Obesity vs. Smoking?

According to the latest news on Yahoo, obesity will increase the cancer rates by thousands

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/05122006/356/ob...

It seems that we can't do right from wrong. If you give up smoking (you cut out your chances of getting cancer) but then a lot of people become obese after quitting, I've seen it many times, so they'll get cancer because they are obese. I'd rather smoke and be nice and thin than don't smoke and be obese. I'll die anyway... What do you think?

I think a lot of you haven't got a clue. When you give up smoking your metabolism slows down and you do need to eat more too (as nicotine is a powerful appetite suppressant). Even if I increase my daily running from 5 miles to 10 miles and cut my daily calorie intake into half I will still put on weight. Well, I won't get obese but if I didn't take these drastic measures I would...And so many other people would too...

i agree, a few years ago a very large woman in florida took it upon herself to kindly tell me how smoking will kill me oneday. I didnt have the heart to tell her fat will too.
Its funny how people can be rude to somebody smoking, but we dont go around telling them to cut out the mcdonalds.

Although i wouldnt advise smoking as a way of staying slim, that cant be true. I did get a bit fatter when i gave up but i was pregnant

Just quit smoking and follow a strict diet. It takes willpower to do both.

well i dont think that just because you quit smoking means that you can let yourself become obese. i know people do put on weight but that is different to being obese. If people want to avoid cancers etc then they wouldnt look at it in that way!

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People don't beocme obese from giving up smoking, some people put on a bit of weight when they are giving up because they confuse the nicotine cravings with hunger cravings. They don't become obese.

I think you should smoke too that way we might not have to put up with your vacuous questions.

I think that people that want to quit smoking should get their weight and exercise and eating habits under control before they start. If you are willing to quit to save your life than you should be willing to go the distance to control weight gain. This way you will be skinny and healthy. That's my opinion anyway.

Even if you are thin, you may get cancer by smoking. No research says that thin people do not get cancer.

Obese people dont inflict there lifestyle choices on other people. Smokers on the street or in pubs, clubs, restaurants still think its okay to smoke and pass on their second hand smoke to other people.

Yes you will die anyway, but if you had any idea just how awful cancer is then you would make the decision to be neither a smoker or obese. Make some healthy changes in your life and live longer (and happier). There are many, many, many people who dont smoke, arent obese and are leading perfectly functional, normal and healthy lives

Smoking kills half of the people who do it. Obesity causes a small increase in cancer risk. it's your choice.

Nobody I knew ever got obese after quitting smoking, and I knew allot of them who quit. My sister was one of them. i hear that you can taste more of the foods you eat after quitting smoking but no, I don't see any reason why a person shouldn't quit smoking, I hear it is very hard and there are 2 great medications out there the doctor can write. ( no patches, etc. they don't work.) My parents would still be alive today if they wouldn't have been addicted to cigarettes. Imagine, all the air in the world and not be able to inhale the clean air. Hope you quit, and so you can live. Good Luck to you. P.S. I knew people that were heavy and in their 80,s can't say that about any smokers, but I don't see anyone getting fat from quitting, and if you get a couple pounds on you, then work it off. I think you can, if that happens.

Smoking, AND Obesity and both the largest preventable contributors to disease in Western society.

What's to say you can't give up smoking, then lose the weight? The smoking ban on the 1st July 2007 could be something to work towards.

We do all die in the end, you're right. It's everyone's (rightful) choice if they want to smoke, be overweight, etc, but to make those choices fairly they should be informed of health risks that go along with lifestyle choices.

It's important to remember that by health risks, that doesn't just mean reduction of life span, but significant reduction in quality of life in those remaining years.

We do live in a society where people make their own decisions, and so it should remain. But people must be informed of outcomes of lifestyle choices to make reasonable choices.

I think you are mistaken. True, we do seem to put on weight when we give up smoking, as that may be the result of being healthier, but obesity comes from over-eating and eating unhealthily (and lack of exercise). One tends to eat to assuage the desperate desire for a smoke.

To quote a song from a group who I dont remember:

"Take monkeys and rabbits and little white rats,
Shoot em full of this and that.
You take viatiman E, B12 and D for your eyes teeth skin and bones, but when the good lord calls, you can forget it all
because your just as good as gone.
Dont you know?
Everyboy got to go sometime!"

Bet advice is quit smoking, but make a concious effort to stay on the same portions and foods that you eat now. The reason you gain weight when you stop smoking is that your replacing food for the cigarette you were smoking. Dont allow the food to take its place. Use something else in its place such as a walk, sugar free candy or even a hug from someone special.
The hug especially works since it may lead to conversation that will take your mind off of the smoke and the weight!!

...i know if i do not stop smoking and keep it up...quitting not smoking...i am gonna die...i am 36 and have a 4 year old...just been diagnosed with pleurisy...it is not caused by smoking but the dreaded nicotine does not help it...so wot do you think...give my son a chubby mum or no mum...no contest...and anyhow...ever heard of willpower and good diets...happy hols....

Quitting smoking does not make you obese!!!!!

Anyway, when I was at uni I was always having to do essays on things like this, and smokers who do no exercise at all have a high mortality rate - but those smokers who are active and exercise regularly cut their mortality rate in half and is higher than those non smokers who dont exercise!!!!!

My point being - do exercise - stops you from being obese in first place, and gives you a healthier lifestyle, even as a smoker!!!!

(exercise doesn't necessarily have to be running 5 miles. Just change your lifestyle and walk places, and climb stairs etc. Then build it up and play badminton/squash/walk not catch the bus!!!) Its only laziness thats stopping you!!!!

That is the biggest load of b******s I've ever heard!!! Yes nicotine is an appetite suppressant, but the reason you eat more when you give up is because a) you need to do things with your hands and b) you can actually taste food properly. Also smokers are anti social, are less productive in the workplace and smell really bad. Newsflash, eating loads of mints or spraying perfume doesn't mask the smell!!! I would much rather someone be obese than a smoker.

I've just quit, one week now, and yes you do eat more at first but I seem to be stabalising. I got lots of low fat stuff in, cereal bars etc... Also reading helps pass the cravings. So about two days of chocolate and everything then on to the low fat stuff and then you'll find you can manage to control your diet again. plus you wont smoke anymore.....

At least with Obesity you won't smell like an ASHTRAY!!! EWWWWWWWWW!!!!!