Exercise helps you quit - for good.

Pikes Peak looms 14,110 feet in the Colorado sky. Once deemed impossible to climb by the U.S. Army explorer Zebulon Pike, climbers now regularly traverse the narrow, precipitous, 28-mile trail from Manitou Springs to the peak and back. Each August more than 1,000 runners challenge the mountain during the Pikes Peak Marathon, one of the oldest marathon race events in the United States. Only the fittest runners who train yearlong on the highest mountains are able to run the entire way to the top and back. Most end up mixing walking with running as the thin air near the top leaves them gasping and lightheaded from lack of oxygen.

The Pikes Peak Marathon was first staged in 1956 by Dr. Arne Suominen, an early critic of cigarette smoking. He was interested in testing his theory, novel at that time, that cigarette smoking considerably diminished one's physical endurance. He challenged cigarette smokers to race 10 nonsmokers to the top and back. Although three smokers took up the challenge, none were able to finish the race, as Monte Wolford, a nonsmoking vegetarian, dominated the race from start to finish. Despite repeated attempts, no smoker has ever won the race, and according to most fitness experts, never will.

Smoking and fitness don't mix. Smokers are less likely than nonsmokers to make regular exercise a part of their lives, mainly because exercise is more difficult for smokers. Carbon monoxide is present in cigarette smoke in large amounts, and rapidly enters the blood, combining with the hemoglobin in the red blood cells. Normally the hemoglobin carries oxygen to the muscles and cells of the body. When carbon monoxide from cigarette smoke is present, about 5 percent of the hemoglobin is taken over for more than 5 hours. This decreases the delivery of oxygen to the muscles during vigorous exercise, making all effort seem more difficult than normal.

Cigarette smoke also increases the heart rate, robbing the heart's ability to supply blood to the muscles during exercise. And the resistance to air flow after smoking is increased in the lung passageways, making it harder to deliver oxygen to the lungs during hard exercise.

Scientists who have compared the fitness of smokers and nonsmokers report that smokers come out on the short end. Dr. Kenneth Cooper studied 1,000 young recruits in the Air Force, including smokers and nonsmokers. The ability to run as far as possible in 12 minutes (the famous "Cooper test") was directly related to the amount of cigarettes smoked, with those smoking more than 30 cigarettes a day in the worst shape.

Dr. Terry Conway of the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego studied the physical fitness of more than 3,000 Navy personnel, 44 percent of whom were smokers. Dr. Conway found smoking "to be a detriment to physical readiness even among these relatively young military personnel."

The lack of fitness and inability to exercise strongly can actually be an incentive to give up cigarettes. "Smokers who get involved in aerobic exercise become more aware of how smoking has decreased their ability to process oxygen. In short, they find they become winded more easily than their fellow exercisers. This helps create a desire to quit smoking," says Dr. Cooper.

Exercise helps prevent weight gain.

Nearly all smokers admit that their habit increases the risk of early death from cancer and heart disease, yet many are still unwilling to quit for fear of weight gain. The use of smoking as a weight-control strategy, risky though it may be, appears to be a powerful motivation to continue smoking for a lot of people. In a nationwide survey in Australia, exsmokers most frequently listed weight gain as the number one disadvantage of quitting. Among smokers, weight gain was a close second to irritability.

Cigarettes have long been associated with slenderness. As early as 1925, Lucky Strike launched its "Reach for a Lucky Instead of a Sweet" campaign, using testimonials from famous women such as Amelia Earhart and Jean Hatlow. And the campaign continues, with advertisements today targeted to women, with an emphasis on ultraslimness, sophistication, beauty, luxury, and popularity with men.

Unfortunately, there is an element of truth to these advertisements. Studies have established that the average smoker weighs about seven pounds less than a nonsmoker. People who start smoking lose weight, while those who quit gain, with women adding on an average of eight pounds and men six pounds.

Studies by Dr. Robert Klesges of Memphis State University have shown that smokers have less body fat than nonsmokers despite eating the same amount while exercising less! Why? Researchers are beginning to shed light on this baffling "benefit" of smoking.

Dr. Angela Hofstetter of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, has carefully determined that when people smoke 24 cigarettes a day, the resting metabolic rate, or energy expended to keep one alive, rises 10 percent, while the heart rate increases 20 percent. The resuit is that smokers expend about 215 calories a day through their habit, the equivalent of walking three miles. Dr. Hofstetter feels that this increase in energy expenditure is "clearly sufficient to account for at least part of the well-established difference in body weight between smokers and nonsmokers."

When people quit smoking, their resting metabolic rate falls. And then if appetite and food intake is increased, as is commonly reported by those who quit, weight gain is inevitable. According to the surgeon general of the United States, most studies show that food intake, especially of sweet foods, increases after quitting, resulting in 200 to 250 extra calories per day.

