But things are not that easy. When you are overweighed, you are surely lacking important minerals and probably some vitamins, especially the ones triggering the immune system, like vitamin C. And because they have a slower metabolism, they should be actually depositing nutritional elements, and this includes vitamins and minerals. But because they are not processed in time, they do not count as assimilated nutrients and will not help in any way fighting the alimentary deficits.

Back when I was almost obese, I was in fact pretty malnourished, as strange as that might sound. Because the vitamins & minerals I was eating were not properly assimilated and because most of them were burned in the digesting process, I was lacking lots of important things. I didn’t think of taking any vitamins & minerals supplements. I seemed inappropriate at the time to take supplements when I was already overweighed.

If you don’t get enough vitamins and minerals, then you will surely lose all your muscular tissue. When I did decide that it was time to lose all that unhealthy weight, my main focus was on the muscles. Because I am a man, should not have hanging fat circles around my belly. Instead, I should have a full six pack abs. That’s too much to ask when you are merely beginning, but it can be done with effort and determination.

Focusing on fitness at first, I was obliged to learn about vitamins & minerals. Without them, I could not find the strength to perform the difficult sports tasks especially because I haven’t been exercising in a while. But ever since I started to eat healthier, and eat a whole lot of vegetable and fruits, full of vitamins C, A and B, I found a lost strength, one I hadn’t been feeling since my childhood age.

Minerals also help a man remaining active and healthy. Without them, a severe hair loss can occur, stains on the skin and even a dysfunction in sexual functions. So vitamins & minerals are needed for a healthy metabolism. If you are overweighed, they will help speeding up the metabolism a lot, without much effort and complicated diets. That of course if they are associated with regular exercises.

In time, they helped me move from my living room floor exercises to a real gym, because I wasn’t anymore ashamed of the way I looked. In a gym, I saw various people taking lots of nutritional bars to grow muscles. I don’t want to gain weight, even if it’s just muscular weight. When they eat their protein bars, I eat an apple. Must seem funny in their eyes, but it works fine for me. Green tea is also helping me remain active during gym hours, but I’m also drinking plain water, because hydration is essential also.

Vitamins & minerals should not be disregarded by men in their diets. Simply eating a lot of proteins from meat and diary products will not induce the needed effect of muscular growth. Nest to proteins, carbs and water, you also need natural components that help synthesizing the first ones and maintain a normal metabolic speed.

To be frank, even if someone would’ve told me that I couldn’t have cared less, because I was overwhelmed by the idea of not touching cigarettes again. But my struggle with nicotine addition is a completely different story…

Weight gain when you quit smoking is going to happen no matter what you do mostly because most smokers are usually malnourished already. Even if this is not visible in the pounds they weight, they surely lack plenty vitamins and minerals and the protein metabolism in they bodies in all messed up. Also, smokers tend to forget about sports, because if they smoke long enough they will feel unable to do some basic exercises. If I tried to run for only a couple of feet, I would feel a burning pain in my chest and the shorted breath stopped me every time. Also, when I was smoking I was consuming a lot less water than normal. Mainly because with every cigarette I lighted I needed something to go along with it and that was usually a cup of coffee. Drinking all that coffee disallowed by body to feel thirsty…or hungry. After quitting, all the thirst and hunger sensation were back and stronger than ever. I was like being born again, and I was happy to see the food tasting better, but never thought about weight gain when you quit smoking issues. Not at that point.

And the months passed, and everyone was congratulating me and the pounds continued to add until it was obvious that I was beginning to fell tired and unwell again. This time it wasn’t the nicotine and coffee that made me feel like that, this time was all that extra fat that was a new addition to by body. Maybe if you are a bit overweighed by nature you feel differently when you gain a bit of weight, but for me this was like a true torture: each pound seemed to weight as much as ten. I was really tired and I went to see my doctor. All my eating, all the fats and sweets caused me to almost double my weight is less than a year. That was huge and the doctor said that I was almost obese. Me, obese!

At this point I had to turn to those friends I used to laugh at back when I had no weight problems. Now it was their turn to laugh, but they didn’t. Instead they helped me lose the weight I’ve gained. You see, having to deal with weight problems their entire lives changed the way they treat others with the same issues, because they understand. I couldn’t understand before, so I was mean to them. We decided that I needed a diet to return me to normal weight. It took me almost another year to do this, and the weight gain when you quit smoking effects are still visible sometimes, because I didn’t know how to stop in time. The frequent eating I did affected my metabolism in so many ways that it is very hard to speed it up efficiently. Anyway, with lost of efforts, I managed to regain a rather normal weight, but I’m on a regular diet plan. Not really a diet but more like a healthy eating plan: I eat cereals, raw foods and foods that are not very processed and fish or chicken, and also seeds. But the main thing that turned my life around was exercising. Without my daily running hour I would still be overweighed.

If I were to quit smoking again now, with all my knowledge against weight gain when you quit smoking I would do everything quite differently. Maybe a minimal weight gain would still occur, but I wouldn’t double my weight for sure. When you quit smoking you can go for a simple detox diet. That should keep you off eating unhealthy stuff because you are stress at least for one or two weeks. The best choice is a meat free diet or a raw food diet. Then, I would try do exercise the very first day I quit. Since the nicotine is gone, why worry I will get tired? I might be hard at first but things will only get better in time. In a word, I would do everything in my power not to let smoking further ruin my life even after I’ve decided to quit.