Smoking: It`s Health Hazard, Not Diet Aid

June 9, 1985|By Peter D. Vash, Special to the News/Sun-Sentinel

The relationship between cigarette smoking and weight gain has always been hazy.

Conventional wisdom says cigarette smokers usually weigh less than nonsmokers and that most smokers experience a rapid weight gain when they stop. Unfortunately, this potential is often used by smokers as an excuse for not stopping or for resuming cigarette smoking. However, there should be absolutely no mistake here: Cigarette smoking is more detrimental to your health than is the mild to moderate weight gain that generally occurs after you stop smoking.

Trading physical beauty -- as defined by our weight-obsessed society -- for physical health is a poor deal.

Recent medical research on weight gain and smoking shows some encouraging signs. One study found that a maximum weight gain of about nine pounds occurs approximately two weeks after you stop smoking. This figure dropped to a little over six pounds at the end of three weeks.

This study also found that the specific enzyme lipoprotein lipase, which regulates the growth of fat in the fat cells, is closely linked to the amount of fat you gain after you stop smoking. This weight gain isn`t related to prior body weight, fat cell size, number of cigarettes smoked per day or number of years of smoking. It is related to your level of lipoprotein lipase enzyme. The higher the level in your fat cells at the time you give up smoking, the greater the rate of weight gain during the first three weeks of abstinence.

Interestingly, the study speculates that smoking might increase the enzyme level to guard against a decrease in the smoker`s body weight. But it is not known what causes, maintains or regulates the level of lipoprotein lipase.

Another research study found that smokers have both a slight, short increase in their metabolic rate and reduced food intake. This study found that people who stop smoking experience a 4 percent drop in their resting metabolic rate and a 6.5 percent increase in their food intake. Smoking a single cigarette significantly increases your metabolic rate by 3 percent for 30 minutes, probably because nicotine stimulates the nervous system.

Smoking may affect food intake because it influences hunger and appetite by reducing stomach contractions and speeding up digestion.

These studies suggest that smoking may hold down your weight. But when you stop smoking, the weight gain that occurs is probably no more than if you didn`t smoke in the first place. If you slightly increase physical exercise and slightly reduce fat and sugar intake for three weeks after you stop smoking, then you probably won`t gain weight. In fact, you may well lose weight. Smoking is an expensive health hazard rather than a diet aid.

Sun Sentinel Articles