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Weight Gain and Quitting Smoking

Minimize Adding Pounds When Kicking the Nicotine Habit

Sep 23, 2009 April Bowles

Many people are afraid of gaining weight when they quit smoking or put off quitting, because they're worried about packing on pounds.

When a person quits an addiction, many times he looks to something else to fill that addiction and need. For example, some people smoke during social situations, because they feel nervous around others. When they quit smoking, they might turn to food or drinking alcohol instead of smoking.

Metabolism and Smoking

A person who regularly smokes has an increased metabolism. According to the American Cancer Society, people usually gain less than ten pounds when quitting smoking. It’s much better for a person to quit smoking and gain less than ten pounds than for someone to continue smoking. However, many women may not feel that way.

Using Food to Deal with Emotions

Many people use food as a way of dealing with emotions whether they’re bad or good, and this can increase when someone attempts to quit this habit. Smoking feeds an oral fixation, and most people try to find another way to handle this oral fixation when they quit smoking. They might turn to candy and soda for an afternoon pick me up or start eating dessert at the end of a meal instead of smoking a cigarette.

Minimize Weight Gain While Quitting Smoking

There are steps that people can take when they’re trying to quit smoking cigarettes, so they won’t gain weight. People are already taking a step in a healthy direction when they decide to set aside the cigarettes, so why not add more healthy habits to one’s daily routine? The best way to keep the weight off is to add exercise into one’s day. This could consist of forty-five minutes of walking, thirty minutes of jogging, or other cardio exercises. The best way to burn calories and shed fat is cardio exercise that gets one’s heart rate up. A person should consult his doctor before beginning a new exercise routine.

Another step in the healthy direction is eating healthier foods and eating on a consistent schedule. Try to eat within one of hour of waking up and every four hours after that first meal with a total of four meals a day. Always eat a salad before dinner to get healthy vegetables in one’s diet. Stay away from processed foods such as cookies and chips and stick with wholesome foods such as whole wheat bread, eggs, and fruit. Jillian Michael’s wrote an information packed book, Master Your Metabolism [Crown, 2009] that describes in detail how one’s metabolism works and how to increase a person’s metabolism.

If a person wants more information on quitting smoking, she should read How to Quit Smoking Now. By learning how to minimize weight gain and manage nicotine cravings, a person can successfully quit smoking.

The copyright of the article Weight Gain and Quitting Smoking in General Medicine is owned by April Bowles. Permission to republish Weight Gain and Quitting Smoking in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Weight Gain and Quitting Smoking