Quitting smoking makes you fat, explained why

[caseagainstfaith]

(CBS) As often happens in science, it was an accidental discovery. It solves the mystery of why a lot of people who smoke look so skinny and, more importantly, why many people who quit the habit gain weight.

"Interestingly, initially we were not looking into feeding behavior but depression," says Yann Maneur, an associate research scientist at Yale. "We were trying to find new drugs to treat depression. And as I was testing these new drugs I realized the animals were not eating as much."

At the time, Mineur and his team were testing nicotine. Curious about this unexpected effect, they looked further. Maneur says, "We found that nicotine, when it enters the brain, activates specific nicotine receptors that are located on specific neurons known to decrease feeding and increase energy expenditure when activated."

So nicotine, it turns out, triggers a brain pathway that essentially tells you: you've had enough, put that cake down. And it signals your body to start using up some energy. But does that mean people should use it to try to lose weight? "That's the trick question," Mineur says with a chuckle, "because we do not want to advocate smoking, of course."

There may be alternatives that could do the same trick. Maneur claims that there is potential for "drugs to mimic this effect to help people maybe lose weight. Or even better, when people try to quit smoking they could use drugs that are already available and known to trigger this pathway in order to potentially limit their weight gain."

source - www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20070485-10391704.html

huh thats crazy how nicotine can do that to your body >.> I wonder how long it will take them to develop a weight loss pill that actually works and gets FDA Approved. The only downside is since there are so many weight loss pills out there that in my opinion are nothing but placebos, it might take some time for people to understand the why this might actually work for you. Still though a interesting find.

[Vene]

Nicotinic receptors are fucking everywhere in the body.

[MaybeNever]

The connection between hunger and obesity is, frankly, secondary. Yes, some people are fat because they just don't know when to put down the fork, but I have a little experience working with people with weight issues and people are fat because eating brings pleasure to counteract emotional (or sometimes physical) pain. The eating is almost totally orthogonal to the hunger!

We're talking about possibly the most primal response there is: food that provided an ancient survival benefit, especially fatty, high-calorie foods, cause an endorphin rush, meaning pleasure. If you're buried in emotional pain for whatever reason, eating provides a way out for a little while, and the body does what it thinks it's supposed to do by packing away those calories for future famine. Of course, this snowballs, because like anything people build up a resistance. So they have to eat more to get the same effect. Plus people get further depressed because they've gained weight, so they eat to combat that... and so on.

There are other ways to get sweet, sweet endorphins, of course. Sex is a good one - but depression tends to kill the sex drive, and it's hard to have sex without any sort of libido. Exercise is another good one, but exercise brings its own sort of pain, and since few people are comfortable with their appearance, least of all when they're in the throes of depression, and because depression kills motivation, this isn't an attractive choice. Whereas food is easy to get, inexpensive, involves absolute minimum effort, and doesn't require that the consumer actually be hungry to eat it.

I think that weight loss for most people, at least in the US (the only population I can speak of with even a trace of population), is going to have to start with tackling the incredible emotional and self-image issues we manage to generate through our culture and daily lives. Then the habit of eating has to be handled, because after years of self-medicating with food, it becomes habitual and needs little outside impetus to happen. At that point - yes, I expect a drug like this might help to deal with the fact that an overweight person is going to encounter hunger pangs as they tone back their intake to lose weight.

[Aqualung]

Why wouldn't nicotine gum have the same effect?

[Ian1732]

My solution is to not smoke in the first place.

[Napoleon the Clown]

I'll be damned, a stimulant known to suppress appetite can alter your weight. Who could have guessed?


Still, it's fun to have an actual study to point to.

[Dragon Zachski]

Jun 10, 2011 13:56:23 GMT -5 MaybeNever said:

The connection between hunger and obesity is, frankly, secondary. Yes, some people are fat because they just don't know when to put down the fork, but I have a little experience working with people with weight issues and people are fat because eating brings pleasure to counteract emotional (or sometimes physical) pain. The eating is almost totally orthogonal to the hunger!

We're talking about possibly the most primal response there is: food that provided an ancient survival benefit, especially fatty, high-calorie foods, cause an endorphin rush, meaning pleasure. If you're buried in emotional pain for whatever reason, eating provides a way out for a little while, and the body does what it thinks it's supposed to do by packing away those calories for future famine. Of course, this snowballs, because like anything people build up a resistance. So they have to eat more to get the same effect. Plus people get further depressed because they've gained weight, so they eat to combat that... and so on.

There are other ways to get sweet, sweet endorphins, of course. Sex is a good one - but depression tends to kill the sex drive, and it's hard to have sex without any sort of libido. Exercise is another good one, but exercise brings its own sort of pain, and since few people are comfortable with their appearance, least of all when they're in the throes of depression, and because depression kills motivation, this isn't an attractive choice. Whereas food is easy to get, inexpensive, involves absolute minimum effort, and doesn't require that the consumer actually be hungry to eat it.

