Tobacco smoking is a global medical and social problem

How smoking affects a person's weight

It is known that the influence of tobacco is akin to drug addiction, since it stimulates the replacement of one pleasure center with another. According to the principles of psychology, the pleasure obtained from food replaces the sensations acquired through cigarettes. Therefore, smokers often take a smoke break instead of eating, which helps reduce body weight. Smoking and losing weight are closely related, but it’s worth considering that extra pounds are no worse than developing serious diseases.

Does smoking affect weight and health from a physiological point of view? When nicotine enters the body, intoxication occurs, which is similar to mild food poisoning. At this time, energy resources will be used to protect against poison and neutralize it. Do smoking make you lose weight and why? The calories received from digesting food are spent on eliminating nicotine, so there is no energy left to absorb nutrients, or less of the beneficial elements are absorbed from foods. Due to intoxication, appetite is lost, so smokers often lose weight.

Why do you gain weight when you quit smoking?

If you quit smoking, nicotine stops acting on the stomach and hunger center, and on the body as a whole. The processes of dulling hunger do not occur in the brain, so a person’s appetite increases and the amount of food eaten increases. The mucous membrane of the stomach begins to function normally, because of this, food is absorbed in it better and in larger volumes, which causes weight gain. Restoring the sense of smell and taste also helps increase appetite.

Smokers have to replace cigarettes with seeds or sweets in order to somehow eat away the stress. The craving for tobacco encourages frequent snacking, so you will have to gain weight. Do cigarettes affect a smoker's weight? Yes, but when the body gets rid of toxic chemicals, the metabolism will function correctly and the person will gain weight. After normalization of metabolism, body weight will be what it should be.

Why does smoking make you lose weight?

More than 90% of those who have this bad habit noticed that their body weight actually decreased. From a scientific point of view, tobacco makes you lose weight. Does smoking affect weight without causing much harm to the body? Here are some studies on the effects of tobacco:

• Nicotine causes a false feeling of fullness because it depresses the central nervous system. This helps reduce the amount of food and calories consumed, as a result of which the body has to use the available nutrients, which leads to weight loss.
• Tobacco contributes to the occurrence of stomach ulcers and interferes with the normal functioning of the digestive organs, therefore the rate of absorption of nutrients is reduced. Appetite decreases, and along with it the number of calories received. The body is weakened because it practically does not receive vitamins, and the functioning of the immune system is also disrupted.

• Water manicure at home
• Guarana - what is it: benefits and reviews
• How to choose a backpack for a first grader

What kind of pleasure?

It is not so easy for a classic smoker to part with a cigarette. He tries to overcome his cravings for tobacco and constantly chews something. Because of the fear of extra pounds, a cigarette lover will think many times about whether to give up the bad habit.

Experts admit that smokers' fears are not unfounded. According to statistics, about 30% of people who quit smoking gain weight. Average rates of unwanted weight gain range from 4 to 10 kg. Why does giving up a bad habit in the first months harm your figure?

Cardiologist, nutritionist-consultant Asiyat Khachirova notes that one pack of cigarettes a day burns 200 kcal due to stimulation of the nervous system, which is generally harmful to the body. “Nicotine suppresses the synthesis of the hormone ghrelin, which is responsible for good appetite, that is, in the process of smoking the feeling of hunger is dulled. In addition, nicotine affects the breakdown of glycogen in the liver, which, in turn, increases blood sugar levels and reduces appetite,” says the cardiologist.

According to the expert, smoking is also a psychological habit based on the sucking reflex, which appears in a person from birth. “When people quit smoking, the first thing they do is have nothing to keep their mouths occupied,” says the cardiologist. “That’s why all sorts of snacks, seeds, and candies are used.” Every time a quitter wants to eat something, a nutritionist-consultant recommends considering whether it is really physical hunger, and not a desire to simply put something in his mouth or an attempt to plug the emotional hole of not having cigarettes.

Photo: depositphotos/puhhha

Is it possible to gain weight if you quit smoking?

When you quit this habit, a reaction to the lack of nicotine will occur, which can be called stress. Smoking and body weight are linked. Food will begin to be better absorbed, the person will receive more calories, and therefore gain weight. Former smokers do not gain more than five kilograms. In addition, after about six months, body weight will return to normal. After quitting smoking, gaining kilograms is good for health and restoring the coordinated functioning of the body.

The effect of smoking on the human body

Smoking is a type of domestic drug addiction. For many smokers, smoking becomes part of their “I”, and this internal perception of oneself is sometimes very difficult to change.

