Smokers give lots of reasons for not quitting smoking, with fear of weight gain ranking as one of the most favored, but a new study that followed smokers from the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) confirms that even modest increases in physical activity can minimize weight gain in postmenopausal women after they have quit smoking. Results are published online today in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS).

The findings appear in the article “Physical activity and weight gain after smoking cessation in postmenopausal women.” This is the first known study to evaluate the relationship between physical activity and postcessation weight gain in postmenopausal women. The study followed more than 4,700 baseline smokers from the WHI for 3 years, at which point it was determined that quitters gained an average of 7.7 pounds over those women who continued smoking. Quitters who undertook increased physical activity, defined as more than 15 metabolic equivalent task-hours per week, had the lowest weight gain of 5.6 pounds. Of these, women who were obese experienced the greatest benefit from physical activity compared with women of normal weight.

More promising is the finding that quitters who participated in little physical activity at baseline and then had higher physical activity at year 3 and also enrolled in a dietary modification intervention had nonsignificant weight gain compared with continuing smokers.

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