Ex-Smokers : Did you get fat when you gave up?

[Cort Haus]

I've always taken my slim build for granted, but since I've been off the rollups in preparation for a game of football this weekend, I have this insatiable appetite.

At first I thought it was because of all the running I'd been doing, but I'm worried that the oral fix is just being shifted from smokes to food.

What experiences do people here have of this?

[MikeH]

Yeah, I got that, but it was compensated by how much more active I was.

Drink water or fruit juice or something.

[dannubis]

gained 7 kg in five months

lost 1.5 again but it is going slowly

6 months without smoking

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by MikeH
Drink water or fruit juice or something.

Sounds good.

I managed to run 10,000 metres round the Regents Park track on Monday without a break. I was only going slowly, but got a rhythm going and didn't get poundy-heart or short of breath, or dehydration headache. Very satisfying.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by dannubis
gained 7 kg in five months

lost 1.5 again but it is going slowly

6 months without smoking

Do you still want a smoke, or does the desire eventually pass?

[dannubis]

From time to time I still have this strange feeling that I want to smoke. However it is more like a distant nagging, not really a pressing need anymore. But when I start thinking of something else I easily forget I wanted to smoke in the first place.

[Richelieu]

It was gradual but over the 6.5 years after i quit i put on about 30 lbs. Most of it in the last 2 years though and a minor bout of depression didn't help either.

[Az]

I've lost 27kgs when I took up smoking rather heavily.

Stress in the army
cancer

[MikeH]

Originally posted by Cort Haus
Do you still want a smoke, or does the desire eventually pass?

Yeah, you'll soon come to loathe even the smell and become a huge anti-smoking nazi, the kind you previously hated.

It's brilliant.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by MikeH


Yeah, you'll soon come to loathe even the smell and become a huge anti-smoking nazi, the kind you previously hated.

It's brilliant.

I'm not sure I'll get that far. Plan A is to get from Monday to Saturday without tobacco. The prospect of giving up long-term was not something I had considered at first.

Besides, I don't like the smell of cigarettes anyway, and don't smoke them. Rolling tobacco is a far milder smell.

[Arrian]

My weight didn't change appreciably when I quit. Then again, I was already somewhat overweight and I merely remained that way. I also didn't quit "cold turkey" but rather cut down year by year until I was smoking 1/2 a pack a week or less, and only on weekends. Then I finally quit, but it wasn't much of a change, really. It was entirely psychological at that point.

-Arrian

[Harovan]

Yes. 20 kg up now, after I quit 7 years ago. It's not the fact, that I quit, but that I've been a lazy bum for the last 3 years.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by Arrian
My weight didn't change appreciably when I quit. Then again, I was already somewhat overweight and I merely remained that way. I also didn't quit "cold turkey" but rather cut down year by year until I was smoking 1/2 a pack a week or less, and only on weekends. Then I finally quit, but it wasn't much of a change, really. It was entirely psychological at that point.

-Arrian

Sounds like a good way to do it.

[Arrian]

Yes and no. Strictly from a (physical) health standpoint, obviously, it's best to just stop. But I wasn't ready to just stop, and I knew it. So I cut down slowly but surely.

-Arrian

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Gave up 15 months ago. Seeing as I also started eating more healthily and increased the exercise, I've lost 20 pounds, and at 155 pounds I now weight the same as I did at 19. Considering I'm nearly 36, I think that's pretty good.

I've found giving up really easy. Having said that, I've got a lovely big Cuban cigar that I'm going to smoke this Christmas. I plan on developing a 1 cigar a year habit. Too much abstinence makes Jack a sanctimonious boy.