Thread: Quit Smoking: Bigger Problem

So I am not sure if this goes here but I have come across a big problem and I feel defeated even going through it.
I quit smoking April 1st. I gained 15 pounds since then. I have been keeping track of my calorie intake and been moving more/working out. Even if it is at home doing DDPY which I started this week.

I went from a size 10 pants to size 16 in 2 weeks and I look 7 months pregnant. Everybody is telling me this is temporary and will go away in 30 days when you quit. It has been over 30 and I am busting out of my pants. I get people telling me it is water retention to I have to stop snacking (on what? water?) I upped my water to where I am drinking 1/2 gallon or more a day, urinating every 15 minutes and at least 3x in the middle of the night. I eat, I get hunger pains and headaches. I have quit snacking and have tapered processed foods. My calorie intake is 1450 daily. Every Ex-smoker I spoke with has gone through different. Mine feels like an extreme case to the point where I feel my digestive system stalled. Been a week since I can use the restroom and I am desperate to take laxatives at this point. Yes I upped my fiber and water intake and nothing.

Not sure what to do at this point but I feel like I should go back to smoking as that is how I kept my weight down. Has anybody gone through rapid weight gain and retention? What should I do to get rid of it quickly! I had to spend $$$$ to buy new clothes just to go to work. And already I am busting out of the pants.

I am really feeling defeated. I'm at a point where I am debating if I should refuse myself to eat just to go back to a size 12 at least!

you've probably been asked this a lot, but are you absolutely sure you're counting correctly?

Originally Posted by faithbrah

you've probably been asked this a lot, but are you absolutely sure you're counting correctly?

I weigh my food. Use my fitness pal. Measure everything twice, not by size, only by weight including any oils/spices.

When in doubt. I round up. I often go to bed hungry and wake up couple times a night starving. Fitness I round down how many calories I burned.

I would start going for a walk everyday the longer the better. BMR for a women is lower than most people think and about 400 calories less than a man at the same size. https://fitfolk.com/average-basal-en...olic-rate-bmr/

So it is entirely possibly if you sat in bed all day and did nothing that your BMR is under 1400 based on that graph however note that we have tiny women closer to 100 pounds on here eating over way over 2000 calories a day that's because they are very active.

How many steps do you get in a day? I find it hard to believe you are not finding success on 1450 a day average but if your tracking is even a bit off or you have even a small cheat once a week and your not moving very much at all you don't have much room to work with. You obviously based on your own testimony cannot eat less than you are but the bottom line is your not in a deficit despite all your issues so to me the only real way to make progress is going to be for you to start being more active. I bet if you added an hour a day of walking just 2-3 miles you would see the scale start moving again. Going back to smoking is a terrible idea don't do that.