Im not an expert but as far as i know smoking actually keeps you skinny, reduces your weight...
I have read about how it happens, what goes on in the body for smoking to have this effect, but i do not remember the explanation exactly, something to do with metabolism working faster and stuff, but i dont remember so i wont go into that...

So lets say you eat 5 times a day a certain amount of food, and you smoke you will be for example's sake 80 kilos...

And then you stop smoking but you keep eating exactly like you have been eating up to that point.

You will gain weight, thats it...

And as far as personal experience goes, im skinny, but smoking since ive been 13 up untill now 22 does keep me skinnier then i would be otherwise, im sure that if i stop smoking id gain weight, even if i dont change my eating habits at all...

But this is just me and i could be wrong, good day to all

Many people gain around 10 pounds when they quit smoking, and the majority of them, like myself, are aware of it and exercise to remove it.

Ballooning up to more than twice your weight, to the point where you can't walk anymore without pain is not normal...there's more issues to be addressed aside from the smoking or overeating there.

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NatMedTalk and Beyond
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Thats right...

there is a reason and explanation in post No 12 on nicotenes affect on weight

Yea...my brain and remembering things sometimes...it didnt always used to be like this but then again i used to be healthy once upon a time...

And the fact that English is my third language also makes it harder sometimes, i just googled the meaning of backlash (i knew it was something to that effect) and thyroid (i knew it was a body part), now i know exactly whats what, so now its clearer...

I usually do look up the meaning of words i dont know but sometimes im just lazy or tired...

Unless what im reading about is critical for me...

Kind2creatures
No offence, Kind2, but we tend to be a bit glib in our remarks � I�m no different � and sometimes we shoot from the hip, without really thinking out our responses.
It�s all well and good to say my sister just replaced one crutch for another, and it is absolutely TRUE�but the problem, Kind2 is that you imply that we can do without crutches. We can�t. We ALL have crutches of one kind or another�the only difference is that some crutches are less harmful than others.
I don�t smoke, I don�t drink, I don�t do ANY kind of drugs, pharmaceutical or otherwise, but�do I have crutches? You�d better believe it!

Truestory
Your �story� is certainly logical, truestory. Someone said it has something to do with the thyroid becoming less active. I don�t understand it myself. And I think, other things being equal, you are probably right. If you eat the same amount after you quit, you will probably get fat. But�I don�t think other things are equal.
I think the problem is HOW we give up smoking. If we use willpower, or FORCE, to give it up, the body may react, see it as a threat to survival and go into hibernation mode � which means it will start to store fat in preparation for hibernation.
HOWEVER�
If we give up smoking NATURALLY, rather than have a bunch of anti-smoking wowsers foist it on us�if we do it naturally, without force, without stress, then I don�t think the body will react and I don�t think it will go into �fat mode�.
I think the issue really is not the quitting, but HOW we quit. I don�t believe in quitting at all costs because sometimes the �costs� can be unacceptably high. But I have no issue with quitting easily, naturally and without stress.

We have �kind2creatures� sharing his views. I�d just like to agree with him. We should be �kind to creatures� and the creature we should be most kind to is ourselves. Forcing ourselves to quit, hating ourselves if we don�t, always at war with ourselves for not being able to quit, etc, etc, is NOT being kind to ourselves!

Sorry. That did not sound quite right to me. Not very good logic. We should be at war with ourselves, where drug dependency is present, including nicotine. We are unkind with ourselves, while we are doing self damage. Even over eating is unkind. It is difficult to maintain discipline in our lives all the time. It is so easy to indulge. Many people cannot handle or understand the consequences, or choose to ignore them. Are they being too kind to themselves? I see so many parents "being too kind" to their children. Unfortunately, it is the child that pays the consequence. You are just making excuses, not reasons.

__________________
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- Jim
"The most powerful force ever known on this planet is human cooperation � a force for construction and destruction.� (Jonathan Haidt)

No offense taken whatsoever lazi. Your defensive 'glib' comment is understandable, considering you're a non-smoker who titles their thread with "I love smoking"...just a tad insincere on your end, no?

When a crutch is just another possibly life/health threatening habit, it's a different story. It's not like saying that you quit smoking, and are now addicted to sugarless gum.

