Quitting smoking makes you put on weight but carrying on smoking makes you gain more. That is the conclusion researchers have reached at the University of Navarra and have been monitoring people for 50 months. The data "have been adjusted by age, sex, baseline body mass index and lifestyle," explained the principal investigator, Javier Basterra-Gortari, so that "the only remaining factor is smoking." The study is published in the Spanish Journal of Cardiology.

"The snuff is an anorectic [suppress appetite], and that's why people who quit smoking gain weight," adds Basterra-Gortari. That makes it much a more relevant finding in the study. Put in order, the most weight gain are those who stop smoking, then those who still do, and finally, those who have never smoked, says the researcher. "So the best thing for maintaining a healthy life is never to smoke," he adds.

The weight gain of people who quit smoking during the study was greater the more cigarettes smoked daily at the time of starting the investigation. "The association between overweight and smoking is particularly harmful to cardiovascular health. Therefore, quitting smoking has been associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer. However, experts contend that weight gain after quitting is often a reason not to give up smoking, especially among women.