Smoking can help lose weight?

 

Experts says it is a myth that smoking can help you lose weight or stay trim.

“At lower smoking rates, there is some evidence of appetite suppression from nicotine and increased metabolic rate. Hence why patients may/do gain weight when they stop smoking (due to increased appetite and lower metabolism),” Dr. Tyler Kjorvestad, a specialist in internal medicine and psychiatry at the University of Kansas Health Systems, said.

 “It isn’t that smoking makes you thin, it’s that when smokers try to quit, they sometimes gain weight. When people stop their addiction, they often find that they have more food cravings and it also is an oral activity and so people who are used to having their mouth busy often replace the cigarette or others tobacco behavior with food behavior,” Dr. Kjorvestad added.

Moreover, researchers said that smoking may in fact increase belly fat and cause visceral fat, an unhealthy fat that is located deep within the abdomen and is associated an increased risk of stroke, heart disease, diabetes and dementia. And smoking can also cause chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema, and chronic bronchitis, among other health problems.

In addition, smoking can speed up the aging process as well as increase the risk of cancer. This is because smoking causes damage to chromosomes in white blood cells that can cause premature aging.

Dr. William Dale, the director of the Center for Cancer and Aging at City of Hope said that smoking is known to shorten lifespan by an average of about 10 years. He added that aging is an independent risk factor for cancer.