Bmac

What was your experience with weight gain or loss after quitting? I am assuming I should expect weight loss since I was drinking close to 1400 booze calories a night plus the "drunk munchies".

zjw

i figured for sure i'd melt away. only to find drinking so much beer apparently doesnt make you fat.

I lost 17lbs and then nothing held steady till i decided to diet and exercise

LaTraviata

I, too, am puzzled. After cutting out all those empty booze calories, and eating regularly again (which should have boosted my metabolism), I'm pretty surprised to see I've gained a couple pounds in the last few weeks.

I don't get it. ????

zjw

yep i cant remember the math but my food intake didnt change i removed an ungodly amt of calories from my intake when i quit drinking. I mean is houlda dropped 5lbs a week or something it was a rediculously high number over 20k calories a week if i recall. Only to drop 17lbs and then stall out ?

it doesnt surprise me now though. I've lost all the weight now and learned that what they tell you about weight loss calories in vs calories out is all BS.

JeffreyAK

I gained weight, myself. Yes, I stopped the empty liquid calories, but I also started eating normally again - when I was drinking heavily, I didn't eat much at all, since food interfered with the buzz. Gaining or losing are both common, depends on your situation.

RoyGBiv

I gained 10 pounds in the first week alone. I've gained 17 total now after 2.5 months.

I wasn't eating well when beer was the priority. I guess my body grabbed everything it could. Now I have to start looking at a healthier diet or I'm going to have problems. My knees already hurt.

JensDestiny

I was also not eating well during the worst part of my drinking days. However, I couldn't seem to drop a single pound back then either. It really made no sense to me... how I could eat once a day and still gain weight. Well... low and behold, once I stopped drinking, I was able to finally lose all of the weight that I had gained during those heavy drinking years.

Pipping

My weight never changed and it actually went up as I was eating much more. I gave up smoking at the same time so I was eating chocolate and snacking to try and fight the cravings. At 16 months the weight is just starting to come down. I am in my 40s so I think you have to work a bit harder at my age.

thisisme

I went up as I jammed sugar down my throat to compensate for the missing alcohol. That lasted about a month.
Sobriety took hold and a better life with it that started to include eating better and exercise.
That was about 70 pounds ago. It has stayed that way now for about 6 years.
Weight loss does not even enter my top 10 "benefits of sobriety", but it is an incentive.

Jdvivre

Thank GOD it's not just me. Been exercising and eating healthy but DAMN the sugar/carb cravings still get me and the depression occasionally knocks my motivation out of the park - not losing after 5 months of no boozing was really depressing me.

Hope everyone is keeping strong and healthy. It's hard but I'm tying to convince myself it's easier to come back from a chocolate binge than a whiskey binge

Love and strength
x

frankh77

In the last 3 months of abusing it got so bad I dropped about 40lbs from my usual weight. I don't think I was eating anything with any nutrients in it at all.

I lost about another 10lbs in my first few weeks of after I quit because I found it hard to intake anything at all without craving alcohol.

A year and a half later I have gained back about 50 lbs so I'm around 10lbs over my normal weight.

Gilmer

I've gained 25 pounds.

huntingtontx

I gained 20 pounds, but my back was broken right before I quit drinking so I could not do much. I am hoping to lose some this summer working out in the pool. It is the only exercise that does not hurt me.