Question for ValidRouge

[cranberry]

Congrats on your weight loss - you look super

I have a question with regards to smoking; when you quit, did you notice a change in your weight loss?

While I understand that many people gain or weight loss slows down, I believe that is due to eating more to replace smoking.... I have read a lot recently about smoking stimulating the adrenal glands which increases cortisol which of course contributes to belly fat. I wonder - and maybe you can answer this - if a person quit smoking and maintained their eating / excercise pattern, does it effect weight loss one way or another?

I am just curious as to your experience with kicking the habit

A big fat KUDOS to getting off the cigs!

[Laurenfra]

Re: Question for ValidRouge

Speaking of looking awesome girl.......................

[kylie]

Re: Question for ValidRouge

Speaking of looking awesome girl.......................

I second that!

[ValidRouge]

Re: Question for ValidRouge

Hi Cranberry! Thank you for the compliments, and as Laurenfra and Kylie have said, you look FANTASTIC yourself!!

DISCLAIMER: BEFORE ANYONE READS THIS, PLEASE LET ME TELL YOU THAT I WOULD DO IT OVER AGAIN JUST TO BE QUIT OF THE CIGARETTES. IT WAS ALL WORTH IT, 100%.

Yes, when I quit smoking I gained weight. I stayed on plan, but had BAD sugar cravings, and I mean bad. There are a couple articles on here about what happens chemically in your body when you smoke and when you quit smoking (and a *lot* of articles at www.whyquit.com) I can't recall the exact article or whether it was on this site, or the whyquit site...but it talked about how cigarettes themselves, when smoked, trigger the liver to release glucose into the blood stream. Then a resulting insulin response occurs. So, basically while I was initially on Atkins and still smoking, I was still getting a release of glucose and insulin because of the cigarettes. When I quit smoking, that stopped and, let me tell you, my sugar cravings came back with a VENGEANCE. I may have, during those times, overeaten my legal foods which caused a gain, but I worked REALLY hard to stay on plan. I also read on those sites, that the nicotine is a stimulant, so it 'revved' up my metabolism. When I quit smoking, my metabolism slowed as well. I even took up running the week after I quit smoking. I wanted to make sure that I didn't gain...but i did anyway.

Specifically, here is what happened, I quit smoking July 23, 2006
7/18/2006: 198.8
7/25/06 (no weighing--out of town)
8/1/06 202.2
8/8/06 202.8
8/15/06 203.2
8/22/06 203.4
8/29/06 201.8
09/05/06 204.6
9/12/06 200.4
9/19/06 out of town--did not weigh
9/25/06 195.6

Over that time, I put 1 to 1.5 inches back on around my abdomen. Those have since come back off as well.

Those cigarrettes did a lot of damage to my body in ways that I never realized, and it's probably going to take some time to get it all repaired. But, I can only look back and wish now that I had quit sooner.

Oh, I also read an article in a magazine just recently about women and their menstrual cycle. One of the points was to not try to quit smoking during the two weeks before your menses. If you are going to quit, wait until you are on your menses and just afterwards. That way you don't have whacked out hormonal things to add to the frustrations. I went back and looked, and I was on my menses when I quit....and I honestly didn't have problems with my quit other than the sugar cravings and those didn't get REALLY bad until the 3rd week or so.

[inhisgrip]

Re: Question for ValidRouge

Cranberry...Just had to say you look AMAZING!

Kudos to you for being smoke-free for half a year now Joy. You're awesome!

[Atkid]

Re: Question for ValidRouge

Speaking of looking awesome girl.......................

I totally agree, its like looking at mother and daughter shots! Great job Cran, good luck on quitting smoking!

[julirama723]

Re: Question for ValidRouge

Dang, cranberry, you look like a totally different person! You look FABULOUS!

[Lyssie]

Re: Question for ValidRouge

I had the sugar cravings too... but I didn't gain weight... I just stayed where I was...

[changing]

Re: Question for ValidRouge

Having quit smoking myself about 6 months before I went on Atkins (and binging and gaining another 50 lbs on top of what I already should have needed to lose), I just wanna say

WOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Gaining 4 to 6 lbs is a small price to pay for that level of improved health. Seriously, quitting smoking is such an accomplishment. I am so happy for you and so happy that you're still holding strong!!