I quit on Feb 1, 2004, I have to say that Allan Carr's book definitely helped, but the bottom line is that YOU have to be ready to do it, no one, not a book, a spouse, a friend or anyone can make you quit, you have to make the decision and do it. I smoked for 20 years and never tried to quit before feb 1.

It really is 80% mental,20% addiction. I had been on atkins for a year, went from 197 to 120 and figured if I could lose the weight I could quit smoking, and It worked, I have no desire at this point to pick up a cigarette.

I have gained 25 lbs back, but I'm starting back on induction tommorow to get the weight off, even if I don't get back down to 120, 145 and a nonsmoker is better than a 120 lb smoker!

Good luck to those trying to quit, but if you can put your mind to it, and try to adjust your "triggers" it can definitely help!

Suzy

Do you think you gained the weight because you went off LC or ate more, or was it solely because of the quitting?

I maintained after quitting for about 6 months, still keeping on a strict 20 carbs a day I started gaining...and gaining....it took about 3 months to pack on 15 lbs, during that time I cut any extra calories that I could and it made no difference, then I kinda gave up and said if I'm gonna gain anyway I might as well have a treat or two...which was the last 10 lbs, so I think quitting started the process, the frustration of that gain threw me off completely.

Either way, its in the past now, I just have to look at today and get myself back on track, hopefully I'll be able to get it back off, but I doubt it will go as quickly or easily as it did the first time!

I'd like to quit but I'm very afraid of gaining, I guess I'm just not ready yet . Is there anything other than ridiculous amounts of exercise that would help?
I admire your courage in sticking with it, congratulations!

Nicotine increases the metabolic rate. If you add an additional 20 minutes of cardio to your workout regime, you should be okay. I did this the "first" time I quit smoking and did not gain any weight. Of course, I picked it back up for a year, and now have quit again, so I'm going to try again. But the extra 20 minutes in cardio is supposed to make up for the difference the lack of nicotine will make with your metabolism. Good luck!!!

I Quit 43 days ago using the Allan Carr book - I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone who truly does want to quit. It's an excellent book and I really found it SO easy to quit, and I have tried to quit in the past - seriously - probably 3 or 4 times, I actually did quit for 9 months when I was pregnant but I craved it all the way through - this time, hardly any cravings and it really has worked!

I haven't had a 'gain' on the scale, but he addresses that in the book, he says the majority of people who gain when quitting do so because they replace one habit with another, which I think is true. I have however stalled out a bit, but after 7 weeks or however long it's been for me now since quitting, my weight is finally starting to move again. I think I have been stalled for the past 4 weeks with no movement on the scale. I do think that it's a metabolic change which happens and you simply can't avoid it....but I think it's a fair trade off, not smoking is definately worth the temporary stall on the scale.

I quit July 2nd with Allen Carr's book and I can't recommend it enough. It was shamefully easy, and I wonder why I hadn't done so sooner. I DID however gain weight, I conciously tried NOT TO replace cigarettes with food, but I must have cause I've gained 15lb since then! WHOOPS! Anyways, I'd trade those easily lost 15lbs for the rest of my life anyday! Congrats to everyone who's quit no matter what method you used!!!

I tried to quit smoking many times.... I attempted to quit using the patch more than half a dozen times, but began smoking again; I used Zyban and gave in and started smoking a month later. I made countless cold turkey attempts, but barely made it a day or two.

Last year, my 50 year old uncle was dying from lung Cancer. He said he wished I would quit smoking and gave me his Allen Carr book which he read and quit smoking with when he was first diagnosed with Cancer. He passed away in March of last year, and I tucked the book away.

I was a smoker for 18 years, two packs a day. I started thinking I wanted to try to quit....again, so I pulled out my Allen Carr book and read it. This book convinced me that I could quit. I was amazed by how simply Allen Carr makes quitting appear to be. I was so disgusted with smoking before I even finshed the book. Oh yes, he was certainly brain-washing me with each page I read.

I have gained 5 lbs, but have been smoke free for 83 days! I highly recommend this book!

I think the change in metabolic rate idea has real merit. Of course sometimes people do "self-medicate" with food too, but we are pretty conscious of what we eat here, and I believe anyone who says they didn't up their carbs or calories, yet still gained.

Dr. Schwarzbein says in her book that sometimes the body gains because it's trying to heal itself. So maybe that's another factor in a smoker's weight gain? Sometimes we might need to gain a little to heal.

Anyway as was said above, I think 5, 10 or even 20lbs of extra body weight is way less risky for your health than smoking.

I can only agree with all the other posters about reading Allen Carr. I had to read the second book he wrote (in the UK it was called "The only way to stop smoking permanently") before I managed it but I did so - and never looked back - in early December 2001.

I had been a smoker for the best part of 22 years (I gave up twice when pregnant and breast-feeding, but each time eventually returned to the evil weed). My kids are now 7 and 11 and I am so glad I did this for them and for me!

I put on weight, lost a lot doing low-fat, but lost muscle too. I put some back on again, because the low-fat thing was not sustainable as it was basically a starvation diet. After getting lots of colds in the winter after I did the very low-fat thing, I went to more "normal" eating, but put some of the weight back on. I have now managed to get most of that weight back off again through moderate low-carbing and do resistance training twice a week.

But I was so glad to be free of the smokes that I didn't mind putting on weight initially!!! It was only when I began to get serious pain in my feet when I got up in the morning (so painful I could barely stand) that I took action (and when I realized I'd gone up to a size 26..).

Low-carb is the best way to lose in my opinion. No stress, no hunger, more energy and less illness. There's absolutely no competition.

amanda