Many people put on a lot of weight when they stop smoking because food ends up being a replacement for the cigarettes
. The health risk of a little weight gain is nothing compared to just how damaging smoking is to our health.When you first give up smoking, concentrate on trying to maintain your current body weight rather than trying to lose weight. When you settle down into maintaining your body weight you and assess whether you need to lose weight and you can adjust your diet accordingly.
One way of helping you keep the weight off and stop those cravings is to have a 15-minute brisk walk every day. Recent research has shown that brisk walking can also be utilised to help smokers kick the habit.
One reason for weight gain after giving up smoking is that nicotine boosts our metabolic rate, the increase is only minimal. The most likely reason a lot of people gain weight after stopping is that they simply eat more and food and treats become a substitute for the cigarettes.
For seven out of ten people who put on weight after quitting, the reason is simply that they eat more calories than they consume. People generally become bored and food becomes an easy substitute.
Feelings of hunger are common as our appetite and taste buds increase; but these will decline after the first three to four weeks. Eating lots of snacks full of sugar and fat will account for lots of extra calories so the key is to be prepared when you decide to give up and put together an action plan for snacking.
Plan your change: if you have been smoking for a long time then you need to plan your change properly. Be prepared. Choose the day you are going to stop, choose what products you are going to have on hand to help you, plan lots of activities to keep yourself busy, try stay away from smoking environments. Plan a weekly menu try a low GI diet which is packed with the perfect foods to keep you feeling satisfied and you shouldnt have too many cravings.
Plan a routine of exercises even if its little bits of exercise throughout your day to keep your mind occupied.
Keep yourself a smoking jar and every day put the days saving into the jar i.e. The cost of the cigarettes that you have not smoked. Use the money to give yourself a treat, spend the money on yourself.