glassdark

I am almost 1 month into not drinking. I am kind of overweight and definitely out of shape, but I have lost 13 pounds since I stopped drinking whiskey and coke. That was my choice of drink for the past 4 years, 3 or 4 nights of the week.

Yes, I put on a lot of weight while drinking. I was thin before alcoholism took root in my life. I can't imagine how many calories I was drinking with that alcohol and coke.

How long did it take for the weight to fall off for you guys?

RecklessEric

I put on weight when I stopped drinking.
I hardly ate or ate very irregularly while drinking, so I got a bumper appetite when I stopped.
Wine was my drink, so maybe that's not so high in calories?

Bailey3

I've put on weight also. I attribute it to the buckets of ice cream I was eating in the beginning of my sobriety. Stopped that nonsense and, I'm hoping the weight will come off now.

SoberLeigh

Definitely took me awhile'- probably several months and my weight drop was neither fast nor significant. My sweets intake increased dramatically when I stopped drinking and it wasn't until that leveled off that my weight began to drop.

zjw

i quit i was 275lbs. I dropped to about 255lbs pretty quick a month or 2 but then just stalled. I couldnt fathom why i woudlnt loose more weight. I mean i was drinking like 20,000 caloires of beer a week or something rediculous if i remember my calculations correctly from that time.

It just seemed to me that i should loose. 6 months later i still didnt feel so great so I decided to diet and exercise and quit smoking. I started in febuary at 255lbs by october of that year i was 150lbs.

I really dont get why i didnt loose weight those 6 months. I think just the lack of booze calories I shoulda started to melt away. I should have been easy.

Instead it took diet and exercise. all i did was a low carb diet and a 30 min walk per day. I didnt even walk fast i just walked to walk. Eventually when i was like 170lbs i started running.

I've kept my weight at this level for a couple years now by keeping my exercise routine and keeping my diet.

I find crummy food choices affect me adversly just like drinking did. Its just one more thing on my list of things that dont work out well for me no big deal.

Soberwolf

I put on weight at first thats Natural then the longer you stay sober the more the weight drops off

having a healthy balanced diet helps a lot with weight loss but youl notice it naturally falling off due to sobriety

Arbor

I'm one month in like yourself and haven't noticed any weight loss numbers wise. Now I'm a lot less bloated, feel lighter on my feet, and more slim it seems. I too thought I would loose more weight, but I think I'm actually building more muscle due to sobriety and the physicality of my job (Muscle weights more than fat.) It's a known fact that alcohol negatively affects your muscle growth.

brickthrowing

Each time I have quit for a significant amount of time I drop about 10 to 20 pounds.

I usually start noticing it around the one month point.

The extra energy helps since I no longer spend the next day after a night of drinking laying around doing nothing and groaning about how crappy I feel.

Also, i would get the night time munchies after a beer binge. The loss of all the beer calories and the extra late night taco fest (or whatever) certainly makes a big difference.

Tamerua

Still working on it at 22 months, but... I stop and remember that I'm healthier without booze, I'm happier without booze! I eat cleaner, I workout a lot (about to go to 2 hours of cardio and toning). Focus on being healthy... I know, it's cliché, I didn't want to hear that and there are days that I don't but it is why we're here, for our health.

huntingtontx

No weight loss here, gained a little, but I drank vodka and water, so maybe not so many calories. Ice cream was my down fall. When I stopped drinking I ate a lot of icecream. I have stopped that now, so maybe it will start coming off. Here is hoping.

sapphire1981

I've lost 2 stone whilst I've been drinking have no appetite or anything :-( x

PurpleKnight

After the first few weeks I dropped a few pounds!!

Same thing, all those calories I was passing up, pus all the late night junk food!!

Venecia

Yep, I also shudder at the calories from the bad ol' days. By the time I went sober, not quite 15 months ago, I had gotten my heaviest and it sure contributed to the overall self-loathing that accompanies alcoholism.

At the start, some pounds *did* seem to melt away. But -- and this is only based on my experience -- it's a short-lived honeymoon. It is as though my body said "OK, free ride is over." At the start of this year, I committed to really focused weight loss. I use Michael Pollan's "Food Rules" as an overall philosophy, with the Mayo Clinic Diet as my day-to-day method for weight loss. To keep me on the straight and narrow, I use the downloadable app Loseit.com. I work out four to five times a week, pairing aerobic exercise (mostly elliptical and treadmill) with light weights.

Turns out it is hard work. However, it works. I was too much of a wussie to step on a scale when I started so I will never know what I have shed, but I am down three clothing sizes. It is beyond great for people to be noticing and get compliments!

Cannot emphasize strongly enough the power of exercise. It is great for weight loss, of course, but I think its played an ever stronger role in my mental health. I'll be off to the Y shortly; it is hard-wired into to my life.

Hope that is of some help!