Everyone knows that smoking is harmful. And those who have been smoking for decades, and those who have never picked up a cigarette. Quitting smoking is much harder than starting. And only people who are not familiar with this terrible habit believe that quitting smoking is a simple and effortless process. In fact, psychological discomfort (bad sleep, increased irritability) and almost always weight gain are mixed with the body's real longing for nicotine. Of course, the harm that smoking causes to the human body cannot be compared with these troubles, especially when you consider that after a few months everything returns to normal. Why do people get fat when they quit smoking? Can this be avoided? We will discuss this in detail in the article.
Why people get fat when they quit smoking
When you quit smoking, weight gain does happen. To minimize it, it is necessary to understand the reasons for this process. So why do people get fat when they quit smoking? The reasons are as follows:
- Smoking is replaced by snacking, which inevitably leads to weight gain.
- Also why do people gain weight when they quit smoking? After giving up a cigarette, there is a gradual recovery of taste buds, food seems tastier, and appetite increases.
- Nicotine affects the digestion process, slowing it down, in addition, cigarettes noticeably dull the feeling of hunger.
- Restoration of the mucous membrane of the stomach and esophagus when quitting smoking leads to faster digestion of food and increased appetite.
- Also why do people get fat when they quit smoking? The metabolic processes of a smoker under the influence of nicotine are noticeably higher; when quitting smoking, they slow down to a normal level.
This is important to know: when quitting smoking, all these troubles are temporary. After completely getting rid of a bad habit, all body systems are restored over time.
Milk and dairy products
Now you know why people get fat after they quit smoking. To minimize the danger of gaining extra pounds, you should try to reconsider your diet. Moreover, we are absolutely not talking about a diet, since combining the rejection of cigarettes with compliancethere is no specific diet. Under these conditions, the body receives double stress, and the likelihood of breaking loose and smoking again is very high.
You just need to make sure that the number of tea parties and snacks does not increase due to the refusal of a cigarette. From an acute desire to smoke, small sips of 0.5 cups of milk or kefir can help. This additionally enriches the body with calcium and vitamins of the PP group (nicotinic acid), reducing the acute desire to smoke.
Also, it has long been observed that milk and dairy products change the taste of a cigarette, making it more unpleasant for the smoker. The consumption of butter, cottage cheese and cheese will be especially useful in the early days of quitting smoking. However, be aware that the high fat content of dairy products can cause weight gain.
Juices
In order not to be bothered by the question of why, when you quit smoking, you start to get fat, you need to increase the amount of juice consumed. Tomato, carrot, apple and many others, which have been replaced by cigarettes, will not let the hated kilograms be deposited and are just a storehouse of vitamins and useful trace elements.
Vegetables
Consumption of cucumbers, bell peppers, eggplants and broccoli will make the process of giving up cigarettes less painful psychologically, will prevent excess weight from being deposited and will make it easier to endure the first, most difficult days of giving up a bad habit, since they are the most quantity contain nicotinic acid, lackwhich the smoker especially feels.
Fluid intake
In the initial period of quitting smoking, you need to consume enough liquid. It can be plain or mineral water, soothing herbal teas, such as chamomile with mint. However, it is worth giving up drinks with a high content of caffeine, tea or coffee, as well as energy drinks and alcoholic drinks. Not only are they high in calories, their consumption can lead to a relapse and a return to the hated cigarette.
What better not to do
Why do you gain weight when you quit smoking? You already know about this. Therefore, remember that you should not replace smoking breaks with the consumption of crackers, chips, seeds or candies. All these products contain a large number of calories, and most importantly, with such a replacement, the task of giving up a bad habit is not formed, it is simply replaced by a new one. As soon as the understanding comes that due to the consumption of cigarette substitutes, excess weight appears, hands will reach for the cigarette again.
In order to make quitting cigarettes less difficult, it is necessary to exclude spicy and smoked foods from the diet, reduce the consumption of sweets and flour products. Replace fatty pork with chicken or turkey for example, and increase the amount of lean fish and dairy cereals in your diet.