However, smoking is more than a habit. All those forms of tobacco consumption that have become popular among the population contribute to the release of nicotine into the blood. After cigarette smoke enters the lungs, nicotine reaches the brain within seven seconds.

The inability to quit smoking is due to the body’s already developed dependence on the daily dose of nicotine. The body waits for this dose and requires it, like the required proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Smokers have a different metabolism, and a certain “nicotine addiction” has developed.

Trying to quit smoking, heavy smokers very often at first begin to feel not better, but much worse: coughing, weakness, irritability, tendency to overeat worsen, women are drawn to sweets, and in excessive quantities.

Public ignorance about this problem has led to the idea of ​​smoking as a “bad habit”, in which the smoker is blamed because he cannot stop smoking. However, the habit of smoking develops only in 7-10% of people who systematically smoke tobacco. The remaining 90% are diagnosed with tobacco addiction.

Persons with the habit of smoking tobacco stop smoking on their own and do not need specialized medical care. Differential diagnosis of tobacco dependence and tobacco smoking habit is based on several clinical signs.

Harm of smoking

When a person touches a cigarette for the first time, he does not think about the serious consequences that smoking can lead to. Taking his health lightly, a smoker considers himself invulnerable, especially since the consequences of smoking do not appear immediately, but after a number of years and depend on its intensity, the number of cigarettes smoked, the depth of inhalation of tobacco smoke, the period of smoking, etc.

Most people are optimistic. Being healthy, they usually believe that they will always feel good, and all sorts of diseases are the lot of other, weaker, susceptible people. But, alas, such optimism cannot be considered justified if disease prevention measures are not taken and bad habits are not given up.

Cigarette smoke slowly undermines the health of the smoker. Scientists provide the following data: if tobacco tar is isolated from a thousand cigarettes, then up to 2 milligrams of a strong carcinogenic substance are found in it, which is quite enough to cause a malignant tumor in a rat or rabbit. If we take into account that a number of people smoke up to 40 cigarettes a day or even more, then in order to smoke a thousand cigarettes, they will need only 25 days.

When do people start smoking? Mostly at school age. The peaks are at 14, 17 and 19 years.

A slight decrease in the number of smokers is observed after 25 years. However, if men begin to sharply limit their consumption of cigarettes from 40 to 44 years of age, and after 45 years of age they often abandon them altogether, then for women this happens 5 years later.

Quitting smoking is not that difficult. Exercising, traveling, and not having contact with smokers will help get rid of tobacco and the threat of cancer, chronic bronchitis, and other diseases,

Composition of tobacco smoke. At the moment of inhaling smoke from a cigarette, the temperature at its end reaches 60 degrees and above. Under such thermal conditions, tobacco and tissue paper sublimate, and about 200 harmful substances , including carbon monoxide, soot, benzopyrene, formic acid, hydrocyanic acid, arsenic, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, acetylene, and radioactive elements. Smoking one cigarette is equivalent to being on a busy motorway for 36 hours .

A cigarette usually contains several milligrams of nicotine. Carbon monoxide, or carbon monoxide, has the property of binding the respiratory pigment in the blood - hemoglobin. The resulting carboxyhemoglobin is not capable of carrying oxygen; as a result, tissue respiration processes are disrupted. It has been established that when smoking a pack of cigarettes, a person introduces over 400 milliliters of carbon monoxide into the body, as a result, the concentration of carboxyhemoglobin in the blood increases to 7-10 percent. Thus, all organs and systems of the smoker are constantly starved of oxygen.

The effect of smoking on the human body

Nicotine appears in brain tissue 7 seconds after the first puff. What is the secret of nicotine's effect on brain function? Nicotine seems to improve communication between brain cells, facilitating the conduction of nerve impulses. Thanks to nicotine, brain processes are temporarily stimulated, but then inhibited for a long time. After all, the brain needs rest. Having shifted the pendulum of mental activity that is familiar to him, the smoker then inevitably feels its reverse swing.

But this is not the only insidiousness of nicotine. It appears with prolonged smoking. The brain gets used to constant nicotine supplies, which to some extent facilitate its work. And so he begins to demand them, not wanting to overwork himself too much. The law of biological laziness comes into its own. Like an alcoholic, who, in order to maintain normal well-being, has to “feed” his brain with alcohol, and a smoker has to “pamper” it with nicotine. Otherwise, anxiety, irritability, and nervousness appear. Immediately, willy-nilly, you’ll start smoking again.

