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I researched this myself and I found the following Nicotine and Metabolism Nicotine acts as both a stimulant and a sedative. Immediately after a puff of nicotine there is a rush of adrenaline which causes the liver to release glycogen (sugar) which raises the blood sugar levels slightly. Remove nicotine and your body slows down your metabolism. You are expending fewer calories. Consequently, if you eat the same number of calories as before, your body is using less and stores more as fat. Nicotine and Appetite Nicotine can reduce your appetite by directly affecting the activity of serotonin and dopamine, which are substances that control neural transmission in areas of your brain, that turn your appetite on and off. Nicotine elevates the activity of these substances in a way that is similar to what happens when you eat a sweet. For a period after smoking a cigarette you feel less hungry. Comfort Food can act as a comfort factor. You crave foods to replace the relaxing feeling and buzz that nicotine was providing. Habit Holding and lighting cigarettes is a well-developed habit. Remove the cigarette and what are you going to do with your hands? You can feel the need to occupy your hands - picking and snacking on food fills this gap. I think all of these are a little bit true - but I had the willpower to stop smoking (and stop using nictoine replacement) so now I am turning my attention to my eating habits. I just need to up my exercise, eat a bit less and change what I do eat. And stop snacking on rubbish. Easy! :( I've put on about half a stone and I want to start reversing this before I put on any more! -----Original Message----- From: Martin Frost [mailto:martin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx] Sent: 17 July 2007 09:52 To: london.food@xxxxxxxxxx.xxx Subject: Re: [london.food] Low fat food On Tue, 17 Jul 2007, Rev Simon Rumble wrote: > I'm convinced that the type of food you eat has little to do with > weight > loss and the important things are portion sizes and exercise. Counting > calories is an appealing technological fix, but I think increasing the > rate you burn calories and eating a bit less is the way to go. I think this is true. The only person I know who successfully lost weight and kept it off did so by forcing herself to eat much slower (putting down the knife and fork while chewing) and leaving whatever was left on the plate the moment she began to feel full. (This happened some years ago, but this is actually the basis of Paul McKenna's weight loss programme, which is about the only programme I've seen that looked sustainable.) Pure calorie-counting (as well as most fashionable diets-of-the-week) is not very successful, as it often leads to eating-disorder type behaviour, where people obsess about the food and feel guilty about eating certain things. There have been a number of interesting studies into the behaviour of dieters and non-dieters in particular situations. In particular, one gave people a large meal and then invited them to eat as much ice cream as they wanted from a large bowl. The dieters all ate far more than the non-dieters, and this was ascribed to the feeling of guilt for having broken the diet. Once the diet was broken there was an attitude that it was OK to gorge on ice cream, since they were going to be "punished" anyway. It's also worth considering why you're putting on weight after stopping smoking. Nicotine (along with most stimulants) does suppress the appetite, so you may be eating more than you did before. I have also seen people who used to smoke eating far more snacks and things like that, not because they were hungry but just as something to do, especially in pub-type situations. Martin ********************************************************************** This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify TfL IM Service Desk on 08452 340 017. This footnote also confirms that this email message has been swept by MIMEsweeper for the presence of computer viruses. Surface Transport Transport for London ********************************************************************** [ detached attachment ]
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