Post-smoking weight gain

S

sophienaz

New member
Hi Everyone,

Just another one of my mini rants.....I quit smoking a month ago and have gained 2kg. I am so pissed off. Its bad enough that I am one cranky bitch from hell but now I see this on the scales and I want to cry. To be fair, I've gone from 130lbs to 134/135 now, and I"m 5ft6, so in hindsight its all ok. But I freakin hate seeing the numbers go up.

In a fit of self delusion, I tried to convince myself that I put on 2kg of muscle in one month, as I have actually upped my weight training since I quit, but my god, as if that is possible, I mean come on. I've just been eating larger quantities of food with each meal. Normally I have a smoke after 3 meals in each day and without that, I am stuffing my little face.

So I hope my body calms down and I stop being so freakin hungry and I eat less soon, becuase after all the freakin hard work I did in 2 years to lose 100lbs, I do not want to gain this crap back, you know what I mean? I managed to maintain the weight loss for one year now and I'm so pissed off, I even contemplated to start smoking again, as I am so scared of gaining it all back.

Obviously, i won't. I guess its better to be slightly squishy with clear lungs than lean and spindly with black lungs. Oh man..........

Thanks for listening.

:(
 
I'm sorry about your troubles. I'm a smoker too and I've contemplated quitting as well but unlike you, I don't have that type of resolve and I decided to tackle one bad habit at a time. I get the feeling I will also start binging if I try to quit now. So yeah, I'm just going to put that on the backburner for now.

Good luck :)
 
Daybehavior said:
I'm sorry about your troubles. I'm a smoker too and I've contemplated quitting as well but unlike you, I don't have that type of resolve and I decided to tackle one bad habit at a time. I get the feeling I will also start binging if I try to quit now. So yeah, I'm just going to put that on the backburner for now.

Good luck :)
Click to expand...

thats how i feel quitting smoking is on the back burner for me till i lose the weight, but i may invest in the e-cigarette see how that works from people i know who has tried it, its been successful for them so im curious on how it will work and ill get all the things i love from a cigarette the hand to mouth routine, the inhaling, the exhaling, watching the cigarette flare up as i inhale so many things cause a person to be addicted, i enjoy the action of smoking so i think the e cigarette would be great
 
Daybehavior said:
I'm sorry about your troubles. I'm a smoker too and I've contemplated quitting as well but unlike you, I don't have that type of resolve and I decided to tackle one bad habit at a time. I get the feeling I will also start binging if I try to quit now. So yeah, I'm just going to put that on the backburner for now.

Good luck :)
Click to expand...

Thats a good idea, tackling one issue at a time. I knew I'd have to deal with the quitting at some point, but was so focused on losing the weight that I wanted to deal with that one first. How many do you smoke a day? I was on 6. Then I would go out once a week for cocktails and would probably smoke another 10. Not good, I know.....

I like the idea of this e-cigarette that the other poster mentioned. I'm goign to look it up. Its been a month for me and so far so good but sometimes I am so freakin hungry and I know, normally, I would jsut quench that hunger with a ciggie. Now, instead, I have a peppermint tea. Oh how exciting.....not.

Good luck with the weight program.

:)
 
Sorry to hear about your troubles; weight gain when quitting smoking is unfortunately a common occurance, in large part due to an oral fixation at some level. A few suggestions I have seen to help overcome this is chew sugarfree gum or use the fake cigarettes. A few other things that may help would be to keep snacks out of your immediate reach, keep them up high in the cupboards or somewhere else where you will need to put some more effort and thought into accessing them. Also consider keeping a variety of fruits handy so if you do feel the urge to eat more at meals or to snack in general you can do so with a much healthier option.
Good luck!
 
sophienaz said:
Thats a good idea, tackling one issue at a time. I knew I'd have to deal with the quitting at some point, but was so focused on losing the weight that I wanted to deal with that one first. How many do you smoke a day? I was on 6. Then I would go out once a week for cocktails and would probably smoke another 10. Not good, I know.....

I like the idea of this e-cigarette that the other poster mentioned. I'm goign to look it up. Its been a month for me and so far so good but sometimes I am so freakin hungry and I know, normally, I would jsut quench that hunger with a ciggie. Now, instead, I have a peppermint tea. Oh how exciting.....not.

Good luck with the weight program.

:)
Click to expand...


Wow I never really thought about how many I smoke a day until you asked
Lets see...
1 in the morning
1 driving to school
1-2 at school
1 driving to the gym
2-3 random ones after
1 before bed

God, thats half a pack a day....so I do need cut down too :(
Yeah, don't get me around cocktails either because I will start chain smoking like hell and then end the night with a giant plate of chorizo nachos from Cafe Brasil. Self destructive behavior to the max. Glad I don't go out nearly as much anymore.

Derby, let us know how the e-cigs turn out, I've been interested in that for a while now. Matt, how did you deal with the physiological withdrawal itself though?
 
