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Share your quitting journey

Gaining Weight & Quitting Smoking

Barbscloud
Member
11 23 146

I need to post this again.   I gained quite a bit of weight since quitting smoking and I admit, I was eating more.  I've battled my weight my whole life, so I have lost weight before.   Everyone on the Ex kept saying don't worry about it because it's better than smoking.  Well, I did continue to worry about and at almost a year into my quit I contacted my doctor to say something is wrong--weight gain, don't feel right, etc.    I was tested and developed hypothyroidism since November (numbers were normal than).  There is a connection between quitting smoking and developing hypothyroidism.  There is plenty of research out there, just Google it.  My reason for posting this again, is that I quit talking about it on the Ex. because everyone said don't worry about it, you'll lose it, etc.  To be honest, it made me feel like there was something wrong with me.  So every time I see a post about someone worrying about gaining weight, to me anyway, it doesn't seem to be taken seriously.  

"The risk of receiving a diagnosis of overt autoimmune hypothyroidism is increased more than six-fold in the first 2 years after smoking cessation. Clearly, smoking cessation is vital to prevent death and severe disease. However, awareness of hypothyroidism should be high in people who have recently quit smoking, and virtually any report of symptoms should prompt thyroid-function testing."

"This study suggests a relationship between smoking and hypothyroidism, but not the one expected. Despite the fact that cigarette smoke contains chemicals that can inhibit thyroid function, hypothyroidism was seen only after quitting smoking. Since it is very common for patients to gain weight after stopping smoking, it is important to realize that the onset of hypothyroidism may be making the weight gain worse."

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