Quitting Smoking and Losing Weight?

Hi
I quit smoking three years ago. I did not gain any weight. I'm one of those people that researches things to death and I found this site was motivating for helping the quit. http://whyquit.com
I believe the more I understood what my body was going through the better equipped I was to deal with the side effects of not having nicotine.

The other thing I did was signed up for an obstacle race. It was a Warrior Dash 5km with daunting obstacles. It was something I had to work towards and train for, and it was motivating. I found after quitting, the hills I walked up, after a few months, I was slow jogging them and not wheezing or having to stop AT ALL. SUCCESS!

I also found the more I trained, the less hungry I was. I was using MFP at the time off and on, so I did lose a lot of weight during that period.

Two other things that stuck out to me
1) I had SO MUCH MORE MONEY. I bought new exercise clothes with it. It was AMAZING.
2) I bought SMALLER clothes. I went through about 4 months of buying new clothes with every paycheque because previously hadn't had the money, nor the desire to (I was larger).

Its now three years later. No desire whatsoever to smoke. I gained back all my weight because I felt in love with a man and we got Fappy together (fat and happy) and now I'm back to lose the weight again.

If you need support or have questions or just want to vent, add me.

shortcdngirl wrote: »

Congrats on your loss and deciding to quit smoking. I did it in reverse. I quit smoking 7 months ago. I use a vapor now and that has helped me not gain the "quit smoking weight" I started my weight loss journey about 3 weeks ago.

The reason why you eat more when you quit is because your taste buds and senses come alive. you want to eat all things!. Everything just smells and tastes better. If you are a regular smoker, i would look at ecig vapors. Its much easier to ween yourself off those then cigarettes. by the end of the summer i will be done with my vapor.

I'm not trying to say the vape won't work for you, but I do want to add something to this from my experience.

OP: Vaping still has nicotine and while you're not "smoking" you're still having the addictive drug in your system which is what you have to get rid of. You can reduce the amount of nicotine sure, but that takes time. If you can just suck it up for 14 days..just 14 days, one day at a time you'll get over 90% of your urges to smoke without having to spend money and time on vaping.
Also, for some people Vaping has become more of an enabler because you can virtually do it anywhere. While you might have never smoked in your house, now you might. Or in your car, or restaurants. Its one of those things that gets looked at a bit less than cigarettes so people tend to exploit that. Just be careful.

I ate more when I quit. It's the hand-to-mouth thing. You aren't used to having nothing to do with your hands and mouth. And it sucks.

Losing weight is harder than quitting the cigarettes...for me, anyway. Smoking, you just stop. It drives you crazy for four days and then it starts getting easier. After a few months, all I had were occasional urges. After a few years, it ended.

Once you're really ready to quit and are honestly committed to doing it, even if it's hard, quitting isn't impossible.

Cutting back on food was harder. You must eat. You can't just stop eating and refuse to do it and be all resolved like you can with smoking. You have to have some, but not too much...it's a pain. Given the choice between doing the two, I'd rather quit smoking and get it over with.

The urges with smoking are worse, at first, though. Way worse. But it's over pretty quick.

Good luck!

For me, quitting smoking made me want to do something.. I often recognized that as being hungry so I ate, but ofcz it wouldn't be satisfying so I would eat more. What I really wanted was nicotine so nothing you can do can satisfy that craving. So you might as well not do anything, be strong and wait it out, because it does pass. I went cold turkey as well, three days were very difficult but after that it gets drastically easier. I wish you good luck!

I quit smoking almost six years ago, I was a two pack a day smoker for too many years to count...I found the only way I could quit was 'cold turkey'. I also read a book called something like "The Easy Way To Quit Smoking", I can't remember the author but it is a quite well known book. It helped me tremendously. I also have a tall bottle of ice water beside me at all times, it helps with the not smoking and with the weight loss. After the first week the majority of the cravings were over...the rest was just habit. I did gain a little bit of weight at first but have since been able to lose 55 pounds.

p.s. Where I live they are starting to regulate e-cigs the same as cigarettes. You can't use them in restaurants, coffee shops, casinos, or anywhere else that people congregate. They are trying to ban them outright. I also have two friends who have become just as addicted to them as they were to cigarettes.

You can quit smoking AND lose weight...you just have to want it more. Good luck...you CAN DO IT.

I am quitting using electronic cigarettes. But it still comes down to calories in calories out, so just be more active if you want to eat more.

You can make your own zero-nicotine mix for next to nothing using USP vegetable glycerine that you can get at CVS or walmart, a bit of water to thin it and food flavorings. Lorann and Capella's make the best flavors, IMO. It's between $2 and $5 for the vegetable glycerine and it's only a couple bucks for a bottle of flavor that will last a really, really long time. Just for your information, all flavors that you can buy contain vegetable glycerine and/or propylene glycol along with flavors and who knows what else. Mix your own and know for sure what's in it.

kittywrangler wrote: »

shortcdngirl wrote: »

Congrats on your loss and deciding to quit smoking. I did it in reverse. I quit smoking 7 months ago. I use a vapor now and that has helped me not gain the "quit smoking weight" I started my weight loss journey about 3 weeks ago.

The reason why you eat more when you quit is because your taste buds and senses come alive. you want to eat all things!. Everything just smells and tastes better. If you are a regular smoker, i would look at ecig vapors. Its much easier to ween yourself off those then cigarettes. by the end of the summer i will be done with my vapor.

I'm not trying to say the vape won't work for you, but I do want to add something to this from my experience.

OP: Vaping still has nicotine and while you're not "smoking" you're still having the addictive drug in your system which is what you have to get rid of. You can reduce the amount of nicotine sure, but that takes time. If you can just suck it up for 14 days..just 14 days, one day at a time you'll get over 90% of your urges to smoke without having to spend money and time on vaping.
Also, for some people Vaping has become more of an enabler because you can virtually do it anywhere. While you might have never smoked in your house, now you might. Or in your car, or restaurants. Its one of those things that gets looked at a bit less than cigarettes so people tend to exploit that. Just be careful.

Actually, the vape only has nicotine if that is the one you buy. I haven't smoked a cigarette in 7 months. I dont really vape anymore either only because my little vape thingy doesnt work... lol. BUT I ONLY bought the liquid for the vape that contained NO NICOTINE. You can get nicotine free or different concentrations of nicotine.
I have gained 40 pounds since I quit smoking. That is why I am here now!