Stopping smoking and massive weight gain.

Archeron

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone has experienced the only downside I can see to stopping smoking; gaining weight.

I stopped smoking last October, at which point my weight was 15/16 stone. That is heavy, but I'm 6'2" and very broad, so that weight wasnt too bad for overall size. A little too heavy I think, but not TOO bad.
Since I gave up smoking, my weight has increased to 20 stones + and doesnt seem to be letting up. My diet isnt bad, (a lot of non sugary cereal, brown bread and rice and chicken) and I crosstrain for 30 mins and do free weights for 20 mins 4/5 times a week. Sadly, this doesnt seem to be helping much and the weight is still piling on. I dont feel massively unfit, but the weight issue is worrying.

Has anyone else experienced this after stopping smoking, and could anyone offer advice as to the best way to handle it? Obviously, starting smoking again is not an option, so any advice at all would be more than welcome. Ideally, I would like to lose 5 stone minimum, and get down to 14/15 stone but I kind of feel at a loss as nothing seems to be working for me now I dont smoke.
thanks in advance.

Hugh_C

Archeron wrote:

My diet isnt bad, (a lot of non sugary cereal, brown bread and rice and chicken) and I crosstrain for 30 mins and do free weights for 20 mins 4/5 times a week.

How about drink? What age are you? These are factors too, so if you're fond of the pints that's really going to load on the weight for you. Also, if you're hitting middle age, then your metabolism is going to start changing, and weight gain happens easily. Your digestion also becomes more efficient when you quit smoking, I think.

Archeron

Hey Hughchal,

I'm not really a big drinker anymore. I might have 5/6 pints a week over the course of a Friday,Saturday and Sunday. Usually, if I'm having a drink it would be vodka, and I'm careful what I mix it with too, so I usually pick diet 7-up, as I try to watch what I'm taking in calorie wise from all areas. I'm 29, so the middle age thing is probably part of it as well, its just a big worry when you keep getting bigger regardless of what you do.

Jumpy

4 stone is a LOT to put on in less than a year, especially since you excercise regularly and have a decent diet.
Can I recommend talking to a doctor just to make sure there isnt any underlying health problems?

justsomebloke

well post up your full usual diet, and be honest or we will not be able to give you the correct advise. Also with giving up the smoking have you subbed it with anything else to help overcome the cravings.

Archeron

Hi all,
thanks for the replies.
Believe it or not, I did go to my doctor last week to ask his advice. His rather unhelpful response was that he couldnt speak to me about it, and I should make an appointment to see the dietician (whos next available app is the end of September). I have the appointment made, but in the meantime, my average daily diet would be:

Morning. Get to work at 7.30. Breakfast consists of bowl of muesli or porridge, or on occasion Rice Krispies. Always use low fat milk or supermilk. Also, two pieces of fruit, apple or orange.

Mid morning. Cup of tea. I dont snack on chocolate or crisps or that type of thing in work. If hungry, would eat two of those small oranges.(mandarins??)

Lunch. Depending on how hungry, 2-4 pieces of brown granary bread. Use Flora spread, and would then fill each sambo with one piece of Lidl brand low fat ham. (brand Dulano, its really nice and it says its 2-3% fat). usually a packet of Tayto snacks with lunch. For drink with lunch would always pick low fat milk or supermilk. After lunch is normally a fruit yoghurt. Brand depends, but I always try to pick the one with the least fat content.

Mid afternoon, apple or orange. (maybe once a week, one of those small blue snack bars)

Dinner. Usually I'd have dinner around 8pm ( i get home about 6-7pm, so shower and chill before dinner). Would normally consist of:
If not that hungry : Cereal as per breakfast
If hungry. Fresh veg (mostly onions, peppers, mushrooms, carrots, I'm picky about what veg I like) cooked in a wok with olive oil, and maybe some soy sauce. Usually cooked with lean chicken breast and eaten with white Uncle Ben boiled rice. Sometimes substitute the boiled rice for pre packet Knorr rice (such as the Golden flavour) for a bit of variation. Would also eat some of that pre packed Domlio pasta and tomatoe sauces, again for variation.
On rare occassions, for convenience I'd eat one of the micro-dinners, but again, I always choose the so called "low fat" option. Never eat chips or any deep fried foods, and I try to avoid fry-ups like the plague.
Maybe once every two weeks, dinner would be a roll (chicken and stuffing with mayo) from the local deli counter.

Weekend. On occasion, (maybe twice a month) I would get a chinese as I do like it, but again, I always go for chicken dishes with boiled rice. Weekend breakfast might be scrambled egg on brown toast, or a couple of boiled eggs.

Alcohol wise, I'd usually have a vodka and diet 7-up before dinner, and at the weekends, might have a total of 5-6 beers and a few vodkas. Never get drunk though as I'm not a huge binge drinker and the beers would ususally be 2 per day at the weekend. Max 4 in one sitting.

Evil foods. I do have a sweet tooth, and one of the killers is avoiding stuff I like and still putting on weight. I might have a bar of chocolate at night mabe every second night while watching TV. I'd also be partial to a cream cake after dinner at the weekend. (saturday normally)

Activity wise, I sit on my ass all day as thats what my job entails. I also spend about 3 hours total commuting every day, so thats also spent sitting on my ass. I do drink between 1.5 and 3 litres of still water a day as well. I try to make up for this with app 30 mins low intensity cross training and app 20-30 mins of weights 4-5 times a week. I can feel some muscle, but sadly its under a wobbly outer layer.

Supplement wise, the only thing I take is a swig of cod liver oil from the bottle every morning. Other than that, nothing.

The only other thing I can think of would be that I am a fan of that Yazoo flavoured milk drink and might have about 2 litres of that a week. I also drink about 2 pints a day of Ribena/Kia Ora cordial drink, but thats mostly water.

