Obesity and smoking: will quitting smoking make me fatter?

Many believe that if they quit smoking they will start gain weight uncontrollable. Some even argue their not quitting smoking as a personal scheme to stay skinnier. The truth is that they just don’t have enough willpower to quit smoking. Imagine that a small cigarette is more powerful than they are. And if you are fat don’t feel you have that much willpower. Food has more power over you and that’s why you got overweight. I know because I was there and food was my master. What a sad imagine I was.

It is difficult to establish a concrete link between obesity and smoking. The main reason that lead to the idea of a link in the first place is the fact that people gain weight fast after quitting smoking.

Many studies have shown that for long time smokers quitting brings a certain weight gain, becoming a little more fatter. One study has shown that smokers were with 13 pounds overweight compared to the normal weight the subjects should have had. The non smokers were with 25 pound overweight. The people that were smokers but had quit smoking were in the same situation with the nonsmokers, having 25 pound over the normal limit. The conclusion would be that there is an inverse relation between smoking and obesity when the tobacco consumption is between 15 and 35 grams per day. For a quantity of tobacco larger than 35 grams a stronger link could not be proven.

Smoking affects the functioning of your pancreas, especially its secretions, leading in many cases to ulcer for smokers. Also by affecting the normal functioning of the pancreas your whole digestive system is affected. Your absorption of nutrients isn’t as efficient in smokers as in nonsmokers, and that leads to different weight. When a heavy smoker quits it’s body gets repaired and its digestion starts functioning better which in turn leads to a fast gain in weight even if he eats the same amount of food as usually. Also quitting smoking usually leaves the former smoker the desire to stick something in his mouth, especially under stress. Cigars get changes with sweets and gaining weight should not surprise anyone.

There isn’t a gland or hormone responsible for the weight gain that quitting smoking creates. It’s all about habits and in the head of the former smoker. All you have to do is watch out not to change the habit of smoking with the habit of eating. And if you were smoking all day long eating all day long can only make you really fat.

Can smoking be a solution for weight loss? The answer is definitely NO. Both vices affect your health and prevent you from enjoying life to its fullest. And besides they can kill you all on their own, and if you are overweight and smoking then the combination is extremely deadly.

There are healthy and natural ways to lose weight so you don’t need to keep on smoking or even worse start smoking to lose weight. Overweight people already have high risk factors, and smoking does nothing than bring a new risk to the table and shorten their life.

My advice for you if you decide to quit smoking is to change your lifestyle. Pick a gym to workout in and eat much more healthy foods. Stopping smoking should be just the beginning to a new chapter in your new and fabulous life.