Quit Smoking Advisory

This is perhaps one of the biggest fears and obstacles preventing smokers from deciding to quit. Is it a reason or an excuse? Regardless, it is a large fear.

But why should gaining weight be considered bad? It’s not just women smokers who are afraid of gaining weight but also men too. In this modern day and age, self image is very important to most people.

Which Is Worse? Smoking Or Being Overweight?

This is a difficult choice if you were forced to choose between them. Both smoking and being overweight increase the chances of premature death from cancer and heart disease. But at least there is less of a social stigma from being a smoker, the signs are apparently not so outwardly visible. A lot of smokers choose to contine smoking and to delay their quit attempts for fear of becoming overweight.

Why Do People Gain Weight When They Stop Smoking?

When most people stop smoking they feel a void in their life that was previously filled by cigarettes. Going straight back onto cigarettes is a way to feel “normal” again, and a lot of people “break” and this often happens. But some people have a lot of willpower and can resist starting to smoke again. The problem is that most people still feel this void and many will try to fill it in some other way.

The easiest thing to reach for is food. Eating food for comfort, eating junk food, eating more food that you need to maintain your weight - this can develop into another addiction, an addiction to food, and obesity can be the result of this.

How Can I Quit Smoking Without Gaining Weight? Is There A Way Out?

The problem with the way that most people stop smoking is that they use willpower to fight against the cravings. Even if they use patches, pills injections or anything else, these are only temporary measures to fight the symptoms, the cravings, which will come back after treatment is discontinued. The problem is in the cravings but the real solution is to stop them occuring in the first place.

If you get cravings, you are basically still an addict. When I stopped smoking (and I haven’t smoked cigarettes for 8 years now), I did it with no willpower because I had no cravings to deal with.

Is this really possible? Yes it is. I tried the patches and the willpower but I could not get rid of the cravings. In the end, I got really lucky. I stumbled across the secret to unlocking and conquering my addiction. By understanding my addiction - something that medical science still cannot claim to have done - I was able to leave it behind and quitting was actually very easy, like turning out the lights.

If you want to know more about how I went from over a pack a day to zero cigarettes for 8 years, click here.