The respiratory organs are the first to take on the tobacco attack. And they suffer the most often. Passing through the respiratory tract, tobacco smoke causes irritation and inflammation of the mucous membranes of the pharynx, nasopharynx, trachea, bronchi, and pulmonary alveoli. Constant irritation of the bronchial mucosa can trigger the development of bronchial asthma. And chronic inflammation of the upper respiratory tract, chronic bronchitis, accompanied by a debilitating cough, is the lot of all smokers. Undoubtedly, a connection has also been established between smoking and the incidence of cancer of the lip, tongue, larynx, and trachea.

In the last decade, scientists and practitioners have become increasingly concerned about the harmful effects that tobacco smoke components have on the cardiovascular system. Damage to the heart and blood vessels in people who smoke heavily and regularly is usually a consequence of a violation of the nervous and humoral regulation of the cardiovascular system.

Numerous experiments have shown that after smoking a cigarette (cigarette), the amount of corticosteroids, as well as adrenaline and norepinephrine, sharply increases compared to the norm. These biologically active substances encourage the heart muscle to work at a faster pace; the volume of the heart increases, blood pressure rises, and the rate of myocardial contractions increases.

It is estimated that the heart of a smoker makes 12-15 thousand more contractions per day than the heart of a non-smoker. In itself, this mode is uneconomical, since excessive constant load leads to premature wear of the heart muscle. But the situation is aggravated by the fact that the myocardium does not receive the amount of oxygen that it needs during such intense work.

All this contributes to the early development of coronary heart disease and angina in smokers. And quite rightly, among the risk factors for myocardial infarction, experts cite smoking as one of the first. This is confirmed by statistics from industrialized countries: heart attacks at a relatively young age - 40 - 50 years old - occur almost exclusively in smokers.

In tobacco lovers, hypertension is much more severe than in non-smokers: it is more often complicated by hypertensive crises, impaired cerebral circulation - stroke.

Smoking is one of the main reasons for the development of such a serious disease as obliterating endarteritis. With this disease, the vascular system of the legs is affected, sometimes to the point of complete obliteration (closing of the lumen) of the vessels and the occurrence of gangrene. In people who do not poison themselves with tobacco, this disease is extremely rare. Compare 14% of cases in smokers to only 0.3% in non-smokers. These figures were obtained from a study of a large group of patients.

Nicotine and other components of tobacco also affect the digestive organs. Scientific research and clinical observations indisputably indicate that long-term smoking contributes to the occurrence of gastric and duodenal ulcers.

In a person who smokes a lot and for a long time, the vessels of the stomach are in a state of constant spasm. As a result, the tissues are poorly supplied with oxygen and nutrients, and the secretion of gastric juice is disrupted. And as a result - gastritis or peptic ulcer; in 69% of patients with peptic ulcer, the development of the disease was directly related to smoking. Of those operated on for perforated ulcers, about 90% were heavy smokers.

Middle-aged women could have much better teeth if they avoided smoking in their youth. According to research results, only 26% of non-smoking women over the age of 50 needed dental prosthetics. And among smokers, 48% experienced such a need.

Smoking has a detrimental effect on a pregnant woman. Inhalation of smoke from cigarettes and cigarettes is accompanied by its active effect on the vascular system, especially at the level of small vessels and capillaries that supply internal organs with oxygen and essential nutrients. Generalized vasospasm and deterioration in the functions of the lungs, brain, heart, and kidneys occur. An adult who is accustomed to smoking does not notice any unpleasant sensations, but the negative effect on the vascular system, gradually accumulating, will certainly manifest itself in the form of hypertension, angina pectoris, and a tendency to thrombosis. During pregnancy, the negative effects of smoking appear much faster, and especially in relation to the developing child. It has been shown that if the mother smoked during pregnancy, the weight of the newborn is 150-200 grams less than normal.

Tobacco addiction

Tobacco addiction is a clinical form of a pathological process that is characterized by a loss in the sphere of thinking of control over the emergence and cessation of desires to re-smoke tobacco with the simultaneous development of a clinical picture of the syndrome of pathological craving for smoking tobacco and withdrawal syndrome.

Only 5% of tobacco smokers can stop smoking on their own. 80% want to stop smoking tobacco, but they need special medical assistance.

Tobacco addiction according to the International Classification of Diseases (V ICD-10) is included in the section “Mental disorders and behavioral disorders associated (caused) with the use of psychoactive substances,” and the absence in the clinical picture of tobacco addiction of psychoorganic symptoms (hallucinations, delusions) and personality changes caused by smoking tobacco, determines the special place of tobacco addiction in a number of disorders in treatment.

