It is generally known that most smokers who quit their habit put on weight.
What is less well known is that about 80 percent of quitters put on an average of 7 kg each.
And what might come as a surprise to some people is that this weight increase occurs even if the quitters’ calorific intake remains the same as or even falls from the level before quitting.
According to a Medical Xpress story, researchers working with Gerhard Rogler of Zurich University Hospital attribute the cause of the weight gain to a changed composition of the bacterial diversity in the intestine.
“As they recently showed in PLoS One, the bacterial strains that also prevail in the intestinal flora of obese people take the upper hand in people giving up smoking,” the story said.
The full story is at http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-08-smokers-gain-weight.html.