Health Bud

Stop-smoking courses are now available that emphasize steps to deal with the problem. Most gain Kozlowski, a psychologist who heads behavioral research on tobacco use at the Addiction Research Foundation, suspects some smokers cite gain weight as an excuse for continuing their habit. It sounds more socially acceptable than admitting, for example, that you smoke because you’re too hooked or too weak to try quitting.

Kozlowski says it’s generally true that people gain weight when they quit, but in any group there will be individuals who maintain their weight and some who actually lose, he says. The average gain will be in the two- to five-kilogram (four-to 11-pound) range. Some studies indicate the more you smoke, the more likely it is that your weight gain will be higher when you quit. But a spokesman for the Lung Association, which runs five-week smoke-cessation courses across Canada, estimates that up to a third of smokers actually lose weight after they quit.

People who decide to quit smoking have made a commitment to take better care of themselves, so they’re exercising, they’re eating right.