Other ways not to gain weight
Intensified exercise, which many try to combine with a period of quitting smoking, is a big misconception. You cannot combine multiple targets. This almost inevitably leads todisruption. Returning to a cigarette often convinces a person of the futility of his attempts, drives him into depression and for a long time discourages the desire to get rid of a harmful addiction.
The role of sports activities
To be successful, you need to prioritize. In this case, giving up cigarettes will be a priority. At the same time, playing sports allows you to diversify your leisure time, find like-minded people, and prevent weight gain. During this period, classes should not be too intense. Hiking, cycling, scooter or rollerblading, swimming in the pool are perfect. The main thing is to make these activities regular, and to replace the habit of starting every morning with a cigarette, to acquire a new addiction to a he althy lifestyle and regular exercise.
It is necessary to remove all items related to smoking from the house: lighters, ashtray and other attributes of a smoker. You should not replace an ordinary cigarette with an electronic one, there will be no sense in quitting smoking, after a while the smoker will definitely return to the cigarette. To make quitting more comfortable, you need to get enough sleep to give your body time to recover. In addition, lack of sleep leads to an increase in aggressiveness, and it is quite high during the period of quitting smoking and without it.
Often people who quit smoking neglect the advice to increase physical activity. With this approach, weight gain during the initial period of abstinence from cigarettes is almost inevitable. If the sports complex is far away, andI don’t feel like rollerblading, you can just get out of the transport when returning from work 1-2 stops before the desired one and walk this distance on foot.
Dancing
So that you are not interested in the question of why, when you quit smoking, you gain weight, dance classes are recommended. This will help to get a charge of positive emotions, find new friends and like-minded people and provide the body with the necessary physical activity. For women and girls who have quit smoking, dancing is a great alternative to the usual workouts in the gym, which many find simply boring.
Support for loved ones
The role of family members in supporting a person who decides to quit smoking is difficult to overestimate. Usually, even the most persistent smokers understand that addiction to a cigarette negatively affects not only their own he alth, but also the he alth of all family members. Children who are forced to be near a smoker are especially affected. They not only get a boost of nicotine by inhaling harmful cigarette smoke, but they constantly see before their eyes not the best example of managing their own he alth. No conversations with children will have the desired result if mom and dad smoke. Under such conditions, having matured, the child will certainly reach for a cigarette. After all, unfortunately, children copy the behavior of adults, especially those who are authority for them.
Mobile games
Giving upsmoking, spend more time playing with children. Outdoor games for the whole family will provide the necessary physical activity, give the joy of communicating with your own child and distract you from thinking about a cigarette. Ball games, badminton and even regular jogging are great. In winter - ice skating, snowball fights, skiing. All this will unite the family, and the smoker will help to forget about the bad habit.
Conclusion
Why do people gain weight when they quit smoking? You already know the point. Sooner or later, every smoker comes to the need to give up cigarettes. Some are tired of spending impressive amounts of money on a bad habit, others, having noticed the first malfunctions in their own body, decide not to aggravate the situation, others understand that their loved ones suffer from their addiction. Often the decision to quit smoking does not come immediately, and the smoker tries to push the moment of parting with a cigarette as far as possible.
Quitting smoking at any age and for any length of service will bring nothing but great benefits. Recent studies by physicians prove that when you stop smoking, organs and tissues affected by nicotine are restored. A person gets rid of bouts of coughing and shortness of breath, the complexion noticeably improves, many diseases that the smoker considered incurable cease to haunt. Even the kilograms gained after giving up a cigarette go away quickly enough. By the way, in fairness, it should be noted that not all people who quit smoking gain weight. Very often this does not happen at all.
And here's what the rejection ofcigarettes will give you a few extra years of a he althy, active life, no doubt. Give up bad habits, stop looking at the world through a veil of tobacco smoke. And let the question of why they get fat when they quit smoking does not bother you anymore. Be he althy and happy!