Maybe I should also point out that up to 2 years ago, I was quite fit, and had enjoyed going the gym 5-6 times a week. That at the time consisted of 40-50 minutes intense cross trainer (manual level 7-8 usually), 20 mins low intensity bike, about 20 minutes hill walking on the running machine (never was a fan of running:) ) followed by 30 mins of weights, and sometimes a game of squash for 40 mins. I moved house however, and I now am trying to build my own gym in the garage instead of paying other people vast amounts of money for the privelege. Would having stopped doing this level have badly affected me too? I am off the ciggies since last October.

Edit. I havent substituted anything else to cover for the smoking, but I do smoke (can I say it here?? begins with a H, has an ash in it) another substance through a pipe. No more than before I gave up smoking though.
Any advice is seriously welcome.

Thanks all.

justsomebloke

hmmm if that is the diet you are truly following with only the small weekend binges you have mentioned i would be a bit worried that you have put on around 5 stone or more in around 10 months. with the weekend binging I'd say that you could end up putting on weight but not to the extent that you have.

also depending on your lean body mass you may be slightly undereating during the week followed by overeating at the weekend. So during thw week you body maybe trying to store the excess fat and then come the weekend when you slightly binge you body is hording the extra fat.

The first thing I would suggest is get a www.fitday.com account and fill it in properly everyday. Generally I don't suggest that people have to rigoursly stick to an eating plan, as the occasional cheat meal or snack is generally fine for most people however in your position I would suggest going 2-3 weeks of perfect diet with no cheats. This is because you are putting on around half a stone in weight on every month so if you go 2-3 weeks clean eating (combined with exercis) and aren't losing any weight there maybe another problem.

Suggestions for your diet would be to
breakfast porridge and boild/scrambled egg
mid morning small salad with lean cut meat or salad with some nuts
lunch either salad with lean meat or 2 slices of wholegrain bread with lean meat and lettuce etc.
mid afternoon fruit, nuts and glass of milk
evening stiry fry with small portion of brown rice.


Basically i would kick out the 4 slices of bread with the ham at lunch and cereal at night (maybe porridge but not museli or rice crispies) and try and increase your protein intake during the day and get rid of some of the starchy carbs in your diet

iascanmore

OP apologies for making my first fitness post on your thread but I'm in the same boat(ish).

I stopped smoking in July 05 by Nov 05 I'd put on 28 lbs!!.

Started walking to and from work - 7 miles round trip and slightly improving my diet. Lost 18 lbs by mid July!

Since then I've decided to go the whole hog and get in proper shape, need to lose another 12 lb (lost 4lb already).

I've cleaned up my diet big time - as per the stickies above. No carbs after cut off time. Porridge in the morning lots more fruit and veg, go through them all in detail.

I'm also doing more cardio (skipping, swimming, jogging) and to honest I've never felt better.

I also smoked that other stuff - but stopped in Apr 05 in readyness for the cigs! Was a big smoker and tbh I don't miss it one bit. Thinking back on it I feel that I lost 10 years of my life on that crap - but thats a different story. From a a fitness point of view - all those late night munchies.. etc doing you no good at all.

Bear in mind that if you stop straight away, your appetite will practically shut down for a while. Its a known side effect, as are headaches etc. Google search will through up some good sites on that. I couldn't eat for about 10 days and lost loads of weight. I know this is not good but if you can stop it getting back on and eating properly you'll see results.

Btw - thanks to all the regular posters on here as I've learned a lot over the last few weeks...I'll be looking for specific toning up info in about 6 weeks time hopefully.

MrJones

Few things I think you could improve on Archeron are:
1. Give up them Yazoo yoghurt drinks. Drink Green Tea or water instead.
2. Eat Wholegrain Brown Rice with evening meal instead of white rice.
3. Give up the chocolate bars/cake at night.
4. Onlly drink alcohol at weekends.
5. Add more varities of vegetables to yor diet.

Blazer

I also gave up smoking 4 years ago and put on 3 stone in weight.
joined a gym but found that even though i was killing myself in the gym i was getting nowhere in the weight loss.
The thing was people were telling me that I ate f*ckall during the day and that I must have mild diabetes...but i knew myself that i was eating late at night..takeways, chocolate and coke etc...wasn't really conscious of what i ate until i sat down one day and dissected it..
anyway went to a nutritionist and did some allergy tests etc..
had a high intolerance to yeast and dairy products which was causing me to gain weight and not lose it in the gym..
She did up a diet based on my blood type (no red meat, dairy products etc) and in the 4 months i lost 2 stone and on the way to losing more..
of course i pig out now and then (once a forthnight maybe) as she told me it would be too hard to constantly keep it up.
I used to drink about 4 pints of milk (low fat) a day and now have cut it down to 250ml a day. I also only drink a small cupful of water with meals if at all to improve my food breakdown. Potatoes/chips are out and I finally started eating some vegetables..definitely feel a lot better and way more energy.
So the 50euros spend on her was definitely worthwhile.
It's always a good idea to get a full checkup after giving up smoking especially if you were a heavy smoker like myself. If I had done this at the start I wouldn't have been in this boat.

oh and congrats on beating the weed!!

Chucky the tree

Have you actually gained body fat % or is it just in the scales? Do you definitly notice and extra layer of fat around the waist?

SOme of the weight could be more muscles with the weight training.

Also, everyone puts on weight after quiting the smokes. Same happened to me. Smoking gives poeple less on an apeitite. When i gave up i found i was starving all the time, also with the craving i found eating would help take my mind off it.

Thankfully i gave up when i joined a gym and my ate pretty healthy food, so not i didnt gain to much fat.