We're all living creatures on this earth, and we should be kind to ourselves. We should voluntarily quit doing the things that abuse or harm our bodies or minds. I agree, we should be a peace with ourselves, not war. It's not always an easy thing to do, that's where support from others plays a role.

Trying to force a family member or loved one into quitting a destructive habit is something I have never done, but enabling them by making believe it's okay and giving them working excuses is not the way to show your love.

I think most of us agree that smoking (or obesity) may not kill certain individuals, but neither is a healthy habit. I know a woman who smoked and gave birth to a child with asthma. Might have been a coincidence, but she or others in the family never had asthma. I find it odd that you're so disturbed about anti-smoking promotions.

truestorytotell,

You say "The tobacco i use is 100% leaf tobacco produced without additives..."

Additives are not the problem. Regardless of the type of tobacco you smoke, you're still inhaling a hundreds of chemicals with every puff. The most carcinogenic are:

Benzene = A known carcinogen associated with leukemia.

Formaldehyde = The key ingredient in embalming fluid

Ammonia = Ingredient in heavy duty cleaning agents and often found in dry cleaning fluids.

Acetone = nail polish remover

Tars = Particulate matter drawn into lungs when you inhale smoke. Once inhaled, about 70 per cent of the tar in the smoke is deposited in the smoker's lungs. Ever seen the color of a smoker's lungs? I have - during an autopsy.

Nicotine = A powerful addictive drug, also used in insecticides

Carbon Monoxide = The main gas in cigarette smoke, AND car exhaust fumes. An odorless, tasteless and poisonous gas.

Arsenic = rat poison

Hydrogen Cyanide = gas chamber poisonous gas

I’m sure you have heard at least part of this before…Probably falling on deaf ears.

hm people like to use this argument, nowadays i just nod and let them be...

Listen here, i started smoking when i was 13 years old, brands like lucky strike, marlboro etc, so pre-rolled ready cigarettes you buy by the pack, and i smoked that up untill a year ago, and i mean i ended up smoking 2+ packs a day since i was 16or17 years old, now im 22..

Then i switched to the organic kind without additives and unbleached and unchlorinated papers...

But the fact i stay quiet and nod does not mean it doesnt piss me off and annoy me to hear such stupid comments!!!

I know its still an unhealthy habit, i know its still damaging to my body, but now comparing to a year ago and almost for a whole decade before i was inhaling hundreds of more chemicals on a daily basis then i am now, so now its a less unhealthy old addiction, end of story...

The pre-rolled cigarettes have a chemical to help the cigarette burn, you know how hand made cigarettes turn off all the time when left in an ashtray, and the pre rolled just keep burning and burning and the ashtray ends up smoking more then you do, well thats a chemical added on the paper to help it burn, so at the end of the day more cigarettes are smoked/wasted/bought=more money for the tobacco companies..thats One of the MANY chemicals i do not inhale anymore...And the E.U has implemented a law to ban this particular chemical from being used in pre-rolled cigarettes a year or so ago, because there were some 17.000 fires a year throughout europe attributed to cigarettes thrown away that kept burning and eventually caused a fire...

Go tell what you told me to children to scare them off, you upset me Chinook, to be honest...

Additives ARE the aggrivator to the problem, making a smaller problem into a much much bigger one as far as tobacco is concerned... As far as food is concerned THEY ARE THE ONLY PROBLEM, so you are false, ADDITIVES ARE A PROBLEM, the kind of additives used in 21st century earth for human consumption...

And i understand the psychology of a smoker telling me that what i smoke is not really healthier then what he smokes, i do understand that, but thats bullshit because every cigarette that guy/girl smokes puts into him tens or hundreds of chemicals more then what my cigarretes put in me, so my unhealthy habit is less unhealthy then their unhealthy habit...

and trying to make yourself feel better about yourself smoking by spitting on how i do it, well grow up...

Its a fact my tobacco dont have many chemicals your cigarettes have and its a fact my papers dont have many chemicals your papers have, so its a fact there is less damaging chemicals entering my lungs so its a fact that my way is healthier (or less unhealthy) then yours...

Not anyone in particular, im talking in general...

