When you are relaxing and looking out over the world from your deck chair, you may wonder about your health with a nice cigar in your mouth. Many people immediately think that their cigars will cause them to gain weight, which is why cigars are seen as unhealthy.
Cigars have no calories and cannot cause you to gain any more weight while actively smoking the cigars. The nicotine in cigars will stop your body from absorbing more calories from anything else you can gain calories from.
There are many things about cigars that are myths and misunderstandings, with the typical images of the cigars causing further confusion. You must understand the intricacies and complexities that cigars have regarding your appetite and how it affects your overall body shape.
How Does Tobacco Affect Your Caloric Intake?
The confusion about cigars and calories comes from how tobacco does react with the calories you are consuming. While the cigars themselves do not add any calories to your body, because you cannot absorb calories through smoking, they change the way your body reacts.
From our research, we know that there are three ways that nicotine can affect the way your body reacts to calories in any food. The first thing we need to know is that your body can only absorb calories from the food you are eating and almost no other way.
Boost Metabolism
An odd thing that happens to many people when they start smoking cigars is that their metabolism speeds up, causing the body to absorb fewer calories. While the food will still have the same number of calories, because the metabolism is working faster, there is not enough time to absorb it.
This is why you may see people that start smoking cigars initially having to go to the bathroom a lot more often than they are used to. It can also be why people who smoke cigars can eat a lot of food and never seem fully satisfied or gain any weight.
Reduce Calorie Absorption
Working in combination with a metabolism speeding up, the body may lose the ability to absorb as many calories as it should. Nicotine physically stops the gut from absorbing calories, causing you to lose weight as your body no longer receives the same amount of energy from the food you eat.
Your body will still process the food like routine and will absorb many of the vitamins and nutrients from the food that you are eating. Many times, smokers who have not appropriately adjusted will have lower energy overall; this is because their bodies are not absorbing the calories needed for this.
Reduce Appetite
This is usually the most noticeable effect of smoking cigars that people have reported; as the nicotine enters your system, you are less hungry. A loss of appetite when smoking any tobacco is normal and will drastically reduce your caloric intake simply because there is no food.
Many smokers that experience this side-effect find themselves barely eating throughout the day, and when they do eat, it will be in small quantities. Many times, this is why you will see smokers, whether cigar or cigarette, that started young being skinny.
Why Do People Think Cigars Cause Weight Increases?
The typical image of someone smoking a cigar is someone with a large belly and an old suit, either being lazy or extremely rich. The perception and connection with the upper class being the only ones to smoke cigars are what set off the initial misunderstanding.
In reality, once you stop smoking any tobacco, your appetite suddenly changes, with many that never ate anything eating a lot more. While those who used to absorb almost no calories continuing like normal, causing them to overeat food for the amount of activity they do.
When people stop smoking cigars or cigarettes, they will suddenly start eating a lot more, almost to the point of becoming addicted to food. This sudden increase in calories and fats causes people to gain weight rapidly, which has caused peopled to think cigars can cause you to gain weight.
Does Nicotine Burn Fat?
Oddly enough, the act of smoking a cigar and the work involved can cause you to burn some calories. It will always be a negligible amount, around ten calories, if you are smoking four cigars in a row; however, it requires energy to smoke the cigar they can burn fat.
Smoking cigarettes has been a lot more studied and researched in this regard, and it has been found that if you smoke a pack a day, that burns 250 calories. Together with the drastically decreased ability to absorb calories from food, you can lose weight by smoking any tobacco.
However, as much as you would like cigars to burn fat physically, it is not possible as the smoke never interacts directly with any process of the body that has fat. Instead, what is more likely to happen is that you can be slightly dehydrated, and the fat cells in your body would let go of some of their stored water.
What Happens When You Stop Smoking Cigars?
Because cigars are not meant to be smoked as often or as much as other tobacco products, there should be little to no change in your body. Over time your lungs will naturally perform better, and your risk of heart disease will drastically decrease until it is no longer an issue.
