Giving up cigarettes doesn't have to mean you'll pack on extra pounds

If you smoke, you probably already know that you should quit. And if a close friend or family member is the one who lights up, chances are you’ve already talked with them about quitting.
We can cite the list of reasons: Cigarette smoking is the single leading cause of preventable disease and preventable death, not to mention that it accelerates aging – both inside and out. Plus, it’s an expensive habit, averaging over $1,500 a year for a pack-a-day smoker.

There are more resources than ever available to help a person quit, yet an estimated 45 million – about 20.6 percent of U.S. adults — still smoke.
Fear of gaining weight is one potentially strong barrier. And for good reason. Researchers say that people who quit smoking can gain an average of 4 to 10 pounds – some as much as 30 pounds or more – with much of the weight put on within the first six months after quitting. Other studies, however, found that most people gain less than 7 pounds after kicking the habit.

But giving up cigarettes doesn’t mean that you’re destined for weight gain.
Understanding why extra pounds are associated with quitting smoking – and implementing a few key strategies – can help you prevent the extra pounds in the first place.

There are the obvious reasons:
Without cigarettes, many turn to food to satisfy the urge of having something to do with their mouths and hands. And if smoking was a way to deal with stress or boredom, to reward yourself, or just to pass the time, it’s easy to use food for these same reasons. Plus, your senses of smell and taste can improve in as little as 48 hours, so foods may actually taste better than they did when you were smoking.
Then there are the not-so-obvious causes of weight gain, like why carbohydrate cravings are so common among ex-smokers. One reason is that nicotine increases serotonin, a chemical in the body that helps provide a calming, “feel-good” sensation. So when a person stops smoking, they often crave carbs – sweet as well as savory – which also raise serotonin levels.

Nicotine also temporarily increases the number of calories burned, though it’s not clear exactly how much. One study showed a single cigarette to increase energy expenditure by about 3 percent within 30 minutes; another showed a 3.3 percent rise for three hours after smoking four cigarettes. Smoking regularly — about a pack a day — increased calories burned by about 215 calories according to one study, and by 10 percent to 16 percent in others.