How to Avoid Gaining Weight After You
Quit Smoking
Weight Gain/Loss
After Smoking
Will I Gain
Weight if I Quit Smoking?
Not necessarily.
Not everyone gains weight when they stop smoking. On average, people who
quit smoking gain only about 10 pounds.
You can control
your weight while you quit smoking by making healthy eating and physical
activity a part of your life. Although you might gain a few pounds, don't
forget that you have quit smoking and taken a big step toward a healthier
life.
What Causes
Weight Gain After Quitting?
When smokers
quit, they may gain weight for a number of reasons. These include:
Feeling hungry.
Quitting smoking may make a person feel hungrier than usual. This feeling
usually goes away after several weeks.
Having more
snacks and alcoholic drinks. Some people eat more high-fat, high-sugar
snacks and drink more alcoholic beverages after they quit smoking.
Burning calories
at normal rate again. Smoking cigarettes makes the body burn calories
faster. After quitting smoking, the body’s normal rate of burning
calories returns. When calories are burned more slowly again, weight gain
may take place.
10 Pounds
Weight Gain Won't Harm Your Health
The health
risks of smoking are far greater than the risks of gaining even 20 pounds.
Smoking causes more than 400,000 deaths each year in the United States.
You would have to gain about 100 to 150 pounds after quitting to make
your health risks as high as when you smoked.
How to Reduce
Weight Gain After Quitting Smoking
Get regular
moderate-intensity physical activity Regular physical activity may help
you avoid large weight gains when you quit smoking. It may help you look
and feel good, and fit into your clothes better. You will likely find
that you can breathe easier during physical activity after you quit smoking.
Try to get
30 minutes or more of moderate-intensity physical activity on most days
of the week, preferably every day. The ideas below may help you to be
active every day.
Diet Advice
After Quitting Smoking
Having more
high-fat, high-sugar snacks and alcoholic drinks may lead to large weight
gains when you quit smoking. The ideas below may help you make healthy
eating and drinking choices as you quit smoking.
- Do not
go too long without eating. Being very hungry can lead to less healthy
food choices.
- Eat enough
at meal times to satisfy you.
- Choose
healthy snacks, such as fresh fruit or canned fruit packed in juice
(not syrup), air-popped popcorn, or fat-free yogurt, when you are hungry
between meals.
- Do not
deny yourself an occasional ”treat.“ If you crave ice cream,
enjoy a small cone.
- Choose
an herbal tea, hot cocoa made with nonfat milk, or sparkling water instead
of an alcoholic beverage.
----------------------------------------------------
For more
information on quitting smoking, contact:
American
Cancer Society
www.cancer.org
American
Lung Association
www.lungusa.org/
National Cancer Institute
www.nci.nih.gov |
com