However, because smoke cigars differ so significantly, it can be hard to predict the actual effect of cigars on your body. If you smoke a few every single day, their effect will be worse than cigarettes. However, if you smoke a cigar only once a year, there are almost no adverse effects.
Usually, smoking cigars daily will have many other health issues that they will need to worry about. While those who are healthy and smoke cigars only on special occasions will have little to no worries about the overall effect of the nicotine on their bodies.
How Does Smoking Cigars Affect Calories Need For Exercise?
It may seem odd or forced on you when you are told to stop smoking cigars as you start to exercise. However, many good and very valid reasons smoking cigars or any tobacco while you exercise will not be suitable for your health.
Most people who smoke are not overly healthy to begin with, so it is so hard for them to become fit while smoking. However, it should be noted that if you are already fit, chances are you will lose little to no strength if you continue training while you are smoking.
Lack Of Energy
This is the biggest hurdle that smokers of cigars face when they start exercising regularly, having to face the challenge of gathering energy. While calories are wrong if you do barely any exercise, you need calories to keep your energy moving forward once you start training regularly.
When you are smoking, you have little to no energy, precisely because the nicotine inhibits your body’s ability to absorb energy from food. While your fat cells can provide energy, it takes a long time for fat to be converted to energy and will cause you to be hurt as your energy levels fluctuate.
Eating More
Usually, when someone starts exercising, they start eating more because the body starts to crave the fast energy gathered from food. However, when smoking, the amount of food that needs to be eaten is drastically increased, causing you to eat a significant amount more than is healthy.
Usually, you may think that smoking and then starting to exercise a good idea might cause you to fatten up before losing any weight. Instead, it is better to quit smoking and not be addicted at all and then start to exercise, properly allowing your body to adjust to healthy eating first.
Slower Gains
One of the critical principles of exercising is to gain muscles, whether you want to be fit or if you want to become the strongest person alive. However, cigars will inhibit this growth significantly as the energy needed from calories to grow muscles may be used just to keep you awake.
While smokers enjoy muscles that can grow like any average person, the progress will be significantly slower than those of someone who does not smoke. Still, it should be safe to smoke a cigar on special occasions, once or twice a year, to help you relax and enjoy a party.
Why Do Cigars Not Give You Calories?
Simply put, your body can only absorb calories through the stomach, which is why it is absorbed through the food and drinks you consume. Cigars only provide smoke that can go into your lungs, which cannot absorb any calories.
It should be understood that your lungs can absorb other toxins and gases, which is how nicotine enters the bloodstream. With the inclusion that your body can absorb nicotine through your gums and your tongue.
However, even if you were to smoke something sweet like cherry cigars or vapes, your lungs will not absorb any calories. Instead, if you find that you are smoking something with artificial sweet tastes, you should be careful about getting popcorn lung, which will kill you quite painfully.
When Should You Consider Smoking A Cigar Daily?
It can seem strange, especially after all the quotes and research on why you should never smoke, but there are instances where a cigar a day is healthy. However, we preface this by stating that research is still conflicting and that you should still stop after a certain point.
Suppose you suffer from high cholesterol and have recently had problems with fat in your veins; smoking a cigar daily can be incredibly beneficial. Because you would be losing weight drastically from not eating and absorbing a lot fewer calories, you can reduce the risks caused by being overweight.
The reason cigars are preferred because they are harder to get addicted to than cigarettes while also providing more nicotine when smoked. Cigarettes and their filters are perfect for stopping tar from being smoked, but they are also a lot more addictive and cause more problems than they solve.
Conclusion
Despite what it may feel like, cigars will not cause you to gain any weight at all and may aid you in losing both fat and muscle mass. As unique and relaxing as possible to smoke cigars, you should never forget that it is still a drug that will change how your body acts.
Whatever you do, please remember that your cigars are not substitutes for a good meal; eating a balanced diet is always important!