Many smokers have reported that one of the reasons they started to smoke tobacco cigarettes is for weight control. If they quit, they fear their weight will go up.
Nicotine has been shown in some studies to suppress appetite in the short-term and increase metabolism, but it seems that those who smoke the most cigarettes do not always end up being thinner, especially when they are chronic smokers.
Obtaining baseline data from chronic smokers
A National Institute of Health (NIH) study was published recently in Nutrients. In it, a master’s student in health promotion sciences, Brittany Larsen, and her mentors, Department of Allied Health Sciences Professor Valerie Duffy and UConn Health Professor Mark Litt, did a baseline study of 135 chronic smokers, who were defined as smoking 10 or more cigarettes per day for at least a year.
The research showed that about one-third of the participants were found to be obese in the baseline visit or prior to the intervention. Those obese chronic smokers reported a greater liking for foods that are rich in saturated fats, sugar/sweetness and refined carbohydrates. These participants were also more likely to say that they used cigarettes to control their appetite and eating.
