When the American health organization investigated the reasons why young people start smoking, it determined that the most effective justification was the belief that "it helps with weight loss," and decided to research the validity of this belief on 4000 volunteers.
The research was conducted over a 7-year period by Robert Klesges from the University of Memphis; the results were published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. The research concluded that there is no significant link between smoking and weight loss.
In one group, people of Black race were given the suggestion that they would lose weight if they smoked. This group lost a negligible amount of weight after a while, then regained the weight they had lost. The reason for selecting the Black race was that their metabolism is hereditarily faster. No weight loss was observed in the other groups.
It was found that those who quit smoking gained approximately 4 to 6.6 kilograms — however, this increase was not linked to smoking speeding up metabolism, but rather to excessive junk food consumption due to stress during the quitting process. These kilograms can gradually be lost about a year after quitting.
In conclusion, smoking does not help with weight loss; on the contrary, it can cause a temporary weight increase during the quitting process. Adolescents are being encouraged to get used to smoking with this false belief.
