The issue of smoking and weight control is not as simple as you might think. There are two myths we need to deal with here: first, the idea that smoking helps control weight, either as an appetite supressant or as an agent to boost the metabolism and second, that quitting smoking leads to weight gain.
Many smokers claim that the cigarette works as an appetite supressant but this is really a subtle illusion. Physical withdrawal from nicotine, which starts as soon as the smoker puts out a cigarette, feels very similar to hunger - a slight emptiness in the pit of your stomach. So when the smoker lights up and the 'hunger pang' disappears the smoker gives the cigarette the credit for supressing their appetite when in fact all it has done is to remove a nicotine pang which feels similar to a hunger pang. Think about it; do you think that non-smokers get 'hungry' twenty times a day? Of course not. So why would smokers?
At a physiological level what is happening is this: when a smoker lights up, the poisons contained in tobacco smoke make the body feel that it's under attack. This prompts the adrenal gland to release adrenaline - the fight or flight chemical which in turn prompts the release of stored glucose into the blood (because your body thinks it will need the extra energy to run or to fight). As the blood sugar increases, the smoker's body is tricked into thinking it has eaten because the symptom of hunger (the hunger pang which is actually a nicotine pang) has been removed.
However, this is very short-lived. After a few minutes the body realizes that it is not really under attack and the pancreas produces insulin to mop up the excess blood sugar. This leaves many smokers feeling tired and lethargic. In fact this explains the so-called 'wired and tired' phenomenon experienced by many smokers. The adrenalin released when your body thinks it is being attacked makes you feel jumpy and edgy but the oxygen deprivation and plummeting blood sugar caused by smoking makes you feel lethargic.
When the smoker puts out the cigarette, they immediately go into physical withdrawal again, and within 30-45 minutes they usually begin to feel 'hungry' again, and so the cycle keeps repeating.
So that explains the illusion of the cigarette as an appetite supressant, but what about the metabolism? It is true that smoking elevates the metabolism, but it does it only by a small amount and in the most dangerous way imaginable - by clogging up your blood and creating a thick layer of plaque around the lining of your veins, arteries and capillaries. The impact of this is to increase the smoker's blood pressure and heart rate, which is basically a recipe for a heart attack.
The impact of this higher metabolic rate has been calculated to be around 100 calories a day - the equivalent of a slice of bread. So if you want to retain the same body weight you were as a smoker you will need to reduce your calorific intake by around 100 calories.
Let's face it, it's not as if smokers have this fabulous fat-burning capacity just because they smoke. If that were true, you would never see an overweight smoker, and there are plenty of those around - I was one for years, until I quit and was able to take control of my eating, drinking and exercise, which leads me to my next point - that quitting smoking leads to weight gain.
When I was a smoker I was approximately 60lbs overweight (so much for smoking keeping us thin). The reasons for this were obvious: I couldn't taste food very well and found myself eating foods high in sugar, salt and fat (basically junk food). I also drank too much. I had two young girls and I would never smoke in front of them so I used to go to the village pub every night and drink 5 or 6 beers, just so I could smoke. And, as you can imagine smoking 60 a day, exercise wasn't particularly high on my agenda. When I quit smoking I started exercising because for the first time in my adult life I had energy. I stopped drinking vast quantities of beer (which saved me nearly 900 calories a day) and started eating good food. I lost 35lbs in the first four months after quitting. The weight fell off me.
When you hear stories of people putting large amounts of weight on when they quit smoking they are invariably substituting food for cigarettes. They feel that by quitting smoking they are depriving themselves of a pleasure or crutch. This sense of deprivation leads to feeling a void, and many people try to fill this void with food. The truth is that smoking was the problem here. Cigarettes were the void. By becoming a non-smoker you fill the void and are complete.
Think about it: the metrics of weight control do not change when you become a non-smoker. The metrics of weight control are identical for smokers and non-smokers. Weight depends on what you eat, how much of it, your exercise regime and your genes.
Basically, if you consume more calories than you expend, you'll put weight on. It is said by nutritionists that to put on 1lb of weight, you need to consume approximately 4,000 calories more than you expend.
Let's say that you are worried about putting, say, 20lbs on over a couple of months. This would amount to an 80,000 calorie 'surplus' or 1,333 calories a day. You tell me: would it be possible to consume 1,333 calories a day more than you are currently consuming, every single day for 60 days without knowing about it? No way. You would have to be aware of this increase in consumption. Like I said, people who put large amounts of weight on when they quit are inavariably using willpower. They still want to smoke, but they won't allow themselves to do so. This makes them feel deprived and miserable and they try to console themselves by eating a box of chocolates.
This is why it is so important to see quitting not as a loss, but as a gain. If you see it as a loss, you will want to substitute - probably with food. However if you see quitting as a gain, that you are taking your life back and that this is a wonderful thing, then there is no sense of a void and no temptation to substitute.
It is true that smokers on average tend to weigh around 500g less than non-smokers, but this in itself is not a meaningful statistic because when you look at seriously underweight people (many of whom suffer from eating and/or anxiety disorders) we see that most of them smoke. When we factor this into the situation we find that 'normal' smokers and 'normal' non-smokers weigh the same.
Given that obesity is such a problem these days, surely if nicotine worked to control weight doctors would recommend the patch or nicotine gum for weight loss?
Smoking doesn't make you thin, and following Allen Carr's principles, quitting doesn't make you fat.
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