Weight Gain





To reach the same health risk as smoking just one pack of cigarettes per day, the average smoker would have to gain roughly 100 pounds.  About 80% of quitters initally gain 5 to 10 pounds.  Keep your priorities in order!  Allow yourself the time necessary to beome totally comfortable in your healing body before getting preoccupied with those few extra pounds.  The self discipline skills you master while quitting can be applied to all life's challenges.   Most quitters can expect almost a one-third increase in lung function by day 90.  When such new found endurance and stamina are combined with a moderate increase in physical activites, those few pounds can quickly disappear.  Be patient with your healing!






Joel Spitzer's Weight Gain Library

"A more insidious mechanism of increased caloric intake can be experienced by unwittingly eating more at the end of meals. The smoking of a cigarette used to signify the end of a meal. With no cigarette to serve as a cue, the ex-smoker may continue to consume extra food after every meal whether or not he or she is hungry. The ex-smoker may not even know that they have eaten more in the process."



The Weight Loss Research Center

The Weight Loss Research Center teaches that there are few legitimate weight loss products on the market that cause or aid weight loss, and there are no machines that magically remove cellulite, fat or replace legitimate exercise.  The site asserts that misleading journalism and unregulated product promotion without proper testing and research combine to dominate the public perception of weight loss.

The Center teaches that permanent change in food selection patterns is required to sustain a lower body weight and that weight loss is directly equated to exercise and not food deprivation.  Most diets do not address long-term maintenance and are therefore eventually futile.  Just as with permanent nicotine cessation, success in long-term weight reduction is strategic and NOT a matter of willpower.




Why do people gain weight when quitting?

"When you stop smoking, your body has to readjust to a lower metabolic rate. If you eat the same as you did when you were smoking, your body will end up using less and storing more (as fat) of the food."



The Body Health Calculator - FREE!

"Exactly how many calories do you need to consume each and every day in order to maintain your current body weight? How many would you need to consume to lose two pounds per week? Do you have your very own dietitian? You do now! Visit "Ask the Dietitian" and enter your personal information to receive custom planning."



Killer Food Cravings

"Strawberries and bananas don't cause cravings. You never feel guilty about eating too many cantaloupes. You never hear little voices in the back of your head saying eat, eat, eat cantaloupe. No, because natural foods balance the body and physical cravings are caused by biochemical imbalance. Street drugs, alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, salt, saturated fat, refined starch and refined sugars cause cravings because they imbalance the body's chemistry."



Weight gain as a predictor of smoking relapse

"This project was designed to determine the extent to which weight gain and changes in fat distribution after smoking cessation predict the rate of relapse during a 1-year follow-up period."



Judy's Diet & Weight Loss Links

SmartDiet.Com




Living a Longer and Healthier Life

All-weightloss.Net




There'll Be Time for Weight Issues Later!
Enjoy your healing senses!




© WhyQuit.Com 1999
Last Updated on April 3, 2005 by John R. Polito