Effects of Smoking to Your Cardio Workouts

If you want to have a successful weight loss program, there's no better way than to have a healthy diet coupled with constant exercise. When it comes to exercising, you usually do either weight training to have bigger muscles and become stronger or cardio exercises that will improve your endurance and burn all those calories. And of course, you can do both. However, even if you have a very effective diet plan and constant exercise, vices can hamper your success. And among these vices, smoking probably has to be the most common and the hardest to abstain from. Let me share my experience.

I've been into diet programs and weight loss routines for a couple of years now. When I'm not trying to lose weight, I do exercise occasionally to try and keep my body used to working out. However, I am also a smoker and I still smoke a bit these days. It's quite hard to kick the habit but at least I'm getting there. Before, I was smoking around 2 packs a day but lately, just around 2 sticks a day.

Now, when you perform cardio exercises, you usually would be out breath after a few minutes especially if you're doing high-impact cardio workouts. I sometimes rest then go at it again after about 30 seconds up to a minute. Now, as much as a lot of people say that they are not affected by smoking, well what happened to me was different. I actually didn't notice it until after a few weeks.

As I continued to do high impact cardio workouts, I noticed that I started to get exhausted earlier than before when I was not smoking. I gasp for air much earlier into the routines so I knew something was wrong. Sometimes, I even procrastinate because I'm really tired. Sometimes it's difficult to even wake up because when I get up, I start to cough and have difficulty in breathing. It does become better after a while but the feeling is really bad. I immediately blamed it on smoking.

I was actually right. I did my best to lessen the cigarettes considerably to confirm that it was the reason and after a few days, I started to notice that I am feeling better again. I can withstand a few more minutes of high-impact workouts. However, I've already lost some valuable time due to the recovery period. I haven't quit smoking completely yet but I'm trying to remove the habit and I'm almost there.

Our family physician always reminds me to stay away from cigarettes as much as possible. Well, I know he'll be disappointed when he reads this but at least he knows I'm always trying to quit. He always tells me that we need oxygen and how can you effectively take in oxygen if you can't breathe because of smoking?

Well, what happened to me may not happen to you. You could either be better off or otherwise. But regardless of which, smoking can really affect your weight loss programs. You may become weaker and you can't burn calories efficiently because you get tired easily. You probably won't be able to push yourself as much as when you were not smoking. I know it's difficult to quit smoking but do your best to stay away from the habit. Just maintain your motivation and your drive and enthusiasm will follow suit.

Source:

Dr. Ramon A. Reyes M.D., Internal Medicine - Cardiologist
St. Luke's Medical Center, Philippines