Smoking cessation & weight gain

The only reason people gain weight after quitting is because they eat instead of smoke. It's a hand fixation thing. He's lying if he says he's eating the same. I quit, but didn't gain anything simply because I knew that instead of smoking, people snack. If I went to have a snack that was mindless, I read a book or drew a picture. Something to keep my hands busy. Fear of weight gain is a horrible excuse to not quit smoking, FWIW. Just be smart about it.

So true. I was smoking a pack of day for YEARS when I quit last March. I packed on 10 pounds from sheer overeating. Food simply replaced the cigarettes. If you stay conscious of that you should be fine. I'm back on MFP to get a grip on my weight gain. By the way, I haven't felt this good in so long. My energy level has been so much better. Quitting is worth it!

when you quit, instead of eating more, exercise.

I used to smoke 10 a day and actually lost half a stone when I quit..

I quit in January after 25 years of smoking 20 a day. I have put some weight on because I have been eating more, and more bad stuff really. But I am losing the weight now too. The good news is I have everything I need to deal with the weight, and exercising is soooo much easier now!

I say go for it!! It really is worth it and it is much easier than you think!! Just do it! :-)

Congratulations to all the quitters! :drinker: I quit about 4 years ago and packed on the pounds. Instead of reaching for a cigarette after dinner, it was a second helping of this or that. It's slowly coming back off now.

I consider it a lesson to NEVER go back to smoking. I don't want to go through this weight gain again.

I am not a smoker (outside of a handful of cigarettes and about 5 cigars), so I can't comment on the weight gain or urge to eat after quitting. My dad did smoke though for years. Once he quit, we realized how much the whole house, furniture, cars and clothes stunk. So I'll just encourage you to quit.... Good luck!

Long time (ex!)smoker here, my last stint was 6 years.
Last week I tossed my last pack of smokes out the window. It's been 1 week, and 3 days! Yay!

I can tell you I was extremely worried about the weight gain. I am an endomorph body type, and gain weight easily. However in a weeks time, I have not seen any gain, and I have kept tight to my healthy eating. There are certain foods to munch when craving nicotine, which do help!

It really was eye opening to me to see it was more a habitual thing, than it was the actual craving of the nicotine, that seemed to help some. Trail mix has been my go-to for a craving, and its packed with good berries, and protein filled nuts, its a win win!

Good luck to you! It's a tough thing to go through, but If you are dedicated enough to earning your new body, you should be dedicated enough to earning your new lungs!!

I think you can pretty much expect to gain some weight. There is a reason that this is the conventional wisdom. I quit and I gained. But my situation was complicated somewhat by an injury I experienced about six months after quitting.
I quit about 2 years ago, with the help of Chantix, after having smoked two packs a day for more than 35 years. I had been trying since I was 25 years. The fact that I was successful, finally, with Chantix -- a nicotine agonist drug -- tells me that my smoking was a physical addiction to nicotine, rather than a nervous hands or oral gratification thing.
Still, I gained. I weighed about 160 pounds when I quit. Two years later, my weight had climbed to about 185 pounds. I had never seriously gained before in my life.
I do not specifically notice eating more because I was not smoking. But, even with the drug, not smoking is stressful, and food is a distraction from that.
I think it has been worth it. Almost everyone who smokes tries to quit, at one time or another, if not constantly, and that is because smoking is not that pleasant, after a while.
Anyway, I have started to lose the weight now. I recently weighed 171 pounds.