Smoking Won’t Help You Lose Fat

More than a few times I have heard smoking helps people lose weight, that it limits hunger and puffing away can make a person “get skinny” in a flash. There’s only one tried-and-true weight loss method - diet and exercise. Unfortunately for smokers, an Australian research team from the University of New South Wales and the University of Melbourne debunks the “smoking to get thin” theory.

After conducting a study on mice for seven weeks, where half were exposed to smoke from four cigarettes per day for six days a week, while the other half went smoke free, the results found that smoke did not increase healthy weight loss.

Instead, the study found that smokers lose muscle mass, which negatively effects the body’s metabolism, and the remaining fat was stored around their vital organs. Just because the mice on the smoke diet ate about 23 percent less calories, they still held onto their fat mass to pre-smoking levels.

To lose weight and look thin remember that smoking is not an alternative to burning calories. The body needs nutrients and muscle mass so it can burn calories during your fitness routine. So don’t deprive your body of food. A cigarette substitute doesn’t give your body the internal strength it needs for you to really lose the pounds you’re looking to lose.

Written by: Isobella Jade