In persons with tobacco addiction, along with the syndrome of pathological craving for tobacco smoking and withdrawal syndrome, borderline mental disorders are diagnosed in 60% of cases. The most frequently observed are anxiety-hypochondriacal, anxiety-depressive, asthenodepressive and depersonalization syndromes. Borderline mental disorders develop simultaneously with the clinical picture of addiction, exist independently, and during exacerbation they create the basis for the motive for quitting tobacco smoking and seeking medical help for smoking.

Nicotine is a slow-acting poison; it destroys the body from the inside over many years. Moreover, a smoker destroys not only himself, but also the people who surround him, because tobacco smoke contains about 200 harmful substances that poison people and the environment.

Smoking greatly undermines human health. Everyone needs to understand and realize this as deeply as possible. No one should voluntarily destroy their body.

Only branded stores and tents should sell tobacco products, and not all retail outlets. It is necessary to prohibit the advertising of such products and their sale to children and adolescents.

Physical education, sports, classes in clubs, libraries, proper organization of free time, interesting and meaningful recreation - all this, of course, resists the development of bad habits, and, above all, the habit of using tobacco products. Idleness, idleness, sitting, on the contrary, are the most fertile soil for its formation.

Promoting a healthy lifestyle is an important national task. To contribute with all our might to its solution is the duty of all people, every resident of our country.

Doctor - hygienist of the hygiene department

State Institution TsGiE Frunzensky district of Minsk V.A. Gapanovich

How to gain weight if you smoke

Nicotine reduces appetite and prevents food from being completely absorbed. The cigarette is the main enemy that prevents you from gaining weight. At first, the body spends most of its resources to protect itself from poisoning by chemical compounds, and over time, intoxication processes intensify in the body, which prevent the absorption of nutrients and even the deposition of fats. Only if you quit smoking can you gain some weight and restore the normal functioning of your internal organs. To gain weight, you need to give up tobacco.

How does tobacco affect the body?

When nicotine enters the body, it dulls appetite. This is why a person begins to eat less. This happens because the body perceives it as poison. He begins to spend all his energy on neutralizing it and simply has no strength left to digest food. As a result, there is no appetite. This state can be compared to the following: when a person eats something spoiled, the last thing he wants is to eat again. The same thing happens here, the oppressed body has no desire to eat.

If you are a smoker with “decent experience,” then your body no longer absorbs nutrients correctly and fully. This can soon lead to even slight weight loss. In addition, smoking increases blood glucose levels. The body is no longer able to distinguish it from the norm and is “in error.”

Another reason for slight weight loss: tobacco is like a drug; it replaces the pleasure that a person gets while eating, so smokers increasingly start smoking instead of having a snack. Or uses smoking as an antidepressant. But these are not hormones of happiness, this is a cruel deception. And you will have to pay for it...

It became clearer how nicotine reduces weight

Rice. 1.

Cytisine (Cyt) and nicotine (Nic) dose-dependently cause a decrease in body weight (Body weight) in experimental mice compared to control mice receiving saline solution (Saline).
On a horizontal scale
- time in days.
Image from the discussed article in Science
Many smokers say they smoke to maintain a healthy weight. Indeed, smokers usually weigh less than non-smokers, and when they try to quit, they gain weight. This effect appears to be related primarily to nicotine, since nicotine has been shown to reduce appetite in experimental animals. But little was known about the mechanism linking nicotine use to weight loss. A group of scientists from the United States was able to understand this issue a little.

Nicotine is an acetylcholine agonist. This means that it “pretends” to be acetylcholine when it binds to the corresponding receptors. The receptors trustingly open, and ionic currents begin to flow through them, and because of this, the membrane potential of the cells changes, which entails corresponding changes in the nervous system. It is logical to assume that the effect of nicotine on eating behavior is associated precisely with its effect on cholinergic receptors.

The researchers decided to test this assumption. The first thing they were able to find out was that nicotine (as well as a more selective agonist of one of the subtypes of the nicotinic cholinergic receptor, cytisine) reduced weight gain, fat mass and food intake in experimental mice (see Fig. 1).

This was a predictable result. Now the scientists are faced with the next question. Nicotinic cholinergic receptors are found in both the central and peripheral nervous systems. Which of these systems (or both?) is this effect of nicotine and cytisine associated with?

To answer this question, researchers used cholinergic receptor antagonists (that is, blockers that clog the receptors and prevent ionic currents from passing through them). One of these antagonists worked only in the central nervous system, and the second - only in the peripheral nervous system. The loss of appetite caused by cytisine disappeared only under the influence of the central antagonist (see Fig. 2), which means that the changes in eating behavior we studied are regulated precisely by the central nervous system.

