You gain weight when you quit smoking, and smoking keeps that weight off. This is true to some extent, as most smokers do gain weight after quitting, but it's only about 5 kg on average. 

While 5kg may not seem like enough to continue smoking (there are over 4000 chemicals and over 50 carcinogens inside), for someone unsure if they can quit, this can be the deciding factor that keeps them lighting up.

Today, we're going to look at how smoking affects your weight and how to quit without gaining weight.

Why do you gain weight when you quit smoking?

There are several reasons why recent quitters start to gain a pound or two:

1) Replacing the "hand-to-mouth" action of smoking with snacking - When people talk about the difficulty of quitting smoking, they forget the habits smokers develop over the years. Since your body is used to doing this 20 times a day, breaking your hand-to-mouth habit can be extremely difficult. Many smokers fill this void with food, which can lead to weight gain.

2) Nicotine can suppress your appetite - Like coffee or other stimulants, nicotine prevents your body from feeling hungry, so when you quit smoking, you suddenly experience more hunger pangs than you're used to.

3) Smoking speeds up your metabolism, so your body burns calories faster - When you quit smoking, you actually need fewer calories than before. Add this to feeling hungrier from the point above, and you have a recipe for weight gain.

4) Food tastes better after quitting smoking - Smoking dulls and kills your sense of taste, and therefore after quitting smoking and your taste buds begin to recover, you start to re-taste things, which can lead to eating more. Former smokers often find sugary foods taste much better than usual, and many former smokers crave sugar.

5) Some former smokers confuse nicotine cravings with feeling hungry

Do smokers gain weight after quitting?

While it's actually a myth that all smokers gain weight, a study of thousands of smokers found that 16% of smokers lost weight after quitting.

The study actually found that the amount you smoked affects your weight gain (or loss) when you quit. Heavier smokers seem to have more problems gaining weight, although the exact reason for this is not known.

However, there are some theories, as heavier smokers will have the biggest reaction to nicotine deficiency and a more ingrained hand-to-mouth habit than light smokers.

Avoiding weight gain when quitting smoking

While it's easy to eat more when you quit smoking, there's a way to avoid it.

1) Keep your metabolism high with regular exercise- To counteract nicotine's effect on metabolism, exercise can do the same and generally burn more calories. By building more muscle and getting fitter, you'll ensure your body burns more calories even at rest.

2) Snack on fresh fruit and vegetable sticks - As hunger pangs hit more, replace your snacks with healthy, low-calorie options.

3) Eat smaller portions until your metabolism stabilizes - It takes about 20 minutes to feel full after eating, so it can be easy to overeat. Pay attention to how much you eat in the first few months of quitting and stop before going back for seconds when you finish a normal-sized meal.

4) Use nicotine replacement to get nicotine without toxins and cigarette carcinogens - By replacing your cigarette with another nicotine method, you can stop not only nicotine cravings but also hunger pangs and the low metabolism that comes without nicotine.

E-cigarettes and weight loss

Using any nicotine replacement system can help the smoker regulate their body and avoid some of the causes of weight gain when quitting smoking. By allowing the smoker to keep the nicotine while staying away from cigarette toxins and carcinogens, smokers can keep hunger pangs at bay.

However, e-cigarettes can uniquely help as they can replace the sensation of smoking in addition to nicotine. Since e-cigarettes produce vapor that you inhale like a cigarette, the hand-to-mouth sensation is replicated, and therefore former smokers don't have to replace it with food.

The flavors that e-cigarettes come in can also help, as they can help with the cravings for flavors that many smokers get when their taste buds start to recover. Our starter kits have tobacco flavors to choose from, but we also have a wide variety of flavors that can help with former smokers' sudden sweet tooth.

So, if you're giving up trying to quit smoking because you're gaining weight, perhaps e-cigarettes could be the answer. You can get the sensation and taste of smoking (in addition to nicotine), but since e-cigarettes are at least 95% less harmful than cigarettes, you can be sure you're not getting the over 50 carcinogens that come with smoking.

Try a SMOKO E-Cigarette and see if e-cigarettes can finally help you move away from smoking.