The diet for not gaining weight after quitting smoking

Who decides to stop smoking is facing a real moment of change. One of the most common fears that discourage people from saying goodbye to cigarettes is the fear of gaining weight: a reason by no means irrelevant, since it affects many people and that an accumulation of body weight, even if slight, it’s possible, as we will find out later. This, however, should not be an obstacle to the decision to quit smoking. Not taking more nicotine has huge health benefits.

Why quit smoking

Smoking is one of the biggest public health problems in the world and one of the biggest risk factors in the development of neoplastic, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), tobacco smoke represents the second cause of death worldwide and the leading cause of preventable death. And not only because smoking is responsible for lung cancer, but because it is also the main risk factor for non-neoplastic respiratory diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and is one of the most important cardiovascular risk factors. According to the available data, a smoker has a risk of mortality due to one coronary artery disease, 3 to 5 times higher than a non-smoker.

In general, it should be considered that the smoker’s quality of life is seriously compromised, due to the increased frequency of respiratory diseases (cough, phlegm, recurrent bronchitis, asthma, etc.) and cardiac (hypertension, stroke, heart attack, etc.) which can limit the activities of daily living.

What happens to the body after quitting smoking

THE benefits they start from the minutes after the last cigarette:

• Within 20 minutes the heart rate and blood pressure they are reduced.
• Within 12 hours, the level of carbon monoxide in the blood decreases and returns to normal levels.
• Within 2-12 weeks the circulation improves blood flow as well as lung function.
• Within 1-9 months the cough and the shortness of breath.
• Within a year the risk of heart attack it becomes half that of a smoker.
• Within 5-15 years the risk of stroke becomes the same as that of a non-smoker.
• Within 10 years the risk of lung cancer decreases by up to half and the risk of cancers of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, uterine cervix and pancreas.
• Within 15 years the risk of heart attack becomes the same as that of a non-smoker.

Methods for quitting

If you want to quit smoking and need help, Tobacco Smoking Cessation Services are active in Italy (Anti-smoking Centers – CAF), relating both to the National Health Service (SSN) (hospitals and local health units), and to the private social sector (for example the Italian League for the Fight against Cancer – LILT).

Information on these centers can also be requested from Green phone against smoking of the Higher Institute of Health (800 554088), a service that carries out consultancy activities on issues related to the phenomenon of smoking, representing a link between the institution and the citizen-user, a listening and monitoring point.

Does quitting smoking make you fat?

And now we come to the answer: According to experts, quitting smoking can, in some people, contribute to weight gain. Nicotine is in fact an anorectic, that is, it facilitates energy consumption. So by quitting smoking weight gain is almost inevitable, but it is not superior to 2 or 3 kilos.

What to eat after quitting smoking so as not to gain pounds

To avoid this problem it is not necessary to follow a strict diet, but to gradually change your own eating habits, we read in the practical guide “Quitting smoking” funded by the Ministry of Health

Experts have compiled a series of advice to contain body weight gain:

• Reduce the amount of food per meal.
• Eat more frequent meals (3-5 light meals) rather than two large meals.
• Drink plenty of fluids, reduce alcohol consumption.
• Consume low calorie foods.
• Cut down on your consumption of sweets and eat sugar-free candies.
• Choose fruit and vegetables if you feel the need to eat something between meals.
• Increase physical activity: walking up stairs, playing sports.

Important, when it comes the desire for a cigarette, is distracting from the desire to smoke: talk to someone, take a walk, have a drink of water. Breathing exercises, a bath, gymnastics or reading a book can be small and useful strategies.

In particular, physical activity to be carried out regularly, even just a walk, is very useful to give clear signs of the well-being of not smoking.

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