Quit Smoking - Not losing Weight

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  • Astacia74
    Astacia74 Posts: 166 Member
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    I am just about at the 2 month mark of quitting and, yeah, not losing as quickly as I was. (Also not gaining, though!)

    Nicotine has been shown to increase your metabolism as well as suppress your appetite which could very well be why we are not seeing any weight loss despite best efforts. I have decided to add a couple more workouts to my schedule to see if that may kick-start the loss.

    Great job on quitting - this, much like healthy eating and exercise, is a journey...enjoy it :flowerforyou:
  • dawn_eichert
    dawn_eichert Posts: 487 Member
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    Thank you to all who have replied. At least I know that I am not alone (well already knew this but nice to have it reaffirmed). I will try to work on only having water (yeah may be difficult as I am a diet coke addict who has cut down from almost a 12 pack a day to about 2 - 3 cans since the first of the year). I will also work on upping my exercise and adding in more strength training as I do mostly cardio with minimal body strength training stuff.

    To all of us who have quit :drinker: :flowerforyou: :happy: :happy: :flowerforyou: :drinker: We have made the right decisions for our bodies and now just need to adjust and keep working on all the other healthy habits to continue to path forward.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    I quit smoking in September. It took about 6 weeks for my metabolism to normalize and start dropping the Lbs.
  • JosieRawr
    JosieRawr Posts: 788 Member
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    Here is how I am looking at it. The "average" weight gain when someone quits is 7 pounds. I did not gain. I acutall lost 3. so, that really means I lost 10. LOL.:bigsmile:


    ^^^^That's exactly what I was thinking lol!

    I like this! I have at least not gained any weight since quitting! :)
  • nicoleekristenn
    nicoleekristenn Posts: 14 Member
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    This is probably the best advice I've heard so far when I ask people for tips on how they continue to not smoke. For me the morning coffee/drive to work was always the toughest when I tried to quit previous times. It's the routine habits that get to me.
  • learnerdriver
    learnerdriver Posts: 298 Member
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    Can't quite answer your question as I stopped smoking Nov 2012, and picked up exercise in December. No change on the scales for a month.
  • KristyHumphrey
    KristyHumphrey Posts: 248 Member
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    bump
  • Nightterror218
    Nightterror218 Posts: 375 Member
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    I was shocked at how much smoking affected my metabolism. While smoking and in college I ate horrible and drank beer and was able to maintain my weight. I quit smoking and kept same habits and put on weight. It took 6 months before I realized I was putting on weight.
  • holly1283
    holly1283 Posts: 741 Member
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    Smoking raises your metabolism. So, watching what you eat and exercising are a must anyway, but put on a couple pounds of muscle to bring metabolism back up.
    Good advice:wink:
  • charityheckler
    charityheckler Posts: 25 Member
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    This is all so reassures my decision that I have to get back on track now before it's too late. It's been about 2 months... so I am down to the mental aspect of the desire to smoke. But I constantly want to eat....

    I know that once your quit smoking you supposedly become more sensitive to caffeine... Any idea when this occurs? What are good ways to reduce the oral cravings?
    I don't know about the caffeine sensitivity thing, but I did have to deal with the overwhelming urge to eat everything in sight. As it turned out, in my case, the longer I went without smoking, the more motivated I became. The pride of accomplishment I felt began to permeate other aspects of my life. I realized that if I can conquer nicotine, I can conquer bad eating habits too. I began keeping foods like grapes. carrots, apples, and celery sticks around and snacking on that until the oral fixation began to subside. Don't starve or deprive yourself. If you want to snack, snack sensibly and stay below your daily calorie goals.

    I have begun eating things like lettuces and pickles are my munchy foods, occasionally olives as well. I have learned that olives and extremely, burn your mouth, spicy foods, are great for deturing mental hunger. I like olives but I can only eat like 5 before they become overly unappealing. Whereas the spicy foods encourage a large amount of water to satisfy the burn and helps the food to loose a certain amount of appeal. These are my tricks, that may or may not work for others.

    It has been about six months now, still craving but I have never been more determined. It's funny because every time I thought about or attempted to quit life went to heck in a hand basket. Yet so far, between totalling my car, my horse almost taking part of my finger off, and all the other psychotic stuff that has occured over the last six months, I have still managed to stay i on track.
  • lenniebus
    lenniebus Posts: 321 Member
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    It took me a good six months to notice a drop in weight, but I agree with other posters that once I stopped smoking, I got much healthier all around. I started making better food choices, exercising more (it is much easier to do now!), and just feeling generally better about myself. It does take time though, so try to be kind to yourself and know you're moving in the right direction :)

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