I think that weight loss for most people, at least in the US (the only population I can speak of with even a trace of population), is going to have to start with tackling the incredible emotional and self-image issues we manage to generate through our culture and daily lives. Then the habit of eating has to be handled, because after years of self-medicating with food, it becomes habitual and needs little outside impetus to happen. At that point - yes, I expect a drug like this might help to deal with the fact that an overweight person is going to encounter hunger pangs as they tone back their intake to lose weight.

I really wish more people understood this. I really did.

But most of them go "Just stop eating so much and start exercising! It's so simple! You're just lazy! You're just a glutton! Stop being so selfish! Stop whining!"

...So, invariably, it only feeds the fire, so to speak. Pun not intended.

Also, the whole sex = endorphins thing... yes, it really is except when you're depressed. When I masturbate while depressed, I feel no pleasure, and I just end up more depressed. I guess maybe your body is saying "I'm stressed, this is no time for sex! Sexual hormones go away now!" or something like that.

Bearing in mind that eating emotionally can go many ways. When you're happy, you may want to celebrate by eating. When you're sad, you may want to medicate by eating. When you're bored, you eat because there's nothing else you really enjoy doing. When you diet, your body goes into starvation mode and when you give into, you gorge yourself and actually gain weight.

So few people understand this, though. They just see the "obese woman riding a Walmart motorcart" and go "Look at that lazy ass, let someone who NEEDS it have it!

[katsuro]

Jun 11, 2011 3:22:54 GMT -5 Dragon Zachski said:

Jun 10, 2011 13:56:23 GMT -5 MaybeNever said:

The connection between hunger and obesity is, frankly, secondary. Yes, some people are fat because they just don't know when to put down the fork, but I have a little experience working with people with weight issues and people are fat because eating brings pleasure to counteract emotional (or sometimes physical) pain. The eating is almost totally orthogonal to the hunger!

We're talking about possibly the most primal response there is: food that provided an ancient survival benefit, especially fatty, high-calorie foods, cause an endorphin rush, meaning pleasure. If you're buried in emotional pain for whatever reason, eating provides a way out for a little while, and the body does what it thinks it's supposed to do by packing away those calories for future famine. Of course, this snowballs, because like anything people build up a resistance. So they have to eat more to get the same effect. Plus people get further depressed because they've gained weight, so they eat to combat that... and so on.

There are other ways to get sweet, sweet endorphins, of course. Sex is a good one - but depression tends to kill the sex drive, and it's hard to have sex without any sort of libido. Exercise is another good one, but exercise brings its own sort of pain, and since few people are comfortable with their appearance, least of all when they're in the throes of depression, and because depression kills motivation, this isn't an attractive choice. Whereas food is easy to get, inexpensive, involves absolute minimum effort, and doesn't require that the consumer actually be hungry to eat it.

I think that weight loss for most people, at least in the US (the only population I can speak of with even a trace of population), is going to have to start with tackling the incredible emotional and self-image issues we manage to generate through our culture and daily lives. Then the habit of eating has to be handled, because after years of self-medicating with food, it becomes habitual and needs little outside impetus to happen. At that point - yes, I expect a drug like this might help to deal with the fact that an overweight person is going to encounter hunger pangs as they tone back their intake to lose weight.

I really wish more people understood this. I really did.

But most of them go "Just stop eating so much and start exercising! It's so simple! You're just lazy! You're just a glutton! Stop being so selfish! Stop whining!"

...So, invariably, it only feeds the fire, so to speak. Pun not intended.

Also, the whole sex = endorphins thing... yes, it really is except when you're depressed. When I masturbate while depressed, I feel no pleasure, and I just end up more depressed. I guess maybe your body is saying "I'm stressed, this is no time for sex! Sexual hormones go away now!" or something like that.

Bearing in mind that eating emotionally can go many ways. When you're happy, you may want to celebrate by eating. When you're sad, you may want to medicate by eating. When you're bored, you eat because there's nothing else you really enjoy doing. When you diet, your body goes into starvation mode and when you give into, you gorge yourself and actually gain weight.

So few people understand this, though. They just see the "obese woman riding a Walmart motorcart" and go "Look at that lazy ass, let someone who NEEDS it have it!

I also hate society's double standards regarding eating disorders. If you are skinny due to an eating disorder people think you have a problem and need help, like they would with a "normal" medical condition...if you're fat due to a disorder people think you're a just a fat fuck who needs to fucking sort themselves out and stop being so goddamn fat.

[Rat Of Steel]

When I quit smoking, 4 and a half years ago, my weight was 220-ish. Now, it's around 280.

I've got no self-esteem issues, but due to some health problems creeping up on me, I need to lose weight anyway. *sigh*