Smoking, Vaping and Sheesha: What They Do to Your Fitness, Muscle and Weight — and How Exercise Helps You Quit

In Lahore the habits are everywhere: a cigarette with tea after training, the sheesha café on a Friday night, a fruit-flavoured vape in a student's pocket that 'is basically just steam'. Many people who train hard would never call themselves smokers. But each of these habits works directly against the stamina and muscle you are training for — some far more than people assume.

What smoke does to your training

• Less oxygen: carbon monoxide in smoke binds to haemoglobin far more tightly than oxygen does, so smokers carry less oxygen to working muscles. Stamina is usually the first thing to go.
• Irritated airways: more mucus, more coughing, narrower airways — breathing hard feels harder.
• Higher heart rate and blood pressure, during exercise and at rest.
• Slower muscle building: in a 2007 study, long-term smokers had a 37 percent lower rate of muscle protein synthesis than matched non-smokers, and higher levels of myostatin — a protein that holds back muscle growth — and of a marker of muscle breakdown.

That muscle study was small and in older, heavy smokers — eight smokers of 20 a day for 20 years or more, compared with eight non-smokers — so the exact number does not transfer to a 22-year-old. The direction is what matters: smoking pushes muscle the wrong way.

Sheesha is not the gentle option

The water in the base cools the smoke; it does not filter out the toxins. The fruit flavours and the cool, smooth smoke make it easy to keep inhaling for 45 minutes or more, and the coal adds its own carbon monoxide. 'A sheesha now and then' with friends delivers a huge dose of smoke in a single evening.

Vaping: less harmful, not harmless

• Nicotine raises heart rate and blood pressure, and it is highly addictive. Modern 'nicotine salt' pods deliver a lot of it, quickly.
• Vaping is far less harmful than smoking, because there is no burning and far fewer toxins — which is why it helps smokers quit.
• For someone who does not smoke, there is no fitness benefit and a real risk of addiction. Do not start.
• Illegal and THC vapes are a different product. The 2019 outbreak of serious lung injuries in the United States was linked mainly to THC cartridges containing vitamin E acetate. Buy nothing of unknown origin.

Naswar, gutka and pouches

Smokeless tobacco spares the lungs but not the rest of you: it still delivers nicotine, and naswar and gutka have a well-established link to mouth cancer. They are not a fitness-friendly swap.

The weight worry when you quit

Fear of gaining weight keeps many people smoking, and the fear is not imaginary. A 2012 meta-analysis in the BMJ found people who quit without treatment gained on average 1.1 kg after one month, 2.9 kg after three months and 4.7 kg after a year. The spread was wide: 16 percent lost weight and 13 percent gained more than 10 kg. Appetite returns, food tastes better, and hands that held a cigarette reach for biscuits.

The trade is still overwhelmingly in favour of quitting, and the gain is manageable. Keep protein high so you stay full, keep easy snacks around — roasted chana, fruit, sugar-free gum — rather than biscuits and nimko, and train. A planned small gain while quitting is a far better place to be than smoking to stay slim.

How exercise helps you quit

A 2007 systematic review in Addiction found that a single bout of exercise — anything from five minutes of isometric holds to 15 minutes of light walking to half an hour of hard cardio — reduced cigarette cravings and withdrawal symptoms during the exercise and for up to 50 minutes afterwards, and doubled or tripled the time to the next cigarette. That makes exercise a craving tool you can use on the spot.

On its own, though, an exercise programme has not been shown to raise long-term quit rates: a 2019 Cochrane review found the evidence too weak to say it adds much to standard stop-smoking support. Use exercise for the cravings and the weight, alongside a method that is proven: nicotine replacement, medicines your doctor can prescribe, counselling, or — for smokers — switching completely to a regulated nicotine vape, which a 2025 Cochrane review found works better than patches or gum.

A practical quit plan

1. 1Pick a date in the next two weeks and tell the people you smoke with.
2. 2Choose your method: nicotine patches or gum, a doctor's prescription, or a full switch to a regulated nicotine vape — not 'cutting down'.
3. 3Replace the smoke break with a movement break: five minutes on the stairs or a brisk walk round the block when a craving hits.
4. 4Avoid the triggers for the first month — the sheesha café, the after-training cigarette spot, tea with the smokers.
5. 5Train three or four times a week and keep protein high to manage the weight.
6. 6Expect cravings to peak in the first two weeks and fade; a slip is a reason to restart, not to give up.

This article is general information, not medical advice. Speak to your doctor about the best way for you to stop smoking, including prescription medicines, especially if you have heart or lung disease, are pregnant, or take other medication.