Quit smoking and still lose weight?

MrMan

Currently I smoke 20 a day and I'm hoping to quit the cigs in late January. I'll probably use nicotine gum for the first couple of months as it previously helped me quit for five years. I know I'm an idiot for going back on them.

I'm male, 38 years. 5ft 9in and weigh 14st 12lbs. I've lost 2st 5lbs in the last 4 months through regular gym work (mainly cardio), cutting out the booze and trying to eat healthily. This forum has been great for tips and motivation.


I do 70 mins of cardio 4 to 5 times a week. That's made up of 40 mins on the cross trainer and 30 mins speed walking on the treadmill. For what it is worth, based on the machine's calorie counter I average 850 to 1,000 per session. Twice a week I add on 15 mins of light weights.


I want to get my weight to around 12st but I'm afraid that based on my past experience the weight will go up instead of down if I quit smoking. Is that inevitable?

Sorry for such a long first post!

g'em

The fear of gaining weight after you quit the cigarettes is a fallacy and a sorry excuse to stay on them. Sounds harsh, but I did it for years!!! I quit three months ago and I've lost weight since then - I think what happens to a lot of people is they feel the need to keep their hands busy, or snack a lot to replace the habit of smoking.

(As a complete aside I used the Allen Carr book and it's been brilliant!)

Well done for cutting down/out the booze and making changes to your nutrition. already you've put in place some of the good habits that will stand to you when you kick the bad habit As for the gym, while cardio is all very well and good, doing weights will give you better results faster (no doubt if you've been reading the forum you'll have seen that statement mentioned plenty of times!!). If you can afford 70min in the gym that gives you ample time to do 40 minutes of lifting (full body work, none of your bicep curl crap) and 30 minutes of cardio afterwards.

To begin, keep it simple - big, compound lifts like squats, lunges, pressing, deadlifts and row variations will work multiple muscle groups, ramping up your metabolism to burn calories at a higher rate long after your've left the gym.

Khannie

g'em wrote: »

(As a complete aside I used the Allen Carr book and it's been brilliant!)

Me too. The thick one is better than the skinny one ("only way" v's "easy way") but having said that: I didn't make it to the end of the thick one, then later read the skinny one in a single day and haven't looked back.

I did gain weight after quitting smoking, but not in the first couple of months....it was more my lifestyle / lack of exercise later on that caused it. It's all gone now anyway (the weight). The thing to try remember is that you can't feed the nicotine hunger with food. This is generally what causes the initial weight gain.....You feel that nicotine hunger, then stuff your face because it's similar to a food hunger. Anyway....

Good luck!

Wibbs

It can effect some more than others and some will gain weight so it's not completely a fallacy. Coming off nicotine and the effects of it vary a lot between people. Beyond the "comfort eating" part of it is down to when you come off nicotine, both your digestion and even more your insulin levels are effected. Some quit smoking therapies advise glucose tablets for the first few weeks to help with some of that. If you're insulin sensitive in the first place that can make it worse. Exercise is the best way to reallign your blood sugar anyway.

g'em

My apologies, "fallacy" is a bit of a dismissive a term to use, my bad. I meant that weight-gain is largely (admittedly not entirely) an unfounded excuse not to give up cigarettes. If given the choice of potentially gaining a few lbs or continuing to smoke I think it's fair to say we'd both agree on which is the healthier!

I had a quick look at the effect of nicotine on insulin levels as you brought up a point I'd never looked into before - Morgan et al. (2004) Acute effects of nicotine on serum glucose insulin growth hormone and cortisol in healthy smokers. Metabolism, 578-582

"In this double-blind, cross-over, randomized study, we isolated the effects of nicotine on glucose metabolism in smokers. The administration of a 14-mg nicotine patch resulted in a borderline significant elevation in glucose levels during a 2-hour OGTT, and a nonsignificant lowering of baseline insulin sensitivity as assessed by the QUICKI index. Nicotine administration also resulted in a decrease in growth hormone levels."

Decreases of up to 29% of GH in women?!? Noooo!! :eek: Just another reason why giving up the fags was one of the best things I ever did!!

