Are you gaining more weight around the mid section / abdominal areas in relation to your overall weight gain?
The answer may lie in that you smoke too much. Clinical research has shown that “smoking is a risk factor for abdominal obesity“.
http://ajph.aphapublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/99/2/348
Stop smoking if you are working hard on losing weight. The additional benefits is that you will no longer encounter shortness of breath during workouts.
This is patently false. There is probably no correlation at all and if there is, it would be the opposite. Smoking keeps weight off. Fatties graze all day, smokers reach for a cigarette. Gaining weight is caused by calorie intake that is not burned off. Smokers are commonly known to a) eat less and b) burn more calories.
Smokers are the least likely to have huge overhanging guts. It’s non-smookers who are more typically morbidly obese.