quitting smoking and weight gain

[Niamh20]

hi ya, im 20 and have smoked for 4 years, im quitting smoking tomorrow for lent... for ever really. and my question is does anyone know any vitamins to help me in not gaining weight? my sister gave up and is still a non smoker but gained so much weight. i would like to keep my wieght down. i know some vitamins boost metabolism, does anyone now which ones?

[lizamom]

Hey Niamh!

While you were smoking your metabolic system encounter opposition to the natural way to use all the nutrients in your diet therefore  your system fought back the toxins and drugs in the cigarrets already stored in you body and in some cases short of the necessary enzymes in order to metabolize your food consumption.

Once you stop smoking your brains and the whole system thinks the war was won and stop producing the enzymes which are needed it in order to keep your body doing what's supposed to be natural.
This is one part of ganing weight, the other is when you stop smoking,a lot of people substitute food for the cigarretes and do not notice how much they are eating.

Third one it could be the combination of both.

Doctor You know who says, throught his sec. Rita, take an enzyme suplemets before each meal, like papaya enzyme or any other you may like and easy to get through a healthy store supplemets.

Eat less than your regular meal but do it more frequents in small portions exercise a lot more, walk in a brisk pace for 20 to 30 minutes, dance quick tempo, jump rope, or arobic, and drink a lot of water one glass before each meal and after your meal and when you are hungry after eating your small portion then drink water.

Your meal supposed to be more protein than carbohydrates, have your fruts early, eat healthy!
Courtesy of (doctor you know who) @ sec. Rita.


lizamom

[live4fitness]

Actually there are receptors for nicotine in the brain. When smoke is inhaled, nicotine attaches to these receptors. This sends a message to a different part of the brain to release a chemical called dopamine. Dopamine gives a feeling of pleasure. But it only lasts for a short time. So your body wants to repeat this feeling and that is why you keep smoking. And if you quit you get moody because of these recepters not getting the nicotine. Smoking is also a habit the whole hand to mouth thing. Find something to do with your hands and as far as helping you not get moody there are some great drugs out there your dr can prescribe that can help. I wish you the best. I have heard it is harder to quit smoking than to quit harawin (sp) do to the "habit" part of it.

[live4fitness]

dance quick tempo hmmmmmm, solo?

[DaBrat45]

The fact of the matter is that smoking actually increases your metabolism with each cigarette smoked. It causes an increase in the heart rate which is what leads to heart disease in smokers. If you are a pack a day smoker you are burning up the equivalent of 200 calories per day simply by smoking. Not at all a healthy way to do it.

Basically, when the smoker stops smoking their metabolism slows down to what it would be were they a non smoker and sometimes below that for a short period. What I recommend is an exercise program to burn off the extra calories that you would otherwise burn by smoking. Not only does this improve your overall health, it will also speed up your recovery from cigarettes. Exercise also releases Dopamine which gives us the high of smoking.

As other posters have said, make sure you have something to do with your hands.. chew on toothpicks, suck on ice cubes, drink lots of water to flush the nicotine from your system. The worst part is that after smoking food begins to taste so much better than you remember and its hard to be disciplined even with our regular meals. Prepare meals on a smaller plate and drink a glass of water before eating.. wait 15 mins so that your brain gets the signal that you're full.

With a little discipline you can beat it. It can take the metabolism 6 mos to finally kick back into normal gear. If you start an intense exercise program, don't be discouraged by an initial weight gain. I recently found that rehydrating yourself along with an intense exercise program for someone who was previously sedentary can cause a shocking initial weight gain as muscles store water and glucogen in preparation for additinal exercise and in order to repair themselves.  I was advised to give it 6 months.