Dr. Robert Moffatt, of Florida State University, conducted a two-month study of 26 women who quit after having smoked at least a pack a day for the past five years. The average woman gained eight pounds, with nearly all of it in the form of body fat. The resting metabolic rate fell 12 to 16 percent, accounting for one third of the weight gain. Another third of the weight gain was attributed to an increase in eating, while the other third was ascribed to unmeasured factors. According to Dr. Moffatt, because of the decrease in resting metabolic rate and the tendency to eat more, "weight gain and increased body fat are likely outcomes for adult women during the first 60 days of smoking cessation."

However, smokers who quit need not despair! Walking three miles burns the same amount of calories as smoking 24 cigarettes a day, without all the unpleasant side effects on health. So if a smoker who quits starts a daily walking program while seeking to avoid foods rich in fats and sugars, there is every reason to believe that weight gain can be avoided. (See chart on page 29.) Although two out of three smokers who quit gain weight, keep in mind that one out of three does not! An exercise program can greatly improve the odds of joining the ranks of the no-gainers.

Exercise has psychological benefits. To smokers the advantages of continuing are immediate--relaxation, association with pleasant events, the nicotine stimulation--whereas the disadvantages, primarily heart disease and lung cancer, often appear uncertain and far in the future. Many use smoking as a method of coping with stress. In one survey of 500 nurses in Connecticut, smokers who had failed in their cessation attempts admitted that loss of determination and stress were the major barriers they had faced.

Within two hours after quitting, typical feelings of nicotine withdrawal include irritability, frustration, anger, difficulty concentrating, restlessness, depression, impatience, disrupted sleep, and impaired ability to work at the office. These feelings peak within the first 24 hours, and gradually decline, usually subsiding within one month.

So the smoker who quits is faced with two psychological problems-- the feelings of withdrawal from the nicotine in cigarettes and a loss of a useful method to cope with stress.

Studies have shown that regular exercise is a powerful tool for improving psychological well-being and decreasing anxiety and depression. Smokers who quit and then start exercising often find that exercise is their secret weapon in coping with strong psychological urges. "I have received hundreds of letters from cigarette smokers telling me how they could never break the habit until they started exercising," reports Dr. Cooper.

When a person exercises, blood flow and oxygen supply to the brain are increased, body temperature rises, which relaxes the muscles, and various body chemicals are produced, resulting in improved feelings of psychological well-being. This may be one very important reason that, in national surveys, exsmokers have been found to be more physically active than smokers or even never-smokers. In one study of more than 1,000 men and women who had participated in smoking-cessation clinics at Kaiser Permanente medical centers, those who had increased their exercise after trying to quit were more likely to be nonsmokers one year later than those who had not.

Psychologists tell us that when we take something out of our lives, it is easier to cope with the loss if a substitute can be found. For three very good reasons--improvement in fitness, control of body weight, and enhanced psychological well-being-- exercise is the perfect fill-in when the smoking habit is bid adieu. The ex-smoker who exercises may just end up deciding that the new feelings are much better than the old.

David C. Nieman, Dr.P.H, F.A.C. SM, is in the Department of Health, Leisure, and Exercise Science at Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina.

According to the American College of Sports Medicine, smokers who are apparently healthy and under the age of i, 45 years can initiate a walking program without seeing their doctor and having a treadmill/EKG test. However, smokers over the age of 45 years, and/or those at risk for heart disease because of multiple risk factors (smoking and any one of the following-obesity, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, and/or family history), should see a doctor first before starting any type of exercise program.

Low-Calorie Substitutes to Satisfy the Quitter's Sweet Tooth In addition to exercising, people who stop smoking can keep body weight desirable by making use of some of these substitutes.

High-Calorie Sweet      Calories
Apple pie, 1 slice      4.05
White cake, icing,      291
1 slice
Ice cream, 1 cup        349
Jello, 1 cup            140
Chocolate-chip
cookies, 3              139
Doughnut,               235
yeast-raised, 1
Bread-raisin pudding,   349
1 cup
Strawberry milkshake,   283
1 1/2 cups
Chocolate pudding,      385
1 cup
Banana-cream pie,       319
1 slice
Candy bar, Snickers, 1  290
M&M's chocolate,        280
2 ounces
Lemon-lime soda, 1 can  148
Sugar, 2 tablespoons     96

   Low-Calorie Substitute   Calories
Apple, 1 whole                 80
Apple crisp, 3"x 3" piece     146
Angel food cake, 1 slice      125
Nonfat frozen yogurt, 1 cup   200
Jello, sugar-frae, 1 cup       16
Vanilla wafers, 3              55
Graham crackers, 3             83
Bran muffin, 1                125
Cantaloupe cubes, 1 cup        57
Strawberries, 1 1/2 cups       68
Pudding, low-calorie, 1 cup   138
Banana, 1                     105
Hard candy, 1 ounce           109
Grapes, 1 cup                 114
Diet soda, 1 can                4
Equal, Nutrasweet              12

Compiled by Cathy Nieman, R,D.