I need to both for my health. It’s just to the point of “not an option”. It’s very difficult to do both, however, though I do intend to try. However, if I have to give up either the smoking cessation or the diet in order to concentrate fully on the other, which would you recommend? Has anybody ever simultaneously and, more importantly, successfull gone on both a quit-smoking and weight-loss program at the same time?
I’d go for smoking. The damage to your body done by Krispie Cream can (generally) be undone later in life by losing weight.
The damage done by smoking can kill you even after you quit.
The less amount of time you do it, the better.
I’d try both. Put the energy and frustration of needing a smoke into the gym. I’d not worry about a very strict or special diet at the moment. Stop smoking and exercise away the stress if you can. You’ll gravitate to better eating habits in due time if you stick with the other two long enough.
Good luck.
I agree that you should quit smoking first for the same reasons. It’s worse for you.
If you use the patch or another quitting aid, it will be easier to control your appetite while you’re quitting, and once you quit smoking, you will be able to do more cardio and it will help with your weight.
But on the other hand, I found losing weight easier than quitting smoking. When I lost weight, I did a lot of cardio and drank coffee and smoked cigarettes when I was hungry. Then later I quit smoking with the patch. I think I could have easily done both at the same time if I were allowed to scream, cry and murder people with a big knife whenever I wanted but since that’s not allowed I was not able to do both at once.
My advice for this is to become a celebrity and move to California.
Anyone else need any advice? 
I know of one person, a friend’s father, who did both at the same time. Actually, it was diet, quitting smoking, no alcohol, and no caffeine at the same time. His trick? Become a Mormon. You can evidently quit everything bad with no trouble when the Mormon church is breathing down your neck.
Lacking any particular religious fervor, I’d get the smoking under control and then go for the weight loss. People who quit smoking do ocassionally put on a bit of weight, so it seems a logical order to me.
I’d also suggest seeing your doctor about your plans, if you haven’t already, that is. He or she might have some suggestions in addition to making sure you’re in good shape (well, you know what I mean). Wellbutrin is what some people have had their doctors prescribe to help stop smoking. An added bonus is that it can not only curb your desire to smoke, but works on food cravings as well. But I’m not a doctor, so go see yours. I’ll wait here.
Doing both could be good, but it could also be too much. Pay special attention to your body and its signals during this period. It is more important to quit smoking than it is to lose weight right off the bat, although QuickSilver is right that channeling withdrawl symptoms into extra activity can be beneficial. Personally, though, I found diet+exercise+quitting smoking all at once = mean Sausage Creature. Sometimes it’s easier to quit one bad habit than to gain a new good one – I’m rather, ah, athletically challenged so it was a tad overwhelming at the time. Like I said though, pay attention to how you feel and whatnot and decide your best course of action.
And best of luck with your endeavor!
I tried to lose weight by dieting and tried to quit smoking at the same time. Pure folly. There was simply no way I was able to refrain from smoking while dieting - the stress of being hungry drove me straight to a smoke.
Once I lost the some weight from dieting, I switched to exercise. Exercise is much better way to quit smoking, simply b/c you don’t want a cigarette as much.
So for me first it was the weight, then the cigarettes (which I kicked by both running alot and eating sunflower seeds when I had a craving).
That was 1992 - haven’t smoked more than a few here and there, and I’ve kept the weight off. Eh - I could probably lose five pounds or so but I’m nothing like what I used to weigh.
Good luck!
I kind of did both at the same time. I realised it was time to quit last summer(Grandfather passed away from lung cancer, prices keep going up, getting up the stairs was becoming a work out, I’d only been smoking for a few years so I knew I should do it now before it got even tougher), and everytime I craved a cigarette, I’d go for a jog. I hate jogging - I love swimming or biking, but jogging sucks. So, not only did I manage to lose some weight and get my legs looking pretty good, but I managed to get rid of the cravings really fast… associating “wanting a cigarette” with “panting and suffering through ANOTHER jog” was the kicker. I also rewarded myself with an MP3 player after a few weeks of not smoking, which made the jogging more tolerable.
I also cut back on coffee and alcohol while quitting, though I wan’t trying to. It was just breaking routines, y’know, get up, make coffee, sit on the balcony with an espresso and a cigarette. Or, go out to the bar, have a few drinks, somehow manage to smoke almost half a pack.
