I posted this to another thread, but I'm really curious to see what others think, especially those who are trained in these things.
Other than what I've seen here I have no reason to think that this may be true, and I've done no research on it, but I'm going to toss it out anyway and see what happens.
I was told by both my doctor and trainer that we swell when we quit smoking. Nicotine causes stress and tension in the entire body: muscles, blood vessels, organs, everything. When the nicotine leaves, the body relaxes and as a result it gets larger. This is not necessarily weight gain, but size gain.
Along with this, I wonder if there is a sort of "boing" effect when we quit that causes a temporary weight gain no matter what we do. Part of the destressing is our metabolism drops causing our maintenance calorie consumption to also drop, but our eating (calorie intake) at least stays the same and usually goes up.
Further, I wonder if this metabolism drop actually overshoots some, actually going below whatever our non-smoking normal should be. This would put the maintenance calorie consumption below normal while our calorie intake is the same or higher. This equals weight gain.
So we start exercising as best we can, but it doesn't seem to do any good. This is because we are below normal right now and to exercise enough to make up for the deficit is more than most of us can handle.
Over time (a year, or so?), as our bodies adjust to being nicotine free our metabolism recovers, increasing a bit to normal. This increases our maintenance calorie consumption and that, plus our new found love of exercise and the decreased need to shove food into our mouths to compensate for the lack of cigs, all combine to start shedding the weight gained during the quit.
Like I said, I have no reason to think this idea has any merit other than it sounds good. But I do hope it will spark a few thoughts and maybe people who know more about fitness/nutrition/health can toss in their 2 or 3 cents.
Shevie
[B]My Milage:[/B]
[B]My Quit Date: [/B] 5/23/2005
[B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 264
[B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 5,281
[B]Amount Saved:[/B] $1003.2
[B]Life Gained:[/B]
[B]Days:[/B] 49 [B]Hrs:[/B] 5 [B]Mins:[/B] 31 [B]Seconds:[/B] 38
