Published data shows that in 2000 excess weight and fat caused 400,000 deaths while smoking caused 435, 0000 deaths. Many people rightly believe that the major cause of excess body weight is poor eating habit and lack of exercise.The problem of excess weight needs to be considered as serious. If you smoke cigarettes regularly you might as well count yourself as a drug addict. The same may also be said if you regularly chew tobacco. When you smoke you take in a chemical called nicotine.

Nicotine has several effects on your body. One of the most important effects is that it reduces your sense of hunger, raises your pain tolerance level and to some extent increases your sense of concentration. These are minor benefits compared to the damages it causes to your body.Tobacco has over 40 cancer causing agents. This should be something to worry about if you are a smoker. Smoking also enhances the clogging of arteries and raises the blood pressure. This helps to increase the heart attack risk for smokers when you compare them with non-smokers.Smoking has also been found to cause thickening of the blood. This increases the risk of blood clots, which can result in a stroke.

Smoking increases your metabolism by a rate of 200 calories a day. A smoker will therefore weigh less than a non-smoker of the same age who eats the same food and leads the same lifestyle. However you can be an obese smoker.

In fact there are many obese and overweight smokers. Obese smokers have 3-5 times risk of death due to various health complications than none smokers.

If you are obese and smoke you will need to lose weight as well as quit smoking. This is not going to be easy. You will need to prepare your self and develop strategies.

Your first step will be to set your goals. Your goals must be realistic and achievable within a specific time. It is important that you focus on each day’s events and objectives.

If you can go one day without smoking you can do it the following day. To succeed you need to focus all your attention in the forces that will come to offset your resolve to quit smoking.

Special effort and attention will be required in the first six months. As for weight you will have to ensure that it’s not increasing. Maintain a steady weight as you work on quitting smoking. Once you have some success in smoking cessation you can begin to work on weight loss. Your success will inspire you into weight loss.

The first step is to deal with the amount of food that you eat. The more calorie dense food that you eat, the more you will be likely to add weight.

If you stop smoking and do not decrease your food intake you will gain weight in the range of 5-10 pounds or more. However the gain is short lived and it will fall off provided you do not change your diet

To lose weight you will need to do some exercise. You may want to begin with walking. Choose whatever exercise you are most comfortable with. However discuss this with your doctor before you begin especially if you have health concerns that may be affected when you increase your physical activity.

At first exercise will appear hard and unpleasant chore but gradually you will begin to enjoy it. Exercise will change your life. You will not regret when you lose weight and stop smoking.