But This Is Not a Good Reason to Smoke Cigarettes
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Anyone who’s considered lighting up knows smoking’s skinny-making reputation, and a new study of 80,000 people shows there’s truth to the claim. Researchers found that smokers weighed about 5 pounds less than people who had never smoked, according to new research in the International Journal of Epidemiology. The cause of that lighter weight, the researchers say, is tobacco.
Those findings are a direct contradiction to several observational studies that have linked smoking to just the opposite: higher body weight and BMI. But researchers at Copenhagen University Hospital wanted to look at the link genetically, in a way that wouldn’t be plagued by confounding lifestyle factors that often go along with smoking. They took weight and BMI measurements of 80,342 people, along with blood samples that they analyzed for DNA.
They looked at a genetic variant associated with higher tobacco consumption, close to a gene called CHRNA3—”the smoking craving gene,” says study author Børge G. Nordestgaard, MD, professor at the University of Copenhagen in the department of clinical biochemistry. Smokers with this genotype weighed almost three pounds less than smokers who didn’t inherit this genetic variant. But in people who had never smoked or formerly smoked, there was no link between CHRNA3 and a lower body weight.
“That’s really the proof that smoking causes it,” Nordestgaard says.
That doesn’t mean that smoking will give you a better figure. In the study, smoking only affected total body weight, not body shape or fat distribution.
The weight loss effect may be due to a laundry list of chemicals in cigarettes, the authors say—some studies have found nicotine to suppress appetite and increase resting metabolic rate. “There’s a possibility that many of these chemicals may influence weight in some pathway we don’t know about yet,” Nordestgaard says.
That’s obviously no reason to start—or continue—smoking, the researchers caution. “From what we know so far, the hazards of smoking much overweigh the slight benefit of having a lower body weight,” Nordestgaard says. “But when smokers tell you they won’t stop smoking because they’re afraid of gaining weight, I think it’s important to know that this is real—so we can try at the same time to help them quit smoking and keep a lower body weight.”
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Why We Do Not Recommend It
If you are a regular smoker or have a friend who’s a chain smoker, you may have noticed a change in your or their weight. Do not gloat already if you have lost some weight in the process. Losing weight through smoking is the most horrible idea and should not be endorsed at any cost. There are various reasons as to why this ‘weight loss’ is actually a bad sign for your body.
1. ACCUMULATED ACTION: Even if you smoke only one cigarette every day or perhaps two in a day, there is bound to be an accumulated action which may lead to a loss in weight. If along with this weight loss, you have also been feeling tired lately, this means that your body is getting worn out and your health is deteriorating by the minute.
2. NICOTINE: Since cigarettes contain nicotine, a chemical compound found in tobacco, cigarettes become addictive. Once you are in the habit of having at least one cigarette in a day, your appetite starts becoming less. This is because nicotine suppresses your appetite and forms a layer on your tongue which makes food look unappetizing to you.
3. LOSS OF APPETITE: This loss of appetite means that you stop having proper meals. Therefore, cigarette addicts often prefer having a cigarette than having food. This may make you lose weight but this actually means that your body starts becoming calorie and nutrient deficient.
4. LOSING YOUR HEALTH: Another reason which leads to weight loss is due to constriction of blood vessels due to smoke entering your body. Since the blood vessels narrow down due to this addition of smoke, the functioning of your stomach starts getting disturbed. This is why you stop feeling hungry more often. Hence, you are losing weight but also losing your body at the same time.
Therefore, CIGARETTE SMOKING IS INJURIOUS TO HEALTH: Therefore, smoking is not the way to go about if you wish to lose weight. This is a method that makes you weak and not thin, which has healthy connotations. Smoking only means diseases and permanent health issues in the future. Weight loss should be a sustainable process after which your skin is firm, it has a glow to it and your health parameters are in check.
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