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Share your quitting journey

Weight Gain & Quitting Smoking

JonesCarpeDiem
Member
0 17 49
‎10-24-2014 08:42 AM

Many people tend to put on some weight when they quit smoking.

There are two reasons for this.

1. Nicotine actually speeds up our metabolism. So, you need to eat 100-200 less calories a day or exercise more.

2. Nicotine causes a dopamine release as does food so you are trying to replace the dopamine feel good feeling with food..

Recent Studies Say:

  

Looking at pictures of food releases as much dopamine as actually eating the food.

  

Thinking of the food before you eat it is when the dopamine is actually released, not after you've eaten it.

  

Put this realization into practice and there is no need to be so concerned.
Look at pictures of foods you think you are craving and instead of eating them, munch on some cardboard. (I'm kidding about the cardboard)

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About the Author
Hello, My name is Dale. I was quit 18 months before joining this site and had participated on another site during that time. I learned a lot there and brought it with me. I joined this site the first week of August 2008. I didn't pressure myself to quit. HOW I QUIT I didn't count, I didn't deny myself to get started. When I considered quitting (at a friends request to influence his brother to quit), I simply told myself to wait a little longer. No denial, nothing painful. After 4 weeks I was down to 5 cigarettes from a pack a day. The strength came from proving to myself, I didn't need to smoke because I normally would have smoked. Simple yes? I bought the patch. I forgot to put one on on the 4th day. I needed it the next day but the following week I forgot two days in a row I put one in my wallet with a promise to myself that I would slap it on and wait an hour rather than smoke. It rode in my wallet my first year.There's nothing keeping any of you from doing this. It doesn't cost a dime. This is about unlearning something you've done for a long time. The nicotine isn't the hard part. Disconnecting from the psychological pull, the memories and connected emotions is. :-) Time is the healer.