Rice. 2.

The effect of cytisine on the amount of food taken is not stopped by the peripheral antagonist of nicotinic cholinergic receptors, hexamethonium benzosulfonate, and is stopped by the central antagonist mecamylamine.
This suggests that cytisine acts on the central nervous system and not on the peripheral nervous system. The result is visible both after two hours (after 2 hours) and after 24 hours. Saline - saline solution. The vertical axis
shows food intake in grams per gram of body weight of experimental animals.
Image from the discussed article in Science
The search range narrowed. In the central nervous system, one of the important regulators of eating behavior is the arcuate nucleus (see arcuate nucleus) of the hypothalamus. The pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) cells located in it are part of the melanocortin system (see central melanocortin system), which is critical in controlling energy balance and body weight. Activation of these cells reduces food intake and increases energy expenditure, and vice versa - their “silence” leads to obesity. It has been shown that these cells express cholinergic markers, which means they can be influenced by acetylcholine. All this suggests that it is through these cells that nicotine acts on eating behavior.

To test this idea and study more closely the mechanism by which nicotine works, the researchers conducted a series of experiments. Firstly, they were convinced that the leading role in nicotinic anorexia is played by one of the types of nicotinic cholinergic receptors - α3β4 (it is for this receptor that cytisine is an agonist). They further determined that activation of these receptors on pro-opiomelanocortin cells “turns on” them and causes them to send signals to their targets, second-order neurons. Moreover, they were able to determine that these targets are the cells of the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus, and that proopiomelanocortin cells act on them through Mc4r receptors.

So, apparently, the mechanism of the influence of smoking on eating behavior is as follows. Nicotine “sits” on α3β4-nicotinic cholinergic receptors in the proopiomelanocortin cells of the arcuate nucleus. The receptors open, an ion current begins through them, the cells become excited and send signals further, activating neurons in the paraventricular nucleus using Mc4r receptors. All this leads to changes in eating behavior, decreased appetite and, as a result, weight loss (see Fig. 3).

Rice. 3.

Proposed mechanism of nicotine's influence on eating behavior.
The POMC cells of the arcuate nucleus (POMC) contain several different nicotinic cholinergic receptors (nAChRs), and among them are the α3β4 receptors. From the cells on which these α3β4 receptors are located, there are projections to second order neurons located in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN). In the basal state, in the absence of nicotine, α3β4 receptors are closed, the corresponding POMC cells do not send a signal to second-order neurons, and the body consumes food at the usual level (basal food intake). If the system is activated by nicotine (nicotine-activated state), then nicotine “sits” on nicotinic cholinergic receptors, including α3β4. The corresponding POMC cells are excited and activate Mc4r receptors on second-order neurons, resulting in a decrease in food intake (decreased food intake). Image from the discussed article in Science
In other words, a new “button” for weight control is emerging - α3β4-nicotinic cholinergic receptors. Agonists at these receptors may help smokers control weight after they quit smoking, and these agonists may provide the basis for new anti-obesity drugs.

Source:

Yann S. Mineur, Alfonso Abizaid, Yan Rao, Ramiro Salas, Ralph J. DiLeone, Daniela Gundisch, Sabrina Diano, Mariella De Biasi, Tamas L. Horvath, Xiao-Bing Gao, Marina R. Picciotto.
Nicotine Decreases Food Intake Through Activation of POMC Neurons // Science
. 2011. V. 332. P. 1330–1332.

Vera Bashmakova

Smoking is harmful to health! Eating fatty, high-calorie foods and drinking alcohol in large quantities is also harmful to health. This is no secret, but many stubbornly do not give up this bad habit. Quitting smoking will be one of those steps that will help you get closer to your goal of a healthy lifestyle. Moreover, by quitting smoking now, you are more likely to prevent the accompanying weight gain.

By continuing to smoke and exercise, you are causing enormous harm to your body and putting yourself at risk for injury and heart attack.

Many people are fully aware of the harm that smoking causes, but do not quit the habit for fear of gaining weight. Indeed, statistically, 80% of those who stop smoking gain a few kilograms, but the majority return to their normal weight within a year.

Some studies suggest that nicotine-containing smoking cessation medications may also help maintain weight, although other evidence suggests that this is just delaying the inevitable.

