Many people experience weight gain after quitting smoking, I’m not really sure why. I get that nicotine is an appetite suppressant so people may tend to over eat after quitting but does the weight gain have any other metabolic causes? Will a smoker gain weight if they quit and still maintain the same calorie intake as before?
In: Biology
As has been mentioned, often the weight gain is tied to
* nicotine being an appetite suppressant
* people who are used to reaching for a smoke, reaching for a snack is a very quick, easy replacement habit
But there’s some [interesting data](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16129730/) saying there’s more going on. For example, smoking changes the distribution of fat to the less healthy, typically male ‘apple’ pattern in both men and women. What this means is that women who smoke tend to put on more fat around their waist compared to women who do not smoke where the weight tends to go to hips.
So there is some mechanism that, while not completely understood, can be measured to show that smoking changes how the body manages fat storage. So it makes some sense that quitting smoking would also have some affect on how the body manages fat, causing weight gain.
It’s often a couple of things. One, the smoking habit is just that – more of a habit than an addiction (but it is definitely an addiction). So, when people quit, they need another habit to distract from the smoking habit. For a lot of people that habit becomes snacking. It doesn’t help, either, that nicotine suppresses appetite and increases metabolism, and also serves as a behavioral alternative to eating or a distraction from hunger or food craving.
And, from personal experience, when I quit smoking I could act8ually taste my food again, and I had extra spending money to buy the newfound yumminess. So, when I quit smoking cigarettes I started eating for pleasure which turned into weight gain.
If you’re an average dude and the only change in your life is that you quit smoking and replace it with eating 2 pop tarts a day, you’ll gain about 35 pounds in a year.
Seems a small change, but over time it adds up.
A lot of the “addiction” to cigarettes is more routine than a chemical addiction the chemicals wear off fairly rapidly, but there is a physical need to be doing something with the hands etc. so often people eat sweets, biscuits etc. where they would normally be smoking.
I know you’re seeking different answers, but the appetite suppression is a bigger deal than you may think.
I was in a realllllllly low spot at one point in my life, and too proud to get any help. It was legitimately easier/cheaper to deal with hunger pains by smoking than anything else. I looked at a pack of cigarettes as a pack of 5-10 meal replacements.
So it can be pretty significant all on its own
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