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Weight Gain after Quitting Smoking

Weight Gain after Quitting Smoking

Smoking is one of the worst habits that you can participate in. Some even argue that it is worse than food addiction, and many find it more difficult to quit smoking than to quit unhealthy food.

Many smokers reason that they keep up the habit because it allows them to control their weight. And this indeed a fact: smoking helps you maintain lower weight. But when you consider the benefits of quitting smoking on your health, you will find that it is best for you, even if you do gain some weight, which usually is no more than a 5 kilogram addition.

How does smoking help you keep the weight off?

One of the reasons why quitting smoking makes you gain weight is that cigarettes actually have physical effects, along with the psychological ones.

Physiologically speaking, smoking affects your metabolism. Nicotine makes your metabolism faster, and so it makes you burn more calories than non-smokers. As a result, when your body no longer receives the substance, your metabolism slows down a bit, making you gain some weight.

Another aspect influenced by nicotine is appetite. After smoking, there is a sugar spike in your system, which tricks your body into believing it has eaten. So, after quitting smoking, these sugar spikes no longer exist, and that makes you crave fatty and sugary foods.

Psychologically speaking, kicking the habit affects you in several ways:

It will increase your cravings: when you are a smoker, sometimes you confuse your cravings, so you reach for a cigarette instead of a snack. With that option no longer available, you will naturally seek a replacement, usually a calorie-loaded snack.

It is difficult to know when the meal is over: most smokers end their meals with a cigarette. This serves as a signal to the body that the meal is over, and the appetite shuts down afterwards. With the absence of that signal, new non-smokers may have trouble recognizing when they are full, which leads them to eat more.

You don’t know what to do with your hands and mouth: because you are used to having a cigarette between your fingers and in your mouth, you will miss that feeling when it is gone, so you will try to compensate by constantly eating.

Author Info

Dr Nagi Safa

Dr Nagi Safa is a Metabolic and Bariatric Surgeon (Weight-Loss Surgeon) at the Advanced BMI in Lebanon and at the Sacred Heart Hospital of Montreal, and holds an academic appointment at the University of Montreal. Furthermore, he is involved in the training of residents and surgical fellows on how to perform advanced laparoscopic obesity surgery. In 2010, he launched the Advanced Bariatric and Metabolic Institute (Advanced BMI) in Lebanon, and has been helping hundreds of patients from all over the Middle-East through his expertise in obesity surgery. Education: Dr Safa completed his residency training at the University of Montreal General Surgery Program. He then performed a fellowship in Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, and Minimal Invasive Surgery (Laparoscopic and Robotic Surgery), at the Sacred Heart Hospital of Montreal, which is the largest Weight Loss Surgery center in the Montreal area, and one of the busiest in Canada. Experience: During his training, and throughout his practice, Dr Safa performed more than one thousand laparoscopic procedures, including Roux en Y gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy, gastric banding, gastric plication and many other abdominal surgery procedures. He has a particular interest in LaparoscopicRevisional Surgery including banding, bypass and sleeve. With a keen interest in the advancement of obesity surgery and newer minimally invasive surgical techniques, Dr Safa gained experience in the single incision laparoscopic surgery (SILS), and offers Single Incision gastric banding and Sleeve Gastrectomy Surgery. Research: His current research interests include clinical outcomes from various bariatric surgery procedures and investigations on the impact of bariatric surgery on Type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome X. Memberships: Dr Safa holds professional memberships with the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, Canadian Association of Bariatric Physicians and Surgeons, Canadian Association of General Surgeons, Canadian Medical Association, Canadian Association for Surgical Oncology, Quebec Medical Association, Trauma Association of Canada, Association Quebecoise de Chirurgie, International College of Surgeon, and the College des Medecins du Quebec.
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