Chapter 14

WORRIED ABOUT YOUR WEIGHT?

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Conflicting Evidence • Hunger Vs Nicotine Withdrawal • Why Some Smokers Lose Weight • Blinded By Science • Achieving Your Ideal Weight • The Final Proof

You may be aware of the theory that smoking helps to keep your weight down, and worrying that you will gain weight if you quit. As I’ve mentioned previously, there is no need to worry at all. The effect of smoking on weight is a myth. Easyway will show you how to quit without putting on any weight at all. I want to take a few moments to recap and elaborate on this important issue further.

CONFLICTING EVIDENCE

The myth that smoking keeps you thin is based on the evidence of people who try to quit with the willpower method and find themselves putting on weight. Naturally, they assume that the cigarettes were keeping them thin. There are plenty of people like this, and remember, smokers who quit with the willpower method love to let everyone know all about their struggle.

We hear a lot less from those who quit without any problem. There are enough examples of people who lose weight after

quitting to cast considerable doubt on any theory that smoking keeps you thin. There are also plenty of overweight smokers who’ll be scratching their head at this theory.

I used to joke, ‘I’m not overweight, I’m just six inches shorter than I should be.’

During my years as a heavy smoker, I was a heavy man too, a constant 30 pounds overweight.

Smoking did not make me thin, yet whenever I tried to quit I somehow gained more weight… with one notable exception. When I stopped smoking for good, it went the other way: I lost 30 pounds within six months of smoking my final cigarette.

So what are we supposed to believe? Does smoking make you put on weight or does it keep your weight down? Let’s unravel the myth and see the true picture.

I stopped with an Allen Carr’s Easyway to Stop Smoking Seminar. I wanted to feel free, not be a slave to nicotine which does not give you any pleasure.

Gianluca Vialli

HUNGER VS NICOTINE WITHDRAWAL

At the end of the last chapter I mentioned that the empty, insecure feeling of nicotine withdrawing from the body feels the same as hunger. It’s a feeling that’s so slight that it rarely captures your attention, but it does trigger automatic responses. With hunger, your body is asking you to respond by feeding it with food; with nicotine withdrawal, the Little Monster is demanding you feed it with nicotine.

The feelings are the same; their sources are very different. One is a natural survival instinct; the other is drug addiction. And most

importantly, you can’t satisfy the cravings by substituting nicotine for food or vice versa.

Smoking will not satisfy hunger. Food will not stop the nicotine cravings

If your car is overheating, it could be because the engine is low on oil or because the cooling system is low on water. If you top up the oil with water or top up the coolant with oil, you won’t fix the problem. In fact, you’ll destroy the machine!

People who try to quit with the willpower method try to satisfy the craving, or take their mind off it, by treating it as if it were hunger.

They replace cigarettes with junk food. Chewing gum and sweets are the common choice. Of course, they don’t even satisfy hunger, let alone nicotine craving. So they move on to more substantial foods in their efforts to satisfy what feels like a permanent hunger.

The willpower method perpetuates the myth that you’re making a sacrifice, so when you quit with willpower your body and brain are always expecting little rewards. If you regard cakes, biscuits and chocolate bars as rewards, or consume burgers, chips and other junk foods, you will eat to excess to overcome the feeling of deprivation.

This is why people who quit with the willpower method put on weight. But because of the myth that smoking keeps your weight down, you assume the weight gain is due to ‘giving up’ cigarettes.

When you quit with Easyway, you don’t feel like you’re ‘giving up’ anything; only making wonderful gains. There’s no psychological need for extra rewards

.

WHY SOME SMOKERS LOSE WEIGHT

The confusion between hunger and nicotine craving also explains why some smokers do get thinner. Instead of eating when hungry, they smoke. First thing in the morning, when you wake up, both smokers and non-smokers instinctively relieve a number of needs. We relieve our bladders, we relieve our thirst and non-smokers also relieve their hunger. Smokers, however, are more likely to light a cigarette.

As the hunger intensifies, the smoker continues to confuse the need with their craving for nicotine, so they smoke more. Most smokers, however, have the opposite problem. They eat when they feel the craving for nicotine. Of course, eating doesn’t satisfy the Little Monster. Neither does smoking – not fully. Because of your tolerance to the poison, you go through life with what feels like a permanent hunger. The tendency is to try to satisfy this feeling by eating as well as smoking.

When opportunities to smoke are restricted – as they are increasingly these days – smokers will eat instead. This isn’t a conscious choice; they are instinctively responding to a sensation that feels just like hunger. If they could smoke they would, but without being able to smoke they reach for the next available option.

If smoking actually helped you to keep your weight down, you would expect most heavy smokers to be slim. In fact, most heavy smokers are overweight.

WHAT IS HUNGER?

Hunger is a crucial and ingenious part of your body’s survival toolkit that we talked about earlier. It works rather like the fuel gauge on your car. When your body is running low on the vital nutrients it

needs, it sends a signal to your brain that feels like an emptiness in your stomach, and your brain responds by looking for things to eat.

