Which is harder, losing weight or giving up smoking?

tarotwoman

Loves life
Like a lot of people on here, I'm really struggling to lose weight and have been for the last 15 (or so) years. Some of these years I've been at target, and some I've been 4 stone+ overweight. Most of the time though, I hover somewhere inbetween.

For me, dieting is an ongoing process that I find so difficult because I love food.

Hubby on the other hand can take food or leave it. His vice is cigarettes and like me with my weight, he has varied between smoking, not smoking and sneaking 2-3 a day when he thinks no-one knows.

I've never smoked but I think that dieting is just as hard to do as giving up smoking - hubby disagrees. What do other people think?

Tracey
 
I have dieted successfully but have never been able to give up smoking so i reckon its harder (but then again i have the vice of smoking and if i didnt have that would i find dieting harder?)
 
I haven't really managed to stick to either with great success.... I still smoke when drinking! In general I'd say most are just about the ability to keep to a routine. Maybe I find going without a cigarette easier because i can snack though...hmm...
 
i gave up smoking a while back while i was dieting. not a good idea as i gained weight and couldnt lose a single lb, so started smoking again. once i have my weight sorted out i will go back to giving up smoking. i think they are both never ending battles :(
 
I gave up smoking two years ago after reading 'The easy way' by Alan Carr, I had no problems quiting at all, I wasn't moody, I didn't use any substitutes and found it quite easy! Since then I have put on two and a half stone and cannot shift it. I will never smoke again and to start smoking again to lose weight is just silly if you ask me. I often ask myself how I gave up smoking so easily and yet I can't control my food intake?
 
I find giving up smoking is harder... its totally different to food... well for me anyway, I get angry, emotional, cant concentrate, cant sleep and Im on a total food replacement diet! I might look at food and think "mmmm i want to eat that" but if I go and take my mind off it, Im fine, with smoking I physically cant take my mind off the fact that I need to smoke.
 
i quit smoking cold turkey.. just woke up one morning and decided i didn't like it anymore. I wish i could do that with chocolate ! I've struggled with my weight all my life, i'm not sure what triggers it.. I've lost weight in the past and then something happens where i just stop trying even though i feel great and loving the compliments, it's a form of self sabotage i guess. I'm hoping that once i finally get over that hump i'll lick it for good !
 
If you go to amazon and download the free kindle app, you can then search the kindle store for this book and download a free sample of it that you can start reading stright away. Its a useful item for seeing if any books you fancy are worth buying as you can try them out first
 
i think it depends on the person ive been smoking since i was 14 and been overweight since then too,, id usually smoke a pack of twenty over about two days, now im on maybe one or two a week and i havent even tried to do this, im just not wanting them, only want them when im stressing,,,as for my weight its been a constant struggle and doesnt get any easier! :)
 
I originally started losing weight when I was smoking and found it hard. Lost all the weight then quit smoking and Ive put some weight back on so i can honestly say that for me losing weight and keeping it off is harder than quitting smoking.
 
i would say giving up smokin is harder, when i quit smoking before i found that i was eating alot more, because i was bored, where as when i was smoking i was having a fag rather than a chocolate bar :)
i know smoking is bad, and a dirty habit, but once you are addicted it is so hard to give up, at least with loosing weight you can still eat where as when you quit smoking you cant have one :(
 
I gave up smoking two years ago after reading 'The easy way' by Alan Carr, I had no problems quiting at all, I wasn't moody, I didn't use any substitutes and found it quite easy! Since then I have put on two and a half stone and cannot shift it. I will never smoke again and to start smoking again to lose weight is just silly if you ask me. I often ask myself how I gave up smoking so easily and yet I can't control my food intake?

I gave up smoking at the beginning of this year after reading Alan Carr's book - it's genius. I'd tried everything to give up over the years, and never managed more than a week or so. I thought about cigarettes constantly if I told myself that I couldn't have one. I got hideously addicted to nicotine replacements (whilst still smoking :rolleyes:)...

Seriously, that book WORKS. I don't know how. I don't think I want to know how tbh, since that might break the spell and stop it working lol ;). Since the day that I read it, I effectively went cold turkey, and haven't had nicotine in any form since. I honestly haven't wanted to smoke, I had no cravings, nothing. I didn't gain any weight either - not even 1lb. I don't think about smoking at all. I KNOW I won't ever smoke again.

For those of you saying that you'll quit once you've finished dieting - seriously, do you think it will be any easier when you're maintaining rather than losing?

For me, giving up smoking was WAY easier than dieting in the end. I was completely nicotine free (as in it was all out of my system, cravings included) within 3 days tops. If someone can find me a way of dropping weight that quickly that is still healthy, I might change my mind ;)
 
i wish i could read a book and suddenly lose all the weight lol! :D ive heard great things about that book actually! x
 
Dieting is way harder. You can't escape food, you have to eat and go food shopping. Smoking you can avoid especially now you can't do it in public enclosed spaces and pubs. A nicotine patch, fake plastic fag or gum can fix all your cravings.....no way of satisfying a food craving is there without food!?
 
I read The Easyweigh to stop smoking about a month and a half ago and found it easy to stop, compared to going cold turkey, which I did a few years ago it was a breeze. Inspired by this, I read the Easyweigh to lose weight. I'd say that it was not as convincing for me, but was definitely worth the read. It would be a radical change to my diet, which I don't think I could keep up, but I am trying the first stage (eating only fruit for breakfast) and seeing how I get on. So far, so good!
 
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