"... More recent experimental studies, typically involving healthy smokers under age 65, have shown that cigarette smoking can acutely induce insulin resistance and impair glucose tolerance. Moreover, in retrospective studies comparing smokers to matched nonsmoking controls, smokers are relatively glucose-intolerant, and have slightly higher mean hemoglobin A1c levels. In addition, large-scale prospective epidemiological studies have indicated that smoking increases the risk of type 2 diabetes. Long-term use of nicotine gum has been associated with hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance, implicating nicotine as a possible causative agent in the relationship between smoking and insulin resistance. However, intravenous administration of low doses of nicotine did not alter insulin or glucose levels in a study involving healthy, normal weight males."

That's really interesting - on a very personal level, I happened to be carb-free at the time I gave up and since re-introducing them in my diet a couple of months later I seem to be able to tolerate them a lot better. It could be coincidence, and it may be too too soon for that kind of reversal to have happened, but still.. interesting!!

MrMan

Thanks for the relies.

I've read the Alan Carr book in the past but found it didn't work for me as while I was reading it I became obsessed with cigarettes!

ErinGoBrath

MrMan wrote: »

Thanks for the relies.

I've read the Alan Carr book in the past but found it didn't work for me as while I was reading it I became obsessed with cigarettes!

Hi there,

I read the Alan Carr book and quit successfully. I'd recommend giving it another go because it's amazingly effective.

I'm now several years off them without a single craving, weight gain etc.

Best of luck whatever method you use.

SMK

Hi,

I gave up cigarettes (25 a day) and started a diet at the same time last April. Now almost eight months later, I'm still off the cigarettes and have lost 2 stone. I still have another 2 1/2 stone to lose but will get there by next summer!

You should apply the same discipline to not smoking as you have to watching your diet and exercising. I considered my diet and giving up cigarettes as one project and now that I'm so far down the road, the thought of starting at Day 1 again keeps me going!

Best of luck.

rubadub

I gave up and it didnt affect me much. I only smoke when drinking, made me sick when sober- very bad though as you turn into a dipso, drinking so your addiction doesnt make you sick. Did leave me with idle hands in the pub, would have been far easier now the smoking ban is in, giving up was a nightmare when people are all smoking and you are pissed.

On the other hand the, ahem, "jamacian tobacco" I still smoke does make me eat a lot, so I try and wolf down bland stuff that fills a gap like peas, rather than sweets.

Smoking is one habit to break, nitcotine is another addiction to break too, it is not easy, it is medically regarded as the most addictive drug known, including heroin, crack & methampetamine (though those have worse withdrawl effects they are not as addicitive initially). Breaking both habits at once is hard. I used the tablets as I only smoked when drinking so chewing gum would only get me more addicted.

Instead of smoking some will start snacking or cooking, you could try doing pressups or chinups when you get a craving.

There is a giving up smoking forum by the way,

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=871

nesf

MrMan wrote: »

Thanks for the relies.

I've read the Alan Carr book in the past but found it didn't work for me as while I was reading it I became obsessed with cigarettes!

Ditto, it did nothing for me either. I'm off them a month and a half now with the help of patches and some willpower. Try different methods until you find either the right way or the right time to quit.

I remember reading somewhere that over the medium term quitting smoking doesn't really affect your weight. In the short term it can but over time it works itself out. I've no idea of how accurate that is but it makes sense to me.

Dragan

Wibbs wrote: »

It can effect some more than others and some will gain weight so it's not completely a fallacy.

In my view it is.

Stopping smoking doesn't cause you to gain weight. People substitute the cravings with food.

This is their own call in my view.

g'em

Dragan wrote: »

Stopping smoking doesn't cause you to gain weight. People substitute the cravings with food.

This is their own call in my view.

I would have said the same thing, but for some the effect of nicotine on hormone levels may play a small part. I agree totally that by and large people substitute food for fags (there's a really dodgy innapropriate joke in there somewhere..) and that's what primarily causes weight gain after cessation of smoking but there genuinely is some physiological science behind weight-gain for some people too.

In other (terribly diplomatic) terms, you're both right