I apologize if my post was misleading in anyway that had you perceive I have gone through the trails of quitting smoking. Other than a very brief and unpleasent experiment with smoking in my teens I have never been a "smoker". Both my mother and father have been heavy smokers for years so my suggestions stem from information I have looked into in an attempt to get them to quit or at least slow down, that and general weight loss tips. Unlike smoking weight loss is something I have a lot of experience in, after losing over 120lbs =)

That said I hope the sum of the advice posted so far in this topic helps you to achieve your goals in smoking cessation!
 
Daybehavior said:
Wow I never really thought about how many I smoke a day until you asked
Lets see...
1 in the morning
1 driving to school
1-2 at school
1 driving to the gym
2-3 random ones after
1 before bed

God, thats half a pack a day....so I do need cut down too :(
Yeah, don't get me around cocktails either because I will start chain smoking like hell and then end the night with a giant plate of chorizo nachos from Cafe Brasil. Self destructive behavior to the max. Glad I don't go out nearly as much anymore.

Derby, let us know how the e-cigs turn out, I've been interested in that for a while now. Matt, how did you deal with the physiological withdrawal itself though?
Click to expand...

I am so with you on the chain smoking with the cocktails. Its awful. I must stink like hell at the end of an evening. And then I finish it off with a mountain of chocolate and biscuits, although in hindsight nachos sound even better. I think you hit the nail on the head......don't go out too much in the beginning. I now go out once a fortnight instead of once a week, in the evening, and I drink stupid non alcoholic cocktails (which probably have as many calories as the fully boozy ones) and no snacks. It sucked the first time, no its ok and no hangover in the morning. I forgot to mention, I quit booze along with the cigs, as I am sure that if I have booze, I"ll cut off my own arm to find a ciggie nearby........

So far I've managd to stop any further weight gain, but it has meant I am suffering even more. I am so goddamn hungry, I want to kill someone. Its unbelievable how much nicotine suppresses your hunger. I am eating sensibly, but I'm not snacking and oh my god, I am seeing burgers in front of me, I am hallucinating, I am dreaming about burritos and jam doughnuts, you name it. I sometimes just walk around the supermarkets just so i can check out and smell the food at the Deli counters, I mean how freakin sad is that????

I reckon you can cut down a few ciggies a day, try get down to 5 if you can....

Good luck!
 
LMAO! Hilarious post, sophie. Gratz on the quitting smoking and booze, but please don't kill anyone :) When I first started, I dreamed about food too. Chili cheese tater tots and foot-long Coneys (hot dogs with chili, cheese, and onions, if you're unfamiliar) haunted me for a couple nights. Now, five weeks later I realize how pathetic and ridiculous that was. I'm considering this time period a "separation" from my favorite foods, instead of a full blown divorce. There's no way I can give some of those up forever, and by learning moderation (which I certainly am) we'll have a much healthier relationship. LOL sorry for the lame marriage analogy.

You're pretty small, so your program won't take as long. You can do it!
 
I also found it problematic to quit smoking and wanting to eat. I did find the fix though - take a walk. Most of the time you get those cravings after a feed or similar, and i found even a 10-15 minute walk burnt off the extra calories and cured the cravings.
I would go out after dinner parties for a walk up the road, and barely anyone even noticed i was gone. if they asked i just said 'oh i just went toilet'
 
Hi, I quit smoking 20 years ago so I do know how hard it is to quit.
My husband was a smoker and died last year of lung cancer. He had no signs or symptoms. No smokers cough, and he was a 'light' smoker. By the time we found out he had it, it was too late. It had already spread through-out his body and was in his brain. He died within 3 weeks of it being found. He was only 54years old.
I know some people can smoke all their lives and have no problems. Lung cancer is just one of the problems smoking can cause.
After you get your weight under control consider quitting smoking. I know it's almost impossible to go on a diet and stop smoking at the same time. I tried it once and know one could live with me.
Just something to think about.
Lynn
 
I found it best to make one big change at the same time.

I quite smoking, changed my diet (minus junk and learnt to cook) plus joined a gym all within a few weeks last year.

Worked for me but some days were harder than others.
 
Well, its 8 weeks now since I quit ciggies. And I managed to bring my weight back under control.

How did I manage this.....I started taking the Acai Berry supplement. I did a lot of research on it and discovered that it is a hunger suppressant.

I really did need some help as I could not take the post-smoking ravenous hunger anymore, it was driving me crazy and taking over my life.

It got so bad 3 weeks ago, that I actually started "sleep-eating". No kidding, for real. Whenever my kids would wake me up at night and interrupt my so-needed sleep, I would put them back down and stumble over to the fridge, completely half asleep and I would only completely wake up once I started shoving food into my mouth, from literally the first jar I could see, lest that be condensed milk, jam, pickled gherkins, pickled onions, you name it.

And I figured heck, might as well finish eating what I started, as I was already there.

So the Acai Berry is very cool, its a great, natural supplement, I am full of energy and I feel much better and this outrageous hunger is under control. I'll stop taking them in a couple of months once my body has fully adjusted to not smoking.

Good luck to the rest of you and I have to say, I smell a lot better these days without the ciggies, so give it a try...
 
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