Sorensen

K, almost four days after quitting, I look and feel more bloated, like I am retaining more water. Is this normal? Or is my body retaining water because it is used to urinating it all out...? This is the most hydrated I have been in weeks.

Cathryn2001

Same thing happened with me. I drank SO MUCH water when I quit (needed to be drinking something), and instead of feeling as though it was flushing my system, I felt like I was retaining it. Not sure how typical this is (maybe our bodies sense that we are in need of intense hydration?), but it eventually stopped. I no longer felt "water bloat" after about a month.

Congratulations on four days!

TDInstall

Day 4 is incredibly early, and no time to be worrying about percieved abnormalities. You will be feeling weird for a very long time to come yet, and will need to get used to things not being perfect.

Having said that, 4 days is excellent, so seriously well done. Keep it up.

advbike

If it keeps up see a doctor, sometimes there is a kidney thing going on in early recovery. It's unlikely and I don't want to worry you, but keep an eye on it. Congrats on four days - the first 4 or 5 are the hardest!

GracieLou

Four days is still fairly soon. Your body is still adjusting. I did not realize how dehydrated I was then. Even my fingertips were wrinkly from it.

Take it easy and take it one day at at time.

TDInstall

Yeah, speaking from my experience with pro cycling nutrition, before a race I need to start hyper-hydrating myself for at least 5 days before, to ensure my cells are fully loaded with water. You are on day 4 of the very start of withdrawal, so you will have been dehydrated up to this point, but masking that with the effects of alcohol.

Now you have quit, your body is going through all sorts of mad stuff, which added to the dehydration is understandably making you feel bad.

Just go through it and be strong. It will get better,

MrTumble

Ive lost 5kg since i quit, 7 weeks ago. Im still losing weight without doing anything extra. Stick with it, you will lose lbs if booze was the cause for gaining weight - for me it was.

Hawkeye13

Give your body some time--it's been through a lot trying to deal with processing poison for years. I was also dehydrated, then bloated, then back to normal. Overall I bet you feel much much better and look better too in a few weeks.