The mechanisms by which smoking reduces body weight are complex and not fully understood. Most likely, nicotine has the main biological effect on body weight, but it is possible that smoking acts as a behavioral alternative to nutrition and leads to a decrease in food consumption.

Body weight depends on the balance of caloric intake and daily energy expenditure. Daily energy expenditure is related to metabolic rate, physical activity, and the thermic effect of food. Nicotine regulates body weight by increasing metabolic rate and at the same time dulling the feeling of hunger that should have increased in response to an increase in metabolic rate.

Without going into too much detail, nicotine has several effects on the central nervous system regarding the regulation of hunger and energy expenditure. Regulation of eating behavior and metabolic levels occurs in the hypothalamus, where signals of satiety, body fat, and central motivational and emotional influences are integrated.

The release of hormones such as norepinephrine, dopamine, serotonin and γ-aminobutyric acid in the central nervous system influences chemicals in the brain that suppress food intake and increase metabolic rate. However, it is worth remembering that cigarettes contain not only nicotine, but also several thousand chemicals , the harm of which is many times greater than the harm from gaining a few kilograms.

Often, after stopping smoking and starting to consume more calories, people do not compensate for this excess energy with additional energy output, for example, through sports.

Smoking is harmful to health, and nicotine is a narcotic substance. This is an indisputable fact that everyone knows about, including smokers themselves, but even with this knowledge, many cannot or do not want to get rid of this habit.

The harm that smoking causes can be summed up in one phrase - it negatively affects the ability to exercise. In addition to having an increased risk of cardiovascular and respiratory disease, people who smoke also suffer from decreased stamina and an increased risk of injury.

Although cigarettes contain more than 4,000 different chemical components, virtually all research on the effects of smoking on exercise has focused on the effects of nicotine and carbon monoxide.

Carbon monoxide contained in tobacco smoke can form bonds with red blood cells, displacing oxygen and thereby reducing the amount of oxygen entering the muscles by 3% to 15%.

Decreased oxygen levels and reduced blood circulation make it difficult to build muscle tissue , so muscles fatigue faster during training. Vasoconstriction also increases the load on the heart, which can lead to faster wear and tear on the heart muscle. All of these factors affect your health and training performance.

— Reduced levels of oxygen in the blood cause the heart rate of smokers to be higher than that of non-smokers, even when resting. This means that their heart is working harder all the time to provide oxygen, blood and nutrients to all tissues and organs. The strain becomes even more noticeable during periods of stress and during training.

— Smoking affects bone tissue, because the chemicals contained in cigarettes interfere with the healthy formation of bone tissue and destroy existing ones . Over time, bones become more fragile, increasing the risk of injury during exercise.

— Smokers are usually less physically active than non-smokers.

— A whole series of studies in the mid-90s. showed that smokers are much more dependent on carbohydrates for energy during endurance exercise. One possible reason for this is a lack of oxygen, causing an anaerobic state. Since the body's reserves of carbohydrates are limited, smokers get tired faster during exercise.

Thus, by starting to exercise and monitor your diet with our program, you have probably chosen the safest and most painless way to quit smoking. This is the best period to get rid of a bad habit, as the results of training will become more effective, and the consequences of quitting nicotine will be under control.

Author: Elena Degtyar, PhD

Literature:

1. Conway, T.L., Cronan, T.A., 1992. Smoking, exercise, and physical fitness. Prev. Med. (Baltim). 21, 723–734. doi:10.1016/0091-7435(92)90079-W 2. Hoyt, G.L., 2013. Cigarette Smoking: Nicotine, Carbon Monoxide, and the Physiological Effects on Exercise Responses. Sport Sci. Rev. XXII, 5–24. doi:10.2478/ssr-2013-0001 3. Yang, M., Bhowmik, D., Wang, X., Abughosh, S., 2013. Does combination pharmacological intervention for smoking cessation prevent post-cessation weight gain? A systematic review. Addict. Behav. 38, 1865–75. 4. J. Audrain-McGovern, N. L. Benowitz Cigarette smoking, nicotine, and body weight Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, 90 (2011), pp. 164–168

How to lose weight quickly after quitting smoking. Tips on how to quit smoking and lose weight at the same time

Quitting smoking and losing weight at the same time is very difficult. Most smokers are afraid of gaining weight after quitting cigarettes. Therefore, many smokers are looking for a reason not to fight the bad habit. It is not always possible to meet a woman who claims that she quit smoking and lost weight, that it is easy to do. How are quitting smoking and losing weight related?

