[flatiron]

Just curious ... anybody still smoke??? Cigarettes I mean! LOL!

Talked with a friend who is starting a diet and she smokes and she says she is not going to quit while she is dieting because she thinks it will cause her to gain weight. She says she is going to quit after she reaches her goal (only 25 pounds).

I quit smoking 16 years ago after a 17 year pack a day habit and I don't remember gaining weight but then again I was going through a VERY stressfull divorce at the time and just wanted to reinvent myself and come through the process a better and healthier person.

If quitting smoking will cause a person to gain weight (I read your taste buds taste food better) then is it a stretch to think that starting smoking will help you LOSE weight?

Now I am not advocating smoking as a new diet aid and NO WAY would I ever start smoking again but I am just curious?

Besides when I quit I was outraged that a pack went to $1.00 and now I see signs in the store $6.15 for premium cigarettes! WOW!

[heather88]

Smoking never stopped me from eating, but I wish it did! This is another bad habit that I have . . . One at a time.

I roll my own cigarettes, its cheaper. A whole bag of bugler for $2.03 will last me about a week.

[murphmitch]

I've also read that smoking causes the bowels to have sluggish absorption/circulation so nutrients are absorbed more poorly and that is another reason why some people gain weight after quitting.

[Beautiful Ace]

Yeh, I smoke ciggarettes.. I have thought of quitting so I would be able to heal my lungs and get better work outs. The only thing stopping me, is the fact that I spend all my time at home, in the living room with my mom, and she sits there smoking, pretty much all day. I tell myself when I move out, that's the time I'm going to quit. I hope I have as much willpower to quit smoking as I do to quit eating bad.

That really didn't answer your question or anything, just kinda came out. lol

[Lori Bell]

I used to smoke but gave it up a few years ago. No, it didn't help me lose weight, and yes I gained when I quit. I also quit when I was pregnant with both kids, and managed to gain a lot of weight with each...but then again, food was my first true love so any excuse to eat I used.

One interesting fact about my family: No one on either side of my family has died from obesity related diseases. Both of my parents and all 4 grandparents died at very young ages from smoking related diseases, (from lung cancer, throat cancer and emphysema).

[sammybaby1289]

I used to smoke. I've quit twice and I don't remember gaining any weight either time. But I did have a friend who said cigarettes are an appetite supperessant and she said she doesn't like to eat after smoking because of the taste. I never had that problem.

[djay]

I used to smoke heavily! I had quit without gaining weight the first time...but I was extremly active at the time. Then I had a hysterectomy and the weight started piling on at an alarming rate. The only way I was able to stop gaining was to start smoking again. It does work as an appetite suppressant and then there is that oral fixation thing. I think your body just has to work harder also to fight the effects of smoking...anyway...I actually dropped a few pounds once I started smoking again. I don't recommend killing yourself for a couple of pounds..and that is all we are talking about...I lost maybe 5 lbs.
I quit again (for good this time) a little over a year ago. I gained weight when I quit..So now I am taking that weight off in a healthy way.

[PhotoChick]

Well a friend of mine quit smoking and gained 20 lbs but I think a lot of that is because in a desperate effort to keep herself busy at night, she started baking.

Every day she'd tell me she made muffins or baked cookies or pie or something ... and she'd take a lot of it to work (I"m sure her coworkers either loved or hated her!) but there was still the tasting during the cooking and the snacking after ... and so forth.

My dad quit smoking and dropped weight, but when he quit smoking he also started WALKING the golf course again instead of riding the cart, because he could do it w/out coughing up a lung. So you know ... cause and effect there too.

I have read different studies about nicotine depressing the appetite, of course it gives you a metabolic boost due to the stimulants, and I've heard a bit about it affecting how you absorb nutrients ... but I'm not completely up to date on all that research.

Most of what I've seen with friends and family is more about habit building and oral fixations than anything else.

.

[LindsayL0ve]

I don't smoke, but I think it depends on the person.
I mean you can stop smoking and needing to cut the habit, and to need to do something with ur mouth(?) start eating.

or you can try and do more positive things.Like PhotChick said, depends on the person really.