How Eating Fast Food & Quitting Smoking Fattens You

If you are a frequent customer of fast-food restaurants, you're probably eating more fat and calories than you want or need. Fast food has several problems. First, although low calorie choices are available, most people don't order them. A typical fast-food meal averages 700 to 1,200 calories. Part of the blame rests on the fact that portion sizes are out of control. "Super-sizing" an order of fries or a soda may only cost a few cents more and seem like a bargain, but it comes at a big caloric price. A super-sized order of fries has a whopping 540 calories and 26 grams of fat (in comparison, a small order has 210 calories and 10 grams of fat) and a large 32-ounce cola has 310 calories, compared to 150 calories in a small one.

Secondly, whether you eat in the restaurant or in your car, you're probably eating quickly, much too quickly. Researchers have consistently shown that one of the best ways to moderate how much you eat is to relax, eat slowly, and focus on your meal. People dining in restaurants at booths and benches that offer only about ten minutes of comfort. They're wolfing down their meals so they can head off on their next errand or rush back to work. Particularly when it comes to fast-food chains, people tend to eat in response to outside cues such as advertising, bargain prices, convenience, and speed - very rarely for health or pleasure.

The Fat-Smoke Connection

You may gain up to 10 pounds when you quit smoking, but most people return to their normal weights at the end of a year. The gain, according to research conducted at Kaiser Permanente in California and published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association (1996; 11:1150-1155), seems to be due to eating extra calories in the first month after you quit, and peaks at about 6 months. Although it's not clear why quitting smoking leads to weight gain, it's likely that nicotine somehow increases metabolic rate, and quitting smoking lowers it.

A study published in the American Journal of Public Health (1996; Volume 86, Number 7) offers a solution. When researchers followed 9,000 women for 2 years, they found that light smokers (24 cigarettes or less per day) who quit and added 1 to 2 hours of vigorous physical activity each week averaged a 4'/2-pound weight gain; formerly heavy smokers (25 cigarettes or more per day) averaged a gain of S'/z pounds. Even more beneficial was exercising 2 or more hours per week. Light smokers had an average gain of just 3 pounds, and heavy smokers 6 pounds. By comparison, light smokers who quit but did not change their activity level gained 5 pounds on average, and heavy smokers nearly 9 l/2 pounds. Meanwhile, women who continued to smoke still gained, too: about 1 pound during the study.