??? I'm determined not to be one of those ppl who doesnt smoke a few hours before and after a workout then light up later. NOT HAPPENING.

It depends on the person, how long they smoked, how much they smoked, and their health condition. The first time I quit (after smoking almost a pack a day for 10 years), I felt better almost immediately. I ran my first non-stop mile on my 3rd day, and I lost 25 lbs over the next few months. But I ended up going back to smoking and seriously aggravating my asthma. I felt even worse for two weeks after quitting, as my lungs decided it would be a good time clean themselves out- the worsened cough aggravated my asthma even more and I ended up needing Advair to control it daily- once I was on that, I was able to work out without having breathing problems. I'm hoping someday I can be off the meds and workout without a problem.

My advice would be- give it at least a month and work up the exercise increase slowly...maybe add some walks, or an extra 10 minutes on the treadmill/elliptical, etc. Give your lungs a chance to expel all the crap it in, and gradually heal and re-build their strength. If, after a few weeks, your breathing hasn't improved at all, I'd see a doctor to see if there's something else going on, like asthma or bronchitis (which I got very often as a smoker).

As for metabolism, I suppose that can vary from one person to another as well. However, I find it difficult to believe that quitting smoking lowers your metabolism so much that gaining is inevitable. Most weight gain after quitting smoking is from replacing cigs with food. If you quit smoking and make NO changes to diet and exercise, I would think there could be a slight gain, or a slowed weight loss for a few weeks while your body adjusts. But I hear some people say "I quit smoking a year ago and gained 10 lbs every month the whole year!" THAT is not because they quit smoking, no way.

I noticed a difference almost immediately - like the next day.... and then it slowly got better from there.
if the improvement is super gradual, she might not notice it until months down the line when she is like whoa when did I get so awesome?

I've been running for 3 years and was smoking for over 30. I quit 2 months ago on new years eve. Since then my minutes per mile has worsened by over a minute per mile.
I can no longer run as fast as I used to and I feel as though my heart is going to explode when I am jogging. It was never like that before when I was a smoker.
Quitting is nothing at all like I had hoped. Although my clothes and hair smell better now, I felt healthier overall when I was smoking.

The lack of solid medical information on post-quitting complications is pretty much limited to issues of cravings, leaving us experiencing heart issues to speculate as to what is happening to our bodies.

I refuse to take up smoking again. I have since tried nicotine patches but my body is experiencing the same issues.
I am overall very healthy. Smoking cigarettes was my only vice.

So, like many others, I am left wondering why I had more endurance and energy before I quit than I have after quitting cigarettes.

If anyone can offer any solid medical insight into this I welcome it.