Common wisdom suggests that cutting back on smoking (that is, smoking fewer cigarettes per day) should offer some health benefits, since you are exposing yourself to less tobacco per day.

However, new research shows that this may not be true.

Heavy smokers who cut down on their cigarettes actually seem to inhale more deeply and more often from each cigarette. This means their body gets the amount of nicotine its used to, and their overall tobacco exposure is the same (if not more) than before.

This habit is termed "compensatory smoking" and it may prevent any health benefits from reducing smoking.

Smokers who cut their cigarette smoking by half continue to experience the same levels of smoking related illnesses (including heart disease and emphysema). This would make sense if the individual is compensating by gaining more nicotine from each cigarette.

This finding means that reducing your cigarette smoking is only effective when used as a step towards quitting completely.