And i dont really care what unhealthy chemicals cigarettes contain, its like eating something that dont taste nice but still eating it because you know its healthy for you, and eating something unhealthy while knowing its unhealthy, you feel a certain guild or disqust eating the unhealthy thing, but you do because you love it, its a crutch,an addiction whatever..
So while i do smoke, i certainly dont want to know All the damaging chemicals in my cigarette, do you really think i wanna have a cigarette after 8 or more hours of working and think to myself for a split second oh im inhaling rat poison and im inhaling benzene of leukemia oh oh blah bleh, hell no...

If its unhealthy, i cut it out, and when i do there's no problem finding out all about it to be able to help someone else if i choose to and if they are willing to listen, but cigarettes are a unique story...

Jfh
Jfh says we should be at war with ourselves�I think that says more about jfh than it does about smoking!

Kind2creatures
I can only go by what you say, Kind2. You criticized �exchanging one crutch like smoking for another crutch.�. Now you appear to be saying that some crutches are OK. And you try to make it sound OK but using the insipid example of �sugarless gum�. Why don�t we just say things the way they are. We are ALL addicted to something or another and it is not usually �sugarless gum�.

Chinook replies to truestorytotell
That is scare tactics, Chinook. Naming all those �poisons� in cigarettes is just scare tactics. Just as a point of comparison, what�s the best way to raise a child? Scare tactics??? No more need be said!
�Incidentally you will notice that I put the word �poisons� in inverted commas. Cyanide, which you mention as one of the poisons is actually an ingredient in a very expensive health food.
We should be a bit careful blithely bandying words we don�t understand. And carcinogenic is one of them. We are all exposed to numerous �carcinogenic� products daily, yet only a minority get cancer.

Truestorytotell
I compliment you truestory. You show some independence rather than buy into the black or white philosophy propounded by the anti-smokers who play on your fear by using scare tactics. The truth is that it is not black and white and there are many shades of gray. You are doing something that is neither yes, nor no, neither black nor white. And next year you may be able to do more.
But I think that the body has its own rhythm and it is foolhardy to stand over the body and try to force it to hurry up and quit.

Oh, and by the way, I have been called �insincere� for naming this thread �I love smoking�, considering I don�t smoke. I call it that because if I did smoke I�d love it. Because the smoking is me. I am not separate from the smoking (if I smoked, that is). I am not �over here� and my smoking habit is �over there� altogether separate from me. No. If I smoke, then that smoking is me. And I would love it because I love myself. I refuse to disown myself or hate myself. No�if I smoked I�d at least enjoy the bloody stuff!
But the way the anti-smoking wowsers are, they try to make you hate what you do, and thereby hate yourself � because that is what it comes down to. And I refuse to buy into that self-loathing � no matter what I do.

Actually, I'm trying to help, if in a blunt trollish manner. Is this supposed to be a total codependency forum?

It's not really scare tactics without substance as with a 40+ years background in multiple health care professions plus pertinent graduate education, I certainly DO understand the psychology, biochemistry, patho-physiology and biostatistical truths of pulmonary and cancerous disease etiology related to smoking addiction.

I'll leave this thread to those in denial - Good luck!

This forum has people on it, and some people like myself give respect to those that show respect, and there are no facial expressions and body language here, only what is written and the way it is written... The trollish manner, there is no respect in that and people like you, are the kind of people that people like me avoid and do not get into conversations with...Troll elsewhere...a little quote:

"Some of them go into antisocial behavior because they want respect."

You understand what they want you and taught you to understand, nothing more, nothing less...

The fact that you are so sure that you DO understand, and backing that up with ''multiple health professions'' plus this and psychology that and biochemistry and 40years background and whatnot, shows clearly you DO NOT understand...

A wise man knows himself to be a fool...

All in all you sound like a doctor to me, the classic case of doctoriasis ... and i give everyone equal chances to show me what they are and who they are but i extremely dislike doctors and easily figure them out, and you are that material...

I beg the know it all people to stay away from answering my questions, if anyone knew it all there would be no world hunger, no sickness and everything would be perfect, i need alternative people...the know it all guys are everywhere,copies of copies...

"The arrogant man believes he is always right, while the wise man knows that that he could always be wrong."

What did Socrates mean by: "I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing."?
I bet you cant even begin to understand what he meant, right?


Anyway as far as your initial comment goes..

