People Who Quit Smoking Are Likely To Gain Weight As Those Who Continue the Habit

Smokers who quit smoking may gain more than twice as much weight over a five-year period as people who continue to smoke, says a new research. The researchers collected data from almost 65,000 smokers who quits the habit and 3,90,000 continuing smokers.

The study found that people who quit smoking gained an average of about 4 kilograms over five years while continuing smokers only put on 1.5 kilograms.

Dr Seana Gall from the Menzies Institute for Medical Research said, “The benefits of quitting smoking still far outweighed the impact of marginal weight gain. The amount of weight is quite small over a five-year period, its 2.5 kilograms. What we know from studies in other places is that this amount of weight gain does not offset the many health benefits of quitting smoking."

People considering quitting should see their GP if they were concerned. It was long believed that quitting smoking was associated with weight gain, but that the research showed the amount gained is negligible said Dr Gall.

"It is a little bit paradoxical that people would be worried about a small amount of weight gain when you’re looking at the very terrible outcomes of smoking itself. Recent studies from Australia have shown that two thirds of smokers will actually die due to their smoking," she said.

Smoking affects the way the body functions."Nicotine is the major component of cigarette smoke that has this effect. That has effects on the brain of suppressing the appetite and increasing metabolism. So when you stop smoking and the nicotine goes away those changes then revert back to normal. People’s metabolism appears to slow down and people may eat more."

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Source-Medindia