subject: How to Combat Weight Gain After Quitting Nicotine [print this page] How to Combat Weight Gain After Quitting Nicotine
Weight gain is probably one of the most dreaded aspects about quitting nicotine. Most people gain weight after quitting smoking, a few lucky ones don't. If you happen to be the weight gainer type don't despair; there are proven ways of controlling weight gain and attaining your ideal weight.
Isn't quitting smoking and gaining weight simply trading one health risk for another? The answer of course is no. The health benefits of stopping smoking far outweigh the risks associated with gaining weight after quitting. For most people, the average gain in weight will only be about 10 pounds, which can easily be shed off with proper diet and regular exercise.
The main reason why you smokers tend to gain weight after they quit smoking is because the nicotine in cigarettes is a metabolism booster. Naturally, after quitting and without the usual metabolism boost, your body would tend to store fat. Don't worry so much about weight gain while you're still in the process of quitting. At this point your focus should be on how you to stop smoking for good.
Here are some things you can do to help you get back to your ideal weight:
(1) Switch to a natural diet that is rich in nutrients and vitamins. A healthy natural diet contains metabolism boosters that can help you burn fat faster. Avoid processed and junk foods as much as possible. A natural diet can help stop your overeating problems. You see hunger is driven by our need for nutrients. When you feed your body what it truly needs, your urge to overeat will stop.
(2) Exercise regularly. Do some cardio about three times a week. At first, you need to take it easy while your body is still adjusting to the exercise. Once you're used to exercising, you might want to increase the intensity of your workout. Intensity is the fastest ticket to fat loss. One thing you'll notice when you increase the intensity of your workout is you can't sustain the activity very long. This is okay. What you need to remember is duration is not as important as the quality of exercise you are getting.
Doing short burst high intensity exercises help Detoxify Your Lungs and guarantees faster fat loss than a moderately paced workout. So if your aiming for faster weight loss, go for intensity.
(4) Engage in high intensity resistance training. One of the best kept secrets of professional fitness trainers is that the bigger and more developed your muscles are, the leaner you become. This is because large muscles are expensive to maintain as they require lots of calories to keep alive. So when your muscles have used up all the free roaming calories in your body, then your system will start burning fat to feed your calorie hungry muscles.
The Best Stop Smoking Programs will always teach you how to combat weight gain, so don't be afraid to quit smoking. It's actually very easy to become fit and lean again after you've quit smoking. All you need to do is focus on the right diet and concentrate on high intensity training to boost your body's metabolism to the fullest.