The effect of smoking on a person's weight

The basis of the dangerous substance in a cigarette is nicotine, which poisons the body. An excess of this substance is perceived by the immune system as a threat to human health. The body spends a lot of energy fighting nicotine and tobacco smoke. This results in the smoker having a stable weight.

Smoking prevents a person from gaining excess weight for the following reasons:

• removes calories from the body by binding them with resins from smoke;
• reduces appetite;
• poisons the body, inhibiting organs and systems;
• increases glucose levels, which leads to a feeling of fullness;
• accelerates metabolism, while most proteins, carbons, fats, vitamins and minerals do not have time to be absorbed.

In heavy smokers, the body is very clogged, which leads to disruption of certain body functions. Most smokers suffer from stomach ulcers, cardiovascular diseases, yellowing of teeth and skin, etc. Thinness is especially observed in smokers, whose professions are associated with constant stress. Such people smoke much more, sometimes forgetting about eating.

But about 40% of smokers gain weight when smoking for a long time. Nicotine disrupts normal metabolism. Some of the beneficial elements are excreted, but most of them, under the constant influence of nicotine, are converted into fat and deposited in the body. This process lasts for many years. You can see how a smoker becomes heavier over the years. After quitting smoking, it becomes even more difficult for such people, because the body requires nicotine replacement; it is best compensated by sweets.

How to quit smoking

In order to quit smoking and not gain weight, you must adhere to the following rules:

1. Prepare yourself psychologically. To do this, you shouldn’t zombify yourself by driving into your head the idea that I’m quitting smoking. You need to start getting rid of items that remind you of your addiction. You need to start from your workplace: throw away all lighters and ashtrays, do not keep a spare pack of cigarettes, and during smoking breaks try to move away from the smoking room. Try not to be near people who smoke. A few weeks before the marked date, it is recommended to engage in auto-training using various psychological techniques, you can use special audio and
2. No need to think about how to quit smoking. Many smokers are looking for different ways, trying to do it gradually, but this is the wrong step. You need to quit smoking abruptly. Set a day and quit this bad habit. However, when choosing a date, never set the beginning of the week, month or any other significant date, because you can always push it to the next month or week.
3. Eat right. It is recommended to eat small portions 5-6 times a day. The portion should be equal to the volume corresponding to the palms folded into a boat. It is forbidden to eat after 19 hours. For people who want to lose weight, immediately after quitting smoking, it is not recommended to eat sweets, flour products, chips, or drink sparkling water. It is very important to maintain proper nutrition for 1 month after quitting smoking. This is the most difficult period in which the body will require replacing nicotine with any food. In the first weeks after quitting smoking, you are tempted to chew something, but even fruits and nuts (as some advisers recommend) should not be consumed, because they contain a large amount of calories in the form of glucose. It is best to chew on a pen or pencil, although this is neither hygienic nor aesthetically pleasing. You can use regular matches or sugar-free chewing gum.
4. Get physically active. Morning exercises should become the norm of life. After lengthy research, scientists have proven that the best sport for those who quit smoking is swimming. It allows you to use all muscle groups, which leads to rapid loss of calories.
5. Praise yourself for every day you live without cigarettes - for this, develop a special reward system (buying a new thing, a movie ticket, etc.).
6. After each meal, brush your teeth with a special tape or toothpaste - the taste of menthol reduces the craving for smoking.
7. Sleep at least 7 hours a day. Lack of sleep impairs metabolism, which leads to obesity.

Smoking and metabolism. smoking and weight loss

—————————

Smoking and losing weight - how nicotine affects our weight

There are always rumors surrounding the relationship between smoking and excess weight. Many people are afraid to give up this bad habit because they are afraid of getting fat. Others, having read the popular Allen Carr, believe that smoking and excess weight are not related. Who to believe? What to do if you already smoke? First, let's look at how smoking affects our weight. In connection with excess weight, there are actually two factors involved - nicotine, as a chemical substance, is one factor, and the habit itself - as a psychological factor ., in which I talked about the most important concept in changing your appearance - metabolism or metabolic rate. Be sure to review it, but now I’ll just remind you that a high metabolic rate or, as they say, accelerated metabolism is the key to success in losing weight. So, I won’t lie and tell you straight - nicotine helps speed up your metabolic rate. This in no way means that you urgently need to start smoking in order to lose weight. Because there are ways to speed up the exchange even more, but without harm to your health and wallet. As I said - link to

The effect of nicotine on metabolism - smoking and weight loss from a metabolic point of view

So nicotine speeds up metabolism. This time. In addition, it promotes the production of adrenaline - this is one of the hormones with lipolytic ability, which promotes fat burning. Nicotine stimulates the intestines and esophagus, which also prevents weight gain. Contrary to the popular myth that cigarettes are calming, nicotine excites the central nervous system. Nicotine also dulls taste buds and reduces appetite. All this together contributes to the fact that the smoker gains less fat. So what happens when you quit smoking?

