When quitting smoking, weight gain is one thing that is often complained of. In fact, if done in the right way, your efforts to quit smoking have little effect on weight gain.
Smoking has been proven to have a negative impact on health. Therefore, you should stay away from cigarettes. However, if you are already a smoker, it is never too late to stop this unhealthy habit.
By quitting smoking, you can get various benefits, from avoiding heart attacks and cancer, better stamina and sexual performance, to increased fertility.
Unfortunately, quitting smoking is not an easy thing to do. Apart from the addictive effects of nicotine from cigarettes, quitting smoking is also said to make it easier to gain weight.
The Reason Smoking Prevents Weight Gain
Nicotine in cigarettes can increase the process of burning calories and metabolism in the body while suppressing and reducing appetite. This is what makes cigarettes often a way to maintain an ideal body weight for some people.
Unfortunately, this method is not healthy because it can cause many other side effects. When you inhale cigarette smoke, your heart rate will increase by 10–20 times in 1 minute.
This effect can make the performance of the heart increase. Over time, smoking has also been shown to increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases, such as heart disease and stroke.
In addition, smoking can also increase stomach acid, so you can be more susceptible to ulcers or gastritis due to frequent smoking.
When you stop smoking, your metabolism will return to normal. This can indeed make you gain weight, but this effect is only temporary.
After all, this change is actually a healthy thing because the body is no longer forced to overwork due to the increased metabolism caused by smoking.
How to make it easier to quit smoking
People who quit smoking face not only the problem of nicotine addiction but also changes in the sensation of taste or tasting something in the mouth. When you stop smoking, your appetite will increase so you can gain weight faster.
In addition, there is also a theory that states that the process of quitting smoking makes the sense of taste more sensitive and can return to work as usual, thus making people who quit smoking eat more.
Some of these things may be the reason why people who quit smoking will more easily gain weight.
To keep your efforts to quit smoking going, there are other, healthier solutions, such as:
1. Chewing gum
2. Brush your teeth more often
3. Distract and refrain from smoking by doing other activities, such as reading, watching movies, playing games, meditating, or exercising
4. Avoid gathering with fellow smokers
Preventing Weight Gain Due to Quitting Smoking
Weight gain after quitting smoking can be overcome with regular exercise and a healthy diet. So that you can stop smoking while maintaining an ideal body weight, try to follow some of the following tips:
1. Live a healthy diet
Quitting smoking is hard, especially for people who have smoked for a long time. In order not to gain weight, try to improve your diet when you start quitting smoking.
As a first step, try to eat nutritious foods, such as fresh fruit and vegetables and avoid foods high in salt and fat.
2. Exercise regularly
Exercise can burn calories, preventing weight gain and reducing the desire to smoke.
Exercise can also relieve nicotine withdrawal symptoms that often occur in the early days of quitting smoking. However, this effect can only be obtained if you undergo other therapeutic methods to quit smoking, such as psychotherapy.
To get the maximum benefits of exercise, try to exercise regularly for 30 minutes a day or at least 3 times a week. You can choose to swim, walk, cycle, or any other type of sport that you like.
3. Always think positive
It’s important to know that it’s normal to gain weight after quitting smoking, but this effect is only temporary. Therefore, always think positively and remember your main motivation for quitting smoking, which is to get a healthier body and avoid various diseases caused by smoking.
Significant weight gain often haunts some people who are trying to quit smoking. Therefore, it takes extra effort and commitment to do it right.
If you still find it difficult to quit smoking, you can consult a doctor. Your doctor may suggest some ways or tips to make your efforts to quit smoking successful.