Quitting Smoking and Gaining Weight

Why is it the moment we quit smoking we are consumed by a burning desire to strip the planet of its food supply? I quit smoking some time ago now but my appetite is as rampant and insatiable as ever. I've no doubt I'd rather be a few pounds overweight than spend the remainder of my days puffing on a cocktail of lethal chemicals, but food has happily filled the vacuum tobacco once occupied and dieting, just at the moment, is an alien concept. But will it always be this way? Does quitting smoking inevitably spell weight gain? Or are there methods to avoid this seemingly unstoppable fleshing-out?

Gaining weight is perhaps the commonest cause for concern when quitting smoking cigarettes. Most ex-smokers I know have experienced weight gain - some marginally, others more prolifically. A popular reason given for over-eating is that now the regular activity of smoking has been removed from one's life there remains a cavernous void into which food has stepped. Certainly food tastes better as a non-smoker. Even subtle flavours like cucumber and lettuce come alive on a newly fur-free tongue. As smokers we were preconditioned to expect our reward at given moments throughout the day. Now that reward is gone, it is small wonder we seek to replace it.

Nicotine is considered an appetite suppressant, and has been for a long time. from the ancient world onwards, tobacco has been used as a wonder drug, an all-round healer. One of its apparent properties was to limit the want for food. Scientists, in experiments on mice, have discovered that nicotine latches on to the hypothalamus, the portion of our brains responsible for, among various things, our appetite. However, in a 1994 study at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine involving various tests on the affect of nicotine on the appetite, the conclusions drawn there seem to fly in the face of conventional wisdom. Nothing in that study, which used human subjects, suggested a link between nicotine and a lessened appetite.

But talking in broader terms, if we are smoking then we are not consuming food. The logic of that view in irrefutable. And any smoker knows that food is less attractive with the gunky remnants of their last cigarette still prevalent in the mouth. For me, eating had even affected the role of obstacle, a process of refueling between nicotine doses. Add all this up and the picture that emerges is without doubt: when we smoke, we generally eat less. Any scientific report goes out of the window in light of the ample testimonial evidence of so many smokers.

So what do we do? Do we simply accept that our smoke-free lives will cost us our once shapely form? Or is it possible to have your cake and eat it (perhaps not the most apt of terms)? Well, as an ex-smoker in a position of experience I can happily inform you that it isn't all bad news. Of course, you probably will put on weight. So many do. But is a few gained pounds enough of an excuse to return to the deadly addiction? No, it isn't. Some of you won't even put on weight at all. Then again, others might gain a considerable amount. But bear in mind this. Once you've banished cigarettes from your life you will be so much healthier and mobile. Exercise will not feel like the chore it presently is. Eventually, you'll feel positive about your health and you'll want to get out there and run, jump, whatever. That clogged, tight chest will be consigned to history; your lungs will finally be up to the job. You will find your happy medium eventually, and if losing weight is what you want then you'll be able to do it without the dark cloud of tobacco hanging over you.

Now, where did I leave those Doritos ...?