Open Door Retreat

According a recent article in ScienceDaily, 75 percent of all women smokers say they would be unwilling to gain more than five pounds if they were to quit smoking, and nearly half said they would not tolerate any weight gain. In fact, many women started smoking in the first place because they thought it might help them stay slim.

Now, new findings published in the October issue of Addictive Behaviors show that women who smoke tend to be further from their ideal body image, and more prone to dieting and binging, than those who don’t smoke.

In another recent study, published in August, researchers found that overweight women smokers who were overweight as children were far more likely to have started smoking in their early teens than women whose weight problems started later in life. They also had worse withdrawal symptoms when they tried to quit.

Once they make a serious attempt to quit, evidence suggests that most weight-concerned smokers can be just as successful in kicking the habit as others.

Women who are worried about their weight tend to be concerned about other aspects of their appearance as well. What they need to realize is that smoking has an impact on these too! Among other things, it causes wrinkled skin, thinning hair, cracked fingernails, yellowed teeth and terrible breath.

Some beliefs about smoking and weight are true. For instance, nicotine suppresses the appetite and increases resting metabolic rate. Smokers on average weigh less than people who have never smoked, and smokers who quit tend to gain weight.

Even so, research shows that the effect of quitting on weight is often less dramatic than many women fear. A rough rule of thumb is that one in four women who quit smoking will gain less than five pounds, and another two out of four will gain five to 15 pounds. Only one in four women who quit will gain 15 pounds or more.

At the Open Door Women’s Transitional Living Center, we offer a variety of programs to teach women how to overcome addiction and live a more purposeful, healthy, life in sobriety. To see a full list of program activities, visit our women’s addiction recovery retreat page.