Will I gain weight when I quit smoking?

Nicotine is quite seriously integrated into the metabolic system and it will take time for you to wean yourself off it. First, the metabolism will slow down, appetite will increase, central nervous system excitation will decrease, and the pulse rate will slow down. All this contributes to weight gain and this is only the contribution of nicotine as a chemical substance. In addition, a person who quits smoking experiences stress. Most often, this stress is consumed with food, moreover, candy, chips, crackers - all this helps to increase daily caloric intake. In addition, taste buds that were previously muted by nicotine begin to work and the person receives more taste sensations, which makes him eat even more. All this together, I won’t lie, leads to weight gain if you quit smoking. Of course, if at the same time a person reduces his caloric intake and does not give in to the temptation to chew something, there is a chance that he will not gain weight, but in practice I have not seen this happen. Personally, by the time I quit, I was smoking 1.5 packs of Captain Black a day. I myself was very careful about my diet, but nevertheless, in six months I gained about 12 kg of fat. In one form or another, everyone I know who quit smoking also gained weight. So what should we do? Just a second and I'll tell you a loophole:

smoking and losing weight - in what order what to do

Now I’m talking about the mechanism of receptor adaptation. In short, I’m talking about the fact that the body gets used to everything and stops responding to stimuli. This will be our key to salvation. The fact is that the body will get used to the absence of nicotine as well as to its presence in the blood. This means that sooner or later you will stop gaining weight and begin to lose it, but using the right methods. Based on this, my recommendations will be as follows:—————————1. If you already smoke and are planning to lose weight, DO NOT quit smoking at this moment. Start by changing your diet, make it a habit and lose weight.2. Once you are convinced that losing weight with proper nutrition is not at all difficult, after you have become proficient in this, feel free to quit smoking. 3. Most likely, you will gain weight, but by this time you will already know how If you can handle this, you will know that the recruitment will be small and will stop soon. All this will guarantee that you will save your nerves from stress and not give up the new life you just started, I promise you this.

When weight returns to normal after quitting smoking. Why do people gain weight after quitting smoking?

In fact, this is not an entirely correctly formulated question. When a person quits smoking, this does not mean that he must gain weight. Some former smokers, on the contrary, note weight loss, while others do not see any changes at all. But certain changes in metabolism still occur, which is why they are accompanied by excess weight gain. By eliminating the causes, you can return your muscles to their former, healthy shape, maintain a slim stomach and improve your body’s health.

The mechanism for the onset of weight gain is explained by the following factors:

1. psychological
2. physiological

Moreover, if psychological dependence is noted in both cases, then there may not be physiological changes: it all depends on the individual characteristics of the person and the onset of the bad habit.

Psychological reason for weight gain

It is quite simple to explain the influence of the psychological aspect. Smoking takes up a lot of free time and energy. People spend from 5 to 7 minutes smoking one cigarette. If you calculate the total amount of time spent, you can see a fairly large amount.

When giving up a bad habit, a person looks for an alternative to smoking, both as an object and as a pastime. In this regard, you constantly want to eat and the craving for sweets, chewing gum and other harmful little things increases, the regular use of which leads to the fact that the stomach gradually grows.

Metabolic mechanism of weight gain

The changes in the body that occur after quitting smoking are much more difficult to explain. Most smokers note that nicotine dampens the feeling of hunger - just take 2-3 puffs and the desire to eat disappears.

In fact, when nicotine enters the body, it provokes spasms of the stomach sphincter. As a result of this, you want to eat less, but the need for food remains. The accumulated gastric juice irritates the gastric mucosa, which sooner or later will cause a peptic ulcer. If the damage to the walls of the stomach is minor, the body copes with the constant restoration of the organ, requiring more food. As a result, the smoker does not reduce the number of calories consumed, but distributes his diet more successfully.

The metabolic factor depends mainly on the rapid reduction of the toxic load on all human organs. The body, which was regularly exposed to the harmful effects of tobacco smoke, needed increased nutrition to compensate for the intoxication. After quitting smoking, the load on the body decreases, while the appetite remains the same. This becomes the main reason that you want to eat and, accordingly, your belly grows.

There is no need to worry about this; when the restructuring of the body is completed, the weight will return to normal.