Rcvringaddict30

How many of you have found yourselves binge eating insane amounts of food during binge drinking/ drunken episodes?? I have a big appetite ordinarily, but I noticed the latest development occurring with my binge drinking, was eating almost everything in my apartment that I could get my hands on while blacked out. Sometimes I would also purge it up out of guilt and shame and I figured I could use the fact that I was drunk as my rationalization for why I threw it up. I was never bulimic or had a history of eating disorders when sober. That is one of the many disturbing factors that has led to my desire to become sober. I laugh about it now, but it was really frightening to open up cabinets and my freezer/refrigerator to see that literally almost everything I had purchased to eat was gone. I got to the point where I figured it was pointless to go grocery shopping if I knew I was going out drinking that night. I thought, my God, if I continue to binge drink and eat the way I have been for these past couple of years I will be on that show, My 500 Pound Life!!
As part of my plan to stay sober as well as to lose all of the 30+ pounds I must've gained from all of this abuse, I've started going to the gym every day, which I certainly couldn't do on a hangover day. Knowing that I will inevitably eat myself out of house and home is just one of the many motivating factors for me to not drink.

JeffreyAK

Interesting, I was actually the opposite - I ate very little when I was drinking, it got in the way of getting maximally buzzed, and I reckoned I'd get enough daily calories from alcohol. Crazy, but that's how it was for me.

Rcvringaddict30

Well I envy you that Jeffrey, bc I must've been ingesting like 10,000 calories each time I went on one of my alcohol/food binges. I've been putting off getting a physical because I'm worried about finding out what the actual weight I've gained is. It was bad the last time I went and I've been on a rampage for a while so it's not going to be pretty. Thanks for sharing!

Dropsie

Interesting.

I am not a big eater, so never happened to me, but most others things have...

Good to hear you are going to the gym -- wish I could get off the couch.

FBL

My eating habits whilst drinking were very unhealthy. Lots of pizza and beer. The only unhealthy thing I didn't eat was sweets. However, when I quit drinking my sweet tooth came back with a vengeance. I try to watch myself, but I still like my sweets too much to give them up. I took up walking at least 2 miles every day and although I'm overweight, I'm not nearly as big as I could be if I didn't exercise some. I've always been a big guy, so I'll never be skinny, but at least my blood tests, which were horrendous when I was a drunk, are now all within the normal range, so that keeps me and my doctor happy.

Gottalife

Eating got in the way of my drinking, so I didn't eat. At the end of a bender my stomach was so wrecked that, even though I felt hungry, I could eat very little. I have recently discovered that a particular type of alcoholic reacts this way. At the end of my drinking, malnutrition was a major problem. My body began to break down.

Rcvringaddict30

Thanks for sharing everyone! Interesting to see that many of you had the opposite problem as me. Gottalife, you make a good point about different types of alcoholics, and how their bodies react differently to eating etc.

FormerBeerLover, glad to hear your health has improved! I'm terrified to find out what my bloodwork is in addition to just being concerned about vanity issues regarding weight etc. I need to get into see the doctor though very soon and to be honest with her about everything. I'm concerned that she's going to be judgmental, and that really shouldn't be something I have to worry about.

FBL

The morning after my last drinking binge I went into the hospital ER and my liver enzymes and other blood tests were terrible. The doctor told me to pretty much stop drinking or die. Quite the wake-up call. Within a year of quitting drinking, my tests were all back to the normal range. My current doctor can't believe that I drank like a fish for nearly 30 years. It's amazing how the body and mind can recover, but ONLY if we stop drinking completely.

Don't worry about your doctor judging you. They have seen it all and are there to help us get better.

I wish you the best.

jessie65

I would gorge on junk food also, After all the alcohol in the house was gone, never before, I didn't want it to interfere with my drinking . It was like it was all I had to look forward to it when the vodka was gone.

Ugh.

zombob

While drinking my alimentary barely allowed me to get the booze down at first in the morning but got easier as the day wore on--food had to be forced. In the end I was eliminating protein to lower ammonia levels (I could smell it) as the liver was overwrought with metabolizing the booze. I've gone up to 4 days w/out eating (still took b1 and a multi to reduce brain damage---I google a lot). My binge eating took place during my first week of abstinence. 12 pounds in 10 days! That will get walked/worked off in time. At 21 days I am within 5 lbs of my normal weight and eating 3 healthy meals a day.

SoberinSyracuse

Same for me. I have a small tank, so to speak, and could not spare the room in it for food. I'd eat perhaps once a day or every other day, usually a bag of chips w/ onion dip. By the end of my drinking career, I'd gained 30 pounds and was pretty food intolerant.

Now, three weeks sober, I can tolerate regular meals and the weight gain has stopped.

Bottom line: Don't sweat the crazy eating stuff you did. From all these responses you see that food consumption gets very messed up one way or the other with alcohol. And like I mentioned before, drinking was wreacking havoc on you. Why would your nutrition be any different?

My advice is go to the doc and face the truth. It helps us to get and stay serious about sobriety.

greens

It lowers your inhibitions and makes you less likely to eat healthy- I think they did a study where people who ordered drinks at a restaurant where more likely to eat more calories and order more appetizers.

I have been a vegetarain for most of my life but when I drank I always wanted to eat meat and cheese, when I'm sober not so much. I think I've lost a good 15 pounds or so in sobriety, it's easier to make healthy choices when I'm sober.

HollyWouldnt

Shyly adding my 2 cents...
I'm a very health-minded, regimented alcoholic. 😉
I would add my alcohol calories into my fit bit app to make sure I didn't gain weight... problem was, I started waking up with empty junk food bags in my bed that never made it into the app. I figured if I didn't remember eating them they don't count...
Only now at two weeks sober can I find a bit of humor in that.
My dieting was also my justification for moving from wine to martinis.
For now, I'll honor a few crazy food cravings. First things first.
Holly.🎋