Tobacco in all its forms
Tobacco can be consumed in many forms such as chewing tobacco, cigars, cigarillos, rolling tobacco, pipe tobacco and of course cigarettes. Cigarettes are the most common form of smoking in the world. All of these forms of tobacco are harmful and there is no safe level of tobacco exposure. Even the electronic cigarette, once considered harmless, is increasingly debated in terms of health.
Tobacco, a solution to lose weight?
But why does smoking make you lose weight? In fact, smoking accelerates the basic metabolism of the human body. Thus, the body burns calories faster and less fat is stored.
In addition, smoking makes you lose your appetite. Indeed, nicotine suppresses the appetite and forms a coating on the tongue which makes food less appetizing. Another reason that leads to loss of appetite is constriction (narrowing) of blood vessels due to smoke entering your body. As the blood vessels narrow due to the smoke, the functioning of your stomach is disrupted. Smoking also affects ghrelin, a digestive hormone that stimulates appetite.
An accelerated metabolism combined with a loss of appetite is a great combo for effortless weight loss. Indeed, we eat less and we eliminate the calories assimilated more easily.
Tobacco to lose weight, a very bad idea
However, we do not advise you to use tobacco for your weight loss because, as you know, it is very harmful to your health. Indeed, many diseases are related to smoking such as myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, heart failure and many others.
Regular smoking increases heart rate in the short term (up to 20 beats per minute) and throughout the day (average increase of seven beats per minute). This causes additional stress on the heart and plays a role in heart disease, the most common cause of smoking-related death.
Cigarette smoking is dangerous for your health: therefore, smoking is not the way to go if you want to lose weight. It is a method that makes you weak and not thin. In addition, by quitting smoking, you will go back to square one.
A disaster when you stop smoking
When you quit smoking, it is possible to confuse nicotine cravings with feeling hungry, or eating out of compensation. It is a completely natural thing because the brain seeks to replace the lack of nicotine.
Also, you may be replacing the “hand-to-mouth” action of the cigarette with a snack or nibbling. As you will have understood, when you stop smoking, you regain the pounds you had before you started smoking. On average, ex-smokers gain 5 kg in the year following quitting smoking.
When you quit smoking and your heart rate slows down, your metabolism also slows down. So you start to burn calories less quickly and increase fat storage. So even if you make the effort not to eat more, you still risk gaining weight by quitting smoking.
Changes in metabolism, associated with changes in diet, will therefore lead to weight gain after smoking cessation. Not only will you have regained all your pounds, but you will also have considerably altered your health.
In conclusion, smoking does indeed make you lose weight, it reduces your appetite and has an impact on the calories accumulated during the day. But, it should never be used as a weight loss diet if you care about staying healthy.