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unexplained weight gain

Posted , 6 users are following.

paul_64291
paul_64291

Hi i am new the this site, but really need some help, I lost 3 and half stone 3 years ago by mainly going to the gym and stopped eating junk food but continued smoking, once the weight had gone i took up running and since have ran 2 marathons and numerious half marathons and 10k's, I decided to stop smoknig July 2013 and month after running my quickest ever half marathon time. I decided to switch to vaping as really struggled with other methods to stop smoking.

Since stopping smoking i have not changed by diet much and try and burn off between 800 and 1200 cals probably about 5 times a week with running and the gym.

since switching to vaping and giving up cigarette i appear to be picking up more injuries and i have i gained 10 pound in weight which concidering how many cals i burn and what i eat, it shouldnt really happen and its mega frustrating.

I dont know if anyone has got any advise or know if vaping instead of smoking is causing unexplained weight gain and could i be tested to see if this is the caused or is it soley to do with my diet.

thank for taking the time to read this.

Paul

0 likes, 13 replies

13 Replies

  • homo_dieticus
    homo_dieticus paul_64291

    Posted

    I doubt that giving up smoking has anything to do with your unexplained weight gain It is a red herring! What does being overweight mean? It is about the amount of fat relative to the amount of muscle you are carrying. It is claimed that abdominal fat in particular is associated with endocrine disorders, notably, type 2 diabetes. Hence being "fat" is not a good thing. So your weight alone only tells a part of the story. Doctors use the BMI to define "overweight" or "obese". But this can be misleading, especially if you are heavily built and muscular. Your exercise regime seems to be really testing but do you really mean that your body can consume 800 to 1200kcal a day over and above the energy you need just to stand still? Do you really trust these values? I would not place a high value on them. It would be more productive to take a close look at your body because it is easy to see the rolls of fat that we develop when we are unhealthily overweight. It is also easy to observe your muscular development. You could discuss your observations with your trainer. Just remember that muscle is denser than fat so as you lose fat and at the same time gain the same volume of muscle your weight will increase. I guess that you are over-exercising. Exercise can lead to short term and long term damage, just think about what happens to athletes and especially footballers.
    • paul_64291
      paul_64291 homo_dieticus

      Posted

      thank you have made some great points, i am using the same technique as i did to lose the weight the first time, which lost weight on bread which is surprising, and do the same routine alot of the time when training but its frustrating even gaining weight when should be dropping off me and perhaps it time i invest in personal trainer as feel wrong, 
  • debbie27473
    debbie27473 paul_64291

    Posted

    Although I agree with Homo dieticus about muscle gain, I would also point out that certain medical conditions can make you gain weight such as an under active thyroid gland. Worth getting a blood test to be on the safe side. Incidentally, you don't take steroids do you? A sure way to gain weight!
    • paul_64291
      paul_64291 debbie27473

      Posted

      thanks Debbie, yeah i agree totally with you that, but lost load of weight the first time, but can you just develop it at some point in you life which mite have happened, as for steroids no i dont take them as heard they r bad and my work is done on cardio. 
  • Sue...Wt
    Sue...Wt paul_64291

    Posted

    Hi Paul,

    Firstly, giving up smoking definitely contributes to weight increase! There's no red herring about that. It's also known that quitting can mess with your thyroid and bring about under active thyroid which increases your weight. I quit 16 years ago have an under active thyroid  as a result and still have to be careful of food in/calories burned - all due to having smoked in the first place!

    Also, beware of vaping as still not enough is known about the effects of doing so. If you gradually wean yourself off of vaping then you won't run the risk of anything else affecting your body. Remember also that vaping still contains nicotine!! So, it's still keeping nagging at you about having another just as ciggies would, you've just exchanged one peril for another!

    You're doing your very best to get yourself in good shape and I commend you for that, and wish you the very best of luck in quitting vaping, you can do it and you'll be so glad you did.

