Smoking is a difficult habit to quit, but when you do it, the health benefits are almost immediate. Your heart rate drops to normal levels in 20 minutes, your lung function improves in a few weeks, and your risk of heart disease drops in half in a year. But as your body repairs the damage smoking has done, it also adapts to life without nicotine. The stimulant suppressed your appetite, reduced your ability to smell, affected your taste, increased your metabolism and kept you up at night if you smoked in the evening. Once it's out of your system, you can feel hungry more often, slow down your metabolism, food tastes and smells more appealing, and you can sleep better.
These changes in your body can lead to modest weight gain – usually no more than 5 pounds. This small and manageable amount does not increase your risk of death, but smoking does. So if you're reinventing yourself as a non-smoker, these three easy ways can help you avoid weight gain and keep you distracted while getting rid of that smoking habit. And in the long run, doing these things will help you live a healthier life.
Move more
Focus on exercise before eating, as most people who smoke did not exercise because it was difficult to get enough oxygen. Start with a new chapter, start with something positive, like getting active.
You don't have to go to the gym especially, use that former smoke break to go out for a walk or take the stairs instead of the elevator. Some people even start running because they can move and breathe better. The increased activity will help you burn more calories and boost your slowing metabolism.
Eat better
Nicotine suppresses appetite, which is one of the reasons people gain weight when they stop smoking – their hunger increases. But it also happens that ex-smokers lose weight because better breathing has made their taste buds more attuned to each other and therefore they do not eat so many salty and sweet foods.
Try some new foods you didn't like - they can now taste different and you can get to know them as they are. Now use that money you spent on cigarettes to buy healthier food. And use your new free time for meal planning and cooking, so you don't live on high-calorie fast food.
If you are used to having something in your mouth, try drinking water from a straw or chewing gum. Eating fruits and vegetables that require a lot of chewing can also help.
Go to sleep It is important for both smokers and non-smokers that you get enough sleep every night. Nicotine is a stimulant, and if you smoke later in the day, it likely affected your sleep in the same way that people ingest caffeine.
Sleep is important in preventing weight gain. It is known that people who get enough sleep generally have balanced hunger hormones so that they are less hungry during the day. Try to sleep seven to nine hours every night.
