Combining Weight-Loss Programs and Smoking Cessation to Quit

One of the major reasons for not quitting smoking is the fear of gaining weight. Nicotine certainly has the effect of suppressing appetite, but quitting smoking and dieting at the same seems like impossibility. Most doctors would not recommend doing both at the same time. New research on the subject is suggesting something different. It seems that the combination of smoking cessation programs with weight-control programs might be a recipe for success.

At Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Bonnie Spring and her team of researchers did a pool on 10 random clinical trials, where 2,233 smokers (154 of them men) were divided in two groups. Some were enrolled only in smoking cessation programs, while others took part in both smoking cessation and weight control programs. Those who took part in combined programs had a 29% higher likeliness to stop smoking than those who were only in the smoking cessation program. In the period after the program ended, six to 14 months later, the statistical difference between the two groups was not all that different.

In short term, those in the combined program gained less weight, gaining 2.1 pounds less after three months than those taking part in only the smoking cessation program. Once again there was not much of a statistical difference after six months had passed.

The conclusion to this research is that enrolling in a weight-control program while attempting to quit smoking will mean that you will put on fewer pounds, and possibly have a greater chance of staying off cigarettes after three months. Quitting smoking is all a question of self-control, and both smoking cessation and weight-loss require a great amount of this.

[Via: boston.com]

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