    Sue

    • homo_dieticus
      homo_dieticus Sue...Wt

      Posted

      Totally agree with you and I'm speaking from personal experience. If you abstain from smoking you will put on weight. But why does this happen. Surely it can't be due to the absence of the tobacco combustion products. It is because simply  abstaining from smoking does not eliminate your addictive behaviour which is transferred to eating convenient and readily available high energy snacks such as biscuits and chocolate. The next challenge is to improve your diet which is almost as difficult as giving up smoking. In terms of harm reduction vaping removes at least 4000 chemicals found in smoke. Surely that has got to be a good thing. Of course not enough is known about any ill effects from vaping but it is too soon. You have to balance the unknown risks from vaping with the known risks of smoking and being overweight. How could it be that the absence of smoking can interfere with the performance of your thyroid gland?
    • Sue...Wt
      Sue...Wt homo_dieticus

      Posted

      It has been found out that a large majority of people suffer from under active thyroid as a direct result of quitting smoking. Why I don't fully know, but it obviously affects the metabolism in a large way. Whether men suffer as much as women I really don't know.

      Re putting weight on after quitting: I'm sure a lot of it is because of extra nibbling and keeping the hands busy, but it's fairly obvious that if one's metabolic reate slows substantially, that alone will cause sufferers to gain weight.

    • homo_dieticus
      homo_dieticus Sue...Wt

      Posted

      This is an important subject and it deserves to be the subject of some serious scientific research. It is essential that high quality evidence of the ill-effects of stopping smoking is obtained. The problem is that I can't see how this can happen unless the work is funded by the government. It is more important to pay off the deficit. Whether or not an under-active thyroid is always of clinical significance I don't know. I believe that there are drugs that can be used to improve thyroid function however, I have no specialised knowledge of endocrinology. So I suppose that I take a pragmatic view. I think that it is safer to start with diet before moving on to medication which is not without side effects. This business of metabolism is a difficult subject and I have only a sketchy understanding. I don't think that one's metabolic rate is constant. If the rate at which our bodies use the energy provided by our food is slowed down then perhaps we need to eat less.
    • paul_64291
      paul_64291 Sue...Wt

      Posted

      well done for quitting smoking Sue amazing i lasted 2 days and climbing the walls so swiched to vaping, ran a marathon as a tobacco smoker and felt stronger than i do now, but i should i stopped smoking the hardway, my diet hasnt really changed and probably burning more calories than ever, but come you go to your GP and asked for tablets or to stop vaping  
    • Sue...Wt
      Sue...Wt paul_64291

      Posted

      Thank you Paul, it's been so worth it for me. I whittled ciggies down to 2 in the late evening, my reward for not having any before. So, I thought, if I could manage the rest of the day without I could do without altogether - and I did! Yes, it was hard at the beginning, but it came with plenty of rewards. Do please be careful of both the nicotine and glycerine in vaping. Why not try a dummy cigarette? It's amazing what good results that has given. You're striving for good health so if you can kick any sort of smoking, you'll be so much better off. Good luck to you Paul, and as all former smokers say to each other - if I can do it, so can you, seriously!
    • homo_dieticus
      homo_dieticus Sue...Wt

      Posted

      Interesting points about smoking tobacco. I stopped smoking tobacco for 5 years then a friend said, "Try this snuff." Within 15 minutes I was craving for a cigarette. Such folly. I then gave again for a couple of years with the help of some medicine from my doctor (no nicotine replacement) and it was successful, in the short term but then I was back again to the old ways.. My conclusion was that once you've started with nicotine all you can hope is that abstinence will result in "being in recovery".  For all that there might be unknown side-effects from vaping, and that is assuming that the products are manufactured professionally and not in a shed in China, you cannot escape the fact that you are not breathing in smoke and its 4000 hazardous components.I wish that I had listened to my mother and never started smoking but I can't turn the clock back. Life is full of unknown hazards the results of which don't emerge for many years.
  • paul_64291
    paul_64291

    Posted

    Some great points made by you all, i felt like smoking was a good way to control my weight but perhaps vaping may not be the answer, and will be worth getting health check as aint been doctors for about 7 years, thanks again everyone
  • donna72398
    donna72398 paul_64291

    Posted

    I've gained so much weight since vaping also picked up alot of injuries almost like my muscles are wasting away on me. I've had to stop any fitness because I keep getting hurt. So I'm stop vaping!!

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