Any ex-smokers?

Did any of you gain your excess weight from quitting  smoking? 

Yes I did, I gave up August 2006 and blew up from a UK size 10 to a UK size 16.

 When did you quit?

OH YES!!!  I gained about 20lbs after I quit.  I have been smoke free since December 25th 2002!!! 

I'll have to check my quit year.  It was 10/30/2004 or 2005.  I gained but I substituted food for smokes.  I've read that smoking increases the metabolism to "burn"  on average, 200 caloroes per day.  Many people quit and don't gain.

Hi there~ I quit smoking about 2 months ago after smoking for over 13 years. I have not gained weight in fact I have lost some weight.I knew I would go right back to smoking if I started to gain alot of weight believe me I had been down this road before several times :) I watched what I ate very carefully and I exercise almost every day I feel terrible if I dont . The exercise will really help with your mood. In fact I think I have swutched addictions.

If you really watch what you eat and exercise it should not be that bad. I looked around on the internet alot so I coulfd figure out how quit correctly this time ( for me at least) and found that your metabolism is only affected about 250 calories a day by not smoking. That is pretty easy to either cut out or burn off.

So I didnt gain any excess weight from quitting smoking I am on here to keep myself on track

it's been 3.5 weeks and I gained five the first week and then pulled it together.

I quit on my birthday this year... 2-12-07... and gained about 9 lbs that first month.  I substituted my after meal cigarette with dessert!  I got myself back on track for a little while, then summer hit.  I can NOT lose weight in the summer with all the BBQ's and potato salads, UGH!  So now I'm back on the wagon again!! :)

Yup 10 lbs...and I used nicotine replacement therepy I think thats the only reason it was only 10 .  I ate a lot of bad high carb foods to replace the feel good feelings I got from cigs.  Sugar rush instead of a nicotine rush.  replaced one bad habit with another bad habit.  now down 30 lbs with another 30 to go(I was over weight before I started to quit). 

I quit smoking Feb. 22nd of this year and I started dieting Mar. 8th and I lost  27 lbs on a bad day and 29.5 on a good one so far.    I used Chantix to help me quit smoking.  I can't remember if I gained any weight those first two weeks but I don't think I did (I didn't own a scale then). I ate carrot sticks and drank TONS of water when I craved a cigarette not to mention I think I obsessed about losing weight to replace obsessing about smoking or not smoking rather.  I, like jerbear would of started back smoking had I gained weight.  It was the major reason that I never quit in the past. I had a fear of gaining weight...lord I gained enough while I smoked and just couldn't take it anymore and said enough is enough!! 

 Good luck to you in your quit!!  :-)

I quit almost 3 years ago, and I gained 20lbs.  Very common.  My advice is get a handle on not smoking, then move to loosing weight. 

I quit 07-01-07 I've gained 10lbs...I agree with kmiddendorp deal with the smoking and then worry about your weight.

I quit smoking over 4 years ago and did not gain any weight.  I was terrified of weight gain so I paid very close attention to what I ate and worked out a lot.  I don't believe that weight gain is inevitable, but it does take a lot of work to make sure it doesn't happen.

One trick that helped me thru the cravings was sugar-free hard candy.  It satisfies the craving and keeps your mouth busy.  

I gained weight WHILE I was smoking, then after I quit, gained some more, and then when I got addicted to "diet" sodas, I gained a LOT more.  A healthy diet and exercise has since rid me of about 60 lbs, 40 to go.  I don't blame quitting smoking, though.  Cigarettes may suppress appetite, but they also slow the metabolism big time.

I quit not too long ago... so far, I haven't experienced any weight gain, in fact, I've lost.  However, I was a smoker for less than a year, so that might have something to do with it. Just don't cigarettes with food. If you have some sort of oral fixation, you should drink some water or chew sugarfree gum

I quit about 7 months ago and smoked for about 11 years.  I gained a bit, but I was already watching what I ate and such, so I just monitored myself a bit more.

A good way to keep weight off when you quit smoking is to begin doing a High Intensity Interval Training cardio routine about a week after your last cigarette.  Simply put, it's really difficult to do these when you smoke.  It just requires a lot of intense breathing in spurts that will wipe a smoker out.  If you do these for a week or so you will notice you get better at them and having that cigarette will absolutely jeopardize your progress. 

I quit smoking in October 2001 and had been overweight from then until this year. I lost 35 lbs since January! I'm now a healthy 135 lbs. but I could lose about 10 more. No hurry, though! And the quitting smoking...it was hardest thing I ever did in my life. I am so proud!

i quit just over a year ago. it took a few months for my weight to start to add on. and then it went in stages... i would gain a few, then stop. awhile later, gain a few, then stop... all the way to 20 pounds. i've managed to lose a few of those pounds... became hpyothyroid the same time i quit smoking, so losing it is extra hard, lucky me! however, i wouldn't trade my 20 pounds of extra weight for another 20 years of smoking!

I quit in January of 2007. I smoked for 30 years and decided at the age of 46 that was enough and not to mention going thru menopause. So yes I went from a size 8 (126 lbs) to a size 12 (152 lbs) I was not happy with myself and neither are the people at my job (a woman going thru the change and withdrawals is a deadly combination) .

Yep and nope! Never gained an ounce. Smoking doesn't speed up your metabolism that much to make a difference in my opinion. I think people just gain weight because they replace one oral fixation with another. 

I have gain about 10 pounds since quitting on 3 Dec 2006.  However most of that has just been recently due to a medical condition that has kept me from exercising.  This week is my first week back in the gym and the first week that I have been trying to get back to running again.  The other times that I had tried quitting I had actually lost weight.  I had replaced smoking with walking and kept my eating habits the same.