When your car’s fuel gauge approaches empty, what do you do? Drive to the nearest lake or river and fill up with water? Drive to a building supply company and fill up with sand? Of course not! You stop at the next petrol station and fill up with the right type of fuel.

Your body is just as specific about the fuel it needs. When it signals hunger, it’s not asking for any old garbage to be forced into your digestive system; it’s asking for specific vitamins, minerals, fibre, protein, carbohydrate and so on, which your body needs to stay healthy and strong. Respond to hunger by filling up with junk food and you won’t satisfy that need; therefore, you will not satisfy your hunger, and so you will keep eating and put on weight.

You can read more about hunger and how to be your ideal weight without dieting or feeling deprived in Allen Carr’s The Easy Way to Lose Weight or Allen Carr’s Good Sugar Bad Sugar.

BLINDED BY SCIENCE

Like most of the smoking myths, the one about smoking keeping you thin is reinforced by certain so-called experts, who have added a couple of scientific twists to the theory. One is that smoking speeds up your metabolism, meaning that you burn off fat faster.

If this was the case, how do they explain why most heavy smokers are overweight and why smokers who quit with Easyway tend to lose weight after they stop smoking? Surely if their metabolism slowed down significantly, they would put on weight.

Another theory is that smoking is an appetite suppressant. In other words, it reduces your desire for food. This theory is based on three facts

1. Many smokers who quit eat more and put on weight. This is because when smokers quit with the willpower method they feel deprived and try to substitute for cigarettes by eating and drinking more.

2. Smoking reduces the pangs. This is the only reason anyone smokes – to relieve the pangs of withdrawal from nicotine. But smoking only relieves nicotine withdrawal, and that only partially. The confusion between nicotine craving and hunger fools smokers into thinking they’re hungry when they’re craving nicotine and if they smoke in that moment, the partial relief of the nicotine craving fools them into thinking the cigarette has relieved their hunger.

3. Hunger pangs come and go. Non-smokers know they don’t have to eat every time they feel a hunger pang. It’s a very mild sensation and it will subside after a short time if they ignore it. However, if a smoker feels a hunger pang and lights up, they credit the cigarette when the pang subsides. In fact, the pang would have subsided anyway. They have no idea that this is what happens to non-smokers.

You can always find a so-called expert coming up with complicated theories when the truth is staring us all in the face.

You will put on weight when you stop smoking if you start substituting food for nicotine

But when you use Easyway, that doesn’t happen. When you quit, the Little Monster will continue to cry out for its fix for a few

days. The feeling is so slight as to be almost imperceptible, but if you think you’re making a sacrifice it will make you feel deprived and miserable. With Easyway, you smoke your final cigarette knowing you’re not sacrificing anything. On the contrary, you’re making terrific gains. So you can rejoice in the death throes of the Little Monster without feeling any need for substitutes. Find that hard to believe? Just you wait and see.

ACHIEVING YOUR IDEAL WEIGHT

There are two factors that determine whether you lose or gain weight. One is diet; the other is exercise. If you take in more fuel than you burn off, you will gain weight. Burn off more than you take in, and you will lose weight.

There are factors that influence the amount you consume and the amount you burn, and smoking is one of them. The confusion between hunger and nicotine craving makes some smokers eat more and others eat less. The health impact of smoking makes all smokers less fit to take exercise.

One of the fabulous gains you can look forward to is feeling more energetic and healthy. Smokers tend to shy away from physical exercise because they find even the simplest of tasks can leave them out of breath. Self-consciousness and lack of confidence also deter them from an exercise environment. They retreat into the security of the prison and try to comfort themselves by smoking more. This is another reason why many smokers are overweight.

A key instruction with Easyway is not to alter your lifestyle just because you stop smoking. I will explain why later. But when you quit, you may well feel more inclined to take regular exercise because you have the energy and confidence for it. Exercise gets the adrenaline flowing and makes you feel great. It’s the best stimulant there is – a genuine high

!

If you’re out of condition, start slowly and don’t push yourself too hard. There’s no need. You have the rest of your life!

Once you’ve solved your smoking problem, you’ll have so much more confidence and energy that you’ll be far better equipped to solve other problems, such as being overweight.

If you’ve been relying on smoking to keep your weight down, you can abandon that policy now. Any success you’ve had in keeping your weight down is in spite of smoking, not because of it. Believe that smoking gives you any kind of benefit and you’re more likely to put on weight, either by remaining a smoker and feeling confused or by quitting and feeling deprived, so that you eat and drink more as a substitute for smoking. Don’t let your belief be a white chalk circle that prevents you from walking to freedom.

THE FINAL PROOF

If you’re still not convinced that the so-called experts have gotten it wrong, ask yourself this: Why is there no such thing as the Diet Cigarette? Imagine if Big Tobacco had conclusive proof that cigarettes kept your weight down; don’t you think they would shout about it from the rooftops and bring out a brand specifically aimed at dieters? So, why haven’t they? Quite simply because

Smoking does not help you lose weight or control it

If it did, the manufacturers would say so. No one could stop them. Instead they use celebrity promotions and product placement to imply it! It’s phoney! Don’t swallow their lies anymore.