Yes, I was the more boring twenty year old girl on the planet for awhile, but man do I feel better knowing that I’m avoiding heart problems, lung cancer, and wrinkles down the road.
Quit smoking.
I gained a fair amount of weight when I did – and my doctor is still telling me, six years later, “better to be carrying some extra weight than smoking.”
Quit smoking. Because smoking is a yes/no proposition while dieting is about moderation and regulation - therefore much tricker to control. After a few months of not smoking you’re over the hard part and can start dieting without inordinate danger that you’ll pick up smoking again (although it’s always a possibility). Dieting, on the other hand, will always be a daily battle. If you quit smoking mid-diet, you’ll find yourself fighting on two fronts and are liable to lose both that way.
I just quit smoking 5½ months ago. I decided that, once I quit, I would respond to a cigarette cravinng by doing squat-thrusts. Or push-ups. Any kind of exercise will do. I had to spend most of my lunch hour walking off the nicotine fit, but now I have little desire to smoke and I need to drop maybe 5-8 pounds.
When you quit amoking, you get back the ebergy to maintain an exercise regimen that will get your weight down. It’s hard to believe, but it happens.
Quite smoking! You really need to only deprive yourself so much at a time before it becomes torture. After your success in kicking the nicotine monkey, dieting will be sooooo easy!!!
This from an ex smoker and ex fat guy.
You can do it! Congratulations on your decision to be healthier…I’m sure you will do well.
Quit smoking first. If not for the valid reasons already mentioned, then because having some extra gut is better than having bad breath and yellow teeth and constantly wheezing. Plus, I seen pictures of you, and it’s not as if you’re morbidly obese. So quit smoking, and then when you’re done, tell me how you did it so I can too.
Both, obviously, but if you have to do one before the other, smoking first, being very careful not to change your eating habits because you’re giving up smoking - lots of people find they eat more and put on weight when they quit smoking, for a variety of reasons, but primarily boredom and the return of their sense of taste and appetite.
Another vote for smoking first - I do think QuickSilver’s suggestion is a good one, but looking back to when I quite about 16 months ago, I didn’t want to do exercise - I wanted to eat something sugary. It might work for you.
Once you’ve given up smoking, it’ll be easier to diet (I think) because you will be able to say “anything’s easy after giving up smoking”, “if I can stop smoking, I can exercise” etc etc.
Having said that, I still don’t exercise, but I’m getting there.
Quit smoking. It’ll make you healthier, and then you’ll be able to exercise to get even more healthy and accelerate your weight loss. Good luck! I did both. It’s a piece of cake if you really, really want it.
I quit smoking seven years ago. It was hell. But I eventually got over it, and don’t ache to smoke anymore. But I gained about 30 pounds when I quit. I dieted it off six months later. It was hell. And I still want to eat. Can’t go cold turkey eating. Can’t abstain from eating, either. Have to do it ‘moderately’ which for me is akin to trying to smoke crack ‘sensibly’.
**Quit smoking or lose weight: which first? **
Start excercising first.
Okay, burn me for a heretic, but I don’t believe that it’s a good idea to startle your body. Your body has some funny reactions to things that shock it, like causing you to throw up, pass out, wild mood swings, and incontinence. You probably want to avoid those things if you can.
Right now, your body is kinda used to (a) inhaling a certain amount of smoke a day, (b) eating a certain amount of food, and © getting a certain amount of exercise. If you change any of those a lot all at once, it will feel bad. Probably won’t kill you, but it certainly won’t make you feel better in the short run, which is what you need to make this work in the long run.
Unless you are one of the rare few, you probably won’t be able to quit smoking by weaning yourself slowly purely by force of will. Likewise, you probably won’t lose much weight if you slowly start eating less and less. However…
if you start exercising a little more every day, and keep smoking (for now) and eating what you’re used to, you’ll be a little sore. In a week or two, you can start slowly cutting out the smoking and cutting back on the fat, sugar and red meat in your diet, and over time, you’ll quit smoking, lose weight, get into better shape, and feel lots better. If you do this right, you’ll also do this without feeling like you just went through withdrawal.
YMM totally V. That’s what’s worked for me.
I recommend you see a doctor. A friend of mine was told to lose weight first, then quit smoking, because* in the doctor’s opinion,* of his weight was more a health crisis for him than smoking was.