Will You Lose Weight If You Stop Drinking Red Wine

Heather Bulumakau, 28, a supermarket runner from Warwickshire, was drinking a bottle of wine a day and binging on junk food when she decided enough was enough. Within less than a year, she’s managed to turn her life around. This is her story.

I was always the ‘bigger’ one out of all my friends, and once I had my son in 2013 and daughter in 2015, I began rapidly gaining weight over the course of a few years.

I reached a point I had no rules, I never held back on junk food or wine. Comfort eating and binge drinking were a daily occurrence. Drinking was a part of my everyday life for almost 10 years, and it had reached a point where I’d usually drink a bottle of wine every night. My nightly bottles were followed with share-size bags of crisps and chocolate. I had accepted this is how I would be forever.

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But in 2019, it began to dawn on me that other people didn’t drink how I did. They could have just one glass of wine at a meal and be satisfied, whereas I’d want a bottle. My children had started to comment on it too, which floored me – ‘mum’s favourite drink is wine’, they’d say. I knew I had to change not only for myself but for them too.

I was fed up of planning my life around drinking – it consumed so much of my daily thoughts. I’d finally become fed up of being in a cycle of drinking and hangovers, and the crippling anxiety that came with them.

By Annie Grace, which really helped me change my outlook – I’ve not touched a drop since I first opened the book last year. I now listen to sobriety podcasts daily and am in a few very supportive Facebook groups. I’m definitely not saying I don’t recommend professional help for anyone battling similar issues – I was just fortunate enough to find a way of quitting drinking that worked for me.

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Was I an alcoholic? I’m still trying to figure that one out. I know alcoholism is a disease that progressively gets worse, and I’d found that was happening to me. One bottle of wine used to be enough, but in those last few months I found myself craving more and more. I wasn’t drinking to be social anymore – I was drinking mostly alone and out of boredom or to forget the stresses of the day.

The first few weeks were hard – especially the weekends. I would go to bed grumpy at 7pm on a Saturday night because I couldn’t have my wine. I had to avoid social media too. Everyone’s stories of them drinking just made me angry that I couldn’t do the same. But then came that fresh feeling on a Sunday morning – and it was those moments that made it all worth it. From then on, I just had to take it one day at a time.

At my heaviest, I weighed 13.4 stone. I did start slowly losing weight when I stopped drinking (about 0.7 stone) but my diet was still terrible. I realised I was using junk food as my crutch in the evenings when I’d normally be drinking – and it was making me feel almost as bad as the alcohol had. I woke up one morning at the end of January 2019 feeling fed up and bloated, and I knew it was time to take the next step. I took the plunge and signed up to my local PureGym that day.

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Looking back now, the hardest part was physically walking into that gym. I had this horrible feeling that everyone was watching my every move. For the first couple of weeks, I stuck to the relative safety of the cardio machines. It’s funny – I felt like every person in there was judging me, but in reality, I don’t think anyone was even looking my way at all.

A couple of weeks into my new routine, I was starting to feel more comfortable – and I realised that just walking on the treadmill wasn’t quite going to cut it. I searched for fitness guidance and came across Krissy Cela's Tone & Sculpt app.

The app and Krissy's YouTube channel gave me the confidence to grab myself a mat and some weights, and try something new. Every workout has videos of Krissy performing the exercise so I would be glued to my phone in the gym to make sure I was doing the right thing. It was a relief to finally stop worrying about what everyone else was thinking and focus on myself.

Weight Gain After Quitting Alcohol

It was around this time that I started tracking my food using MyFitnessPal. I to stick to and rotate between meals and snacks I know are within a reasonable daily calorie allowance, which I’ve found prevents my tendency to overeat.

It only took a few weeks to start noticing a change. First, my stomach was rapidly ‘deflating’ and it felt different to touch – when I compared before and after pictures I was shocked. By April, I was down 2 dress sizes, and 2 stone.

I felt so much stronger emotionally and physically. I’d never thought I’d be hooked on exercise – I kept thinking, 'who am I, even?'

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When we went into lockdown during the global Covid-19 pandemic, I knew this was going to be make or break for my new routine.

Thankfully, I was able to adapt, largely thanks to Tone & Sculpt’s home workouts, impromptu PT sessions with my rugby player husband, and a newfound love for running – I use Strava to plan my routes and track my progress. I think I’ve forgotten how to gym!

Even being at home, I’ve seen slow and steady progress. Just before lockdown in April, I tried on an old pair of jeans that I couldn't get over my thighs in January, and I was thrilled when they fit perfectly. But when I tried them on in June, they were a few inches too big! I’m also down another 5lbs or so. When I stopped drinking in September, I weighed 13.4 stone and now I’m 10.7 stone – that’s almost 3 stone in 9 months.

Before & After Pics Show What It's Like To Stop Drinking

It wasn’t that I had a specific weight goal I was after – it was more to do with holistic health – which was why I knew the alcohol I had become so dependent on had to go first. I wanted to play with my children and not be too tired to do so. I wanted them to look up to me as an active, happy and positive mum.

I used to roll my eyes at stories like this – but I’m becoming one of those annoyingly happy people I used to despise on social media. I’ve started getting Instagram messages from people saying I inspire them, and from people who are secretly struggling with alcohol asking for advice.

Knowing that by being so open about my weight and alcohol issues, I’ve made people feel they’re not alone is an amazing feeling – and it inspires me to keep at it.

Alcohol, Beer And Weight Loss

‘I Lost 3.2 Stone with Kelsey Wells' PWR Plan’ Finding Fitness Totally Changed My Mental Health 'I Was Morbidly Obese – Now I'm Fitter Than Ever' ‘HIIT Workouts Helped Me Lose Over 7 Stone’

‘How I Lost 8 Stone in 18 Months’ Healthy Comfort Food & HIIT Helped Me Lose 7st 'I Lost Over 6st with Strength Training' ‘Working Out 5 Days a Week Helped Me Lose 6 St’

'I Lost 8 Stone With These Small Changes' 'Portion Control Helped Me Lose 6 Stone' 'Walking 30 Min a Day Helped Me Lose 7.5 Stone' ‘I Lost 4.5 Stone When I Ditched Processed Foods’Each standard alcoholic drink you eliminate above moderation results in approximately 1-ounce (28g) per week of weight loss. The 1oz rule applies only if no additional calories are added.

How Much Weight Will I Be Able To Lose By Removing Soda From My Diet?

Fats, proteins, and carbohydrates are macronutrients (macros) as they provide our bodies with energy. Alcohol is also a macronutrient, but it is metabolized significantly differently from fats, carbohydrates, and proteins.

Unlike the other macros, alcohol is not actually digested and your body treats it like a toxin. Once you ingest alcohol, your body has to process it first, since it’s trying to get rid of it as fast as possible. We humans don’t have a way to store alcohol, so our bodies process it in preference to fats, and carbs, with the unused energy from these two macros being stored in our bodies in the form of body fat.

Aside from fat, ethanol (alcohol) is the macronutrient with the highest energy density. Meaning, it’s very easy to drink thousands of liquid calories.

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However, just because you consume 1, 200 calories in only 3 pints of Hazy IPA, plus an additional 1, 990 calories devouring loaded nachos with extra cheese and guac - doesn’t mean that you will gain weight. For example, If you cycle or mountain bike to/from the brewery and burn 3, 000 calories plus 2, 000 more just from your natural basal metabolic rate, you’re still in a caloric deficit of