Leptin not to blame for weight gain after smoking cessation

By Robert Cervin, June 10th, 2013 | Health | 0 Comments

There is no decrease in the appetite hormone leptin when someone gives up smoking so there is some other reason for any weight gain.
The hormone leptin regulates appetite and so helps control weight. It’s been debated that smoking keeps leptin levels high and so keeps weight down. Smoking cessation could make leptin levels plummet and maybe that’s why people put on weight when they quit.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh can now discount the role of leptin in smoking cessation-linked weight gain. For they have measured, for the first time, leptin in non-smokers, current smokers and ex-smokers. They find no significant difference. Evidently we should look for other factors - perhaps hormones involved in body weight regulation - for the reason why smoking cessation tends to lead people to put on a few pounds. But risks of this weight gain are far outweighed by the health benefits of quitting smoking.