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Poll: To smoke or not to smoke... 6-May-2005 At 1:31:43 PM oweng

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On 6/05/2005 billk wrote:
>There has been some recently published research showing that it is a myth
>that smoking keeps weight down, although it is true that quitters tend
>to stack on about 3 kilos.
>
>Much better for your climbing fitness and life expectancy to quit, then
>try and burn off those 3 kilos later.

There is a nice summary or the research on smoking and body weight here:

http://www.quit.org.nz/documents/Smoking-bodyweight.pdf

I think the results of individual studies tend to depend on whether they were funded by the tobacco industry or by an anti-tobacco group. Most people seem to agree that current smokers as a population weigh on average less that non-smokers (not the hardest study in the world to stuff up!). The reasons why are less well understood, but seem to have something to do with a combination of smoking speeding up your metabolism, and smoking resetting each individuals 'optimum' weight to a slightly lower level.

EDIT. It should go without saying that it would be stupid and irresponsible to see smoking as a good method for controlling your weight.