''Additives are not the problem'' - FALSE (what you said is just stupid, no offence)

''Regardless of the type of tobacco you smoke, you're still inhaling a hundreds of chemicals with every puff.'' - PARTLY TRUE BUT YOU CANT JUST SAY THAT LIKE THAT, SO AGAIN YOU ARE FALSE BECAUSE YOU ARE INCOMPLETE (INCOMPLETE EITHER BECAUSE OF LACK OF KNOWLEDGE EITHER FOR YOU PERSONAL RESONS OR FOR THE PEOPLE YOU WORK FOR), HERE IS WHY: (other is the number of chemicals in the organicaly grown produced without additives tobacco rolled with papers without chlorine and unbleached, and other is the number of chemicals in ''normally'' grown tobacco rolled with any piece of paper you might find in a store, i mean from the moment the plant starts growing you get chemicals to make it grow faster, chemicals to make it grow bigger, chemicals to keep the bugs away, then, chemicals to make the paper burn faster, chemicals to give aroma and chemicals for taste and flavour, and chemicals to keep it fresh longer, and so many other crap so at the end of the day, ALL those chemicals added from the seed to the market shelf go in YOUR BODY, AND IS KILLING YOU so much faster and effectively then simple tobacco nature created for us,and papers in their most natural form possible, so put all that together, and think about it)...

And im not saying its healthy to smoke, if you can do without, more power to you, but if you cant, at least you can cut out all man made chemical add-ons...

I’m sure you have heard at least part of this before…Probably falling on deaf ears. - I did not hear all that before, i read about all that but was remembering this cruical to me and my survival, no it was not, you can look at the big picture, the medium picture and the small picture, i see the big but prefer to look at the medium, you you only see the small one... (based on your answers)




So leave this thread to those in denial, and try to see both sides of the coin...

One more thing on smoking, ive changed my whole lifestyle in the past year and im still changing it every day to be as healthy as it can be, so with all this changes i cannot attribute this positive thing to the change in my way of smoking, but here is a personal fact...

I remember i used to cough up all kinds of phelm(or whats it called) in the mornings especially or late nights before bed...
Coughing had also reached the point where it would even make my lungs hurt occasionally and i would cough on a daily basis more or less, again specially mornings and evenings but its like i could hear my lungs on the inside when coughing sometimes and i was getting a little worried about that...

Now, a year later i noticed i dont cough unless im sick, when i do there is no pain in the lungs or weird noises, and sometimes when i dont have papers or tobacco and i smoke from a friends pack or just ask for a cigarette from someone i know, i actually do not enjoy it, it sucks nowadays to smoke those kind of cigarettes and usually leaves me with a sense of discontent...

And ive really stopped going to clubs and such places in the last year (Except that i work in such places, but thats differend) but the few times i went out in clubs i cannot be rolling obviousley, one is the waste of time and two is that because my papers are kinda brown-ish people often assume im rolling cannabis, and that would be illegal... So those few times i bought cigarettes and when i drink alcohol i smoke alot, as everybody does when drinking, almost everybody for the political correctness

So then the next day i wake up having smoked 40 cigarettes the night before, and im coughing and spitting this and that and feeling like crap, so there is my medical test...
And its not the alcohol that causes this next morning lung reaction because i work in a place where everyone drinks and gets drunk, and very rarely nowadays i drink at work and even more rarely i get drunk, but even if i do and i keep smoking as i smoke during the evening, rolling my cigarettes, there is never any bad-effect the next day...

And i also remember when i was 16 or so, i used to smoke for 2 years lucky strike pre rolled the red hard pack, which is pretty strong (i cant smoke weak cigarettes), and for 3 days i remember the store next to my workplace didnt have the kind i was using so for 3 days i smoked other cigarettes which were a little stronger even, and the fourth day i was sick, cigarette sick you know what i mean...You just feel when you are sick because of smoking, the kind of sick where you cant put a cigarette in your mouth, the kind of sick where just the thought of smoking makes you even sicker, but you still might push yourself to smoke even half of one cigarette just because it is an addiction still, and you need it...

So anyway i already see benefits from the way i smoke now, comparing to the way i used to smoke for almost 10 years up untill a year ago...

Of course i dont attribute me feeling better all around to only this, but i attribute certain things i can just feel can be attributed to the change in my smoking habits...Always with a doubt, of course...