How smoking keeps you skinny

Featured Article:
How Smoking Keeps You Skinny

Many people worry about putting weight on after quitting smoking. To make matters worse, it seems as though all you hear about are horror stories of massive weight gain that never came off. You know what we are talking about, “My friend gained 25 pounds and had to spend hundreds of dollars on a whole new wardrobe”, or “The last time I quit smoking, I gained so much weight that I had to start smoking again to get the weight off”.

One reason you may gain weight after quitting is that smoking has been artificially keeping your weight down. That’s why people who smoke tend to be thinner than people who don’t smoke. Here’s why:

Nicotine artificially raises your metabolism
Nicotine suppresses your appetite
People who smoke tend to skip breakfast
Nicotine decreases hunger and food cravings
Smoke damaged lungs make you breath harder which burns more calories
Nicotine keeps food in your stomach longer

As you can see, smoking may be keeping you skinnier than you normally would be. But it’s not for the best of reasons. It’s one thing to be at a healthy weight because of good eating habits and moderate exercise. It’s quite another thing to be thinner because cigarettes are artificially causing you to weigh less.

Quit Tip: the average amount of weight gain after quitting is 5 pounds. Also, some people actually lose weight!

However, knowing that smoking has been artificially keeping the weight off doesn’t exactly make you feel better if you gain more than a few pounds after quitting. But for many people who quit, gaining more than a few pounds is totally avoidable.

Read the other articles in the “Weighty Matters” section to learn more. Also, be sure to listen to the section in “Thinking About Quitting” that addresses weight gain after quitting.