Stop Smoking

quit smoking efforts can often be put on the back burner with the fear of gaining weight, that goes especially for young women. That’s why exercise is frequently professed as not only a way to help combat cravings, but also to keep the unwanted kilograms at bay. But is it the best approach?

Perhaps not. According to a new study young women were asked about their smoking habits. Through this study two smoking cessation programs were developed to find out which of them was more effective.

The first phase of the study consisted of setting up five focus groups with 43 college-age women to better understand their behavior in connection with smoking. Researchers found that the women smoked for social and body image reasons and to cope with stress, and wanted information relayed electronically as part of their treatment.

In the second phase, 24 female college-age students were randomly divided into two groups: a supervised group exercise program, or group counseling sessions focusing on body image. Women in both groups also received a nicotine patch. After eight weeks, the counseling group had more than twice the rate of smoking cessation as the exercise group, 18% versus 8%. The counseling group also lost more weight — 3.3 pounds versus less than a pound for the exercise group. Information was sent to the study participants via e-mail and text messages, as the women preferred.

To read how these quit smoking groups got on – visit LAT for the full story.

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