Should I Quit Drinking To Lose Weight

I couldn’t believe my eyes. Sure, I knew I was gaining weight. But I never expected it to be this substantial. For much of my (healthy) adult life, I had hovered around 185 pounds. But after three different attempts on the scale (and removing my t-shirt and sweatpants…like that would somehow make a difference), the blue LED screen screamed back at me.

It was the heaviest I had ever been. It all happened so fast, too – or at least it felt that way. It started with frozen pizzas and ice cream at the beginning of the pandemic. It felt as if the world might be ending, so why not reach for some comfort food while my wife and I stayed crammed inside our 650 sq. ft. one bedroom apartment. But that two-week “stay at home” order turned into months on end, and months of unhealthy frozen foods.

Later that year, just as things were starting to open back up, my wife became pregnant with our first child. While we were overjoyed, her pregnancy was filled with challenges and difficulties. Once again, our only salve for our stress seemed to be fatty foods on DoorDash. The scale was certainly ticking up at this point, but I had already stopped checking. Especially after we doubled down on the DoorDash once my daughter was born.

Giving Up Alcohol Helped Me Lose 20 Pounds And Get Fit

Of course, it was easy to blame all this on the crappy food I was consuming. But deep down, I knew the real culprit came in liquid form…

Prior to all this, I was a social drinker. Go out, have a beer or glass of wine with friends, go home, and forget about booze completely until the next time I went out. I come from a long line of heavy problem drinkers, and I considered myself lucky that I never felt “the urge” with alcohol. I drank, sure, but it was “take it or leave it”. And most of the time, I left it. So much so that in 2019 my wife and I fell in love with non-alcoholic wine. It was the perfect way to take our healthy habits one step further…on those Friday nights when we felt like some wine and cheese, why not swap in a bottle of alcohol-free instead?

We turned this love into a business – YOURS Non-Alcoholic Wine. Decent nonalcoholic red wine was hard to come by, so we decided to make our own. And today we offer a full lineup of alcohol-free wine options.

I Quit Drinking Alcohol And Started Running. (sw 300lbs Cw 215lbs) Progress Pic

The ironic thing is that the stress from starting an alcohol-free business, stacked atop the stress of pregnancy, fatherhood, and lingering pandemic craziness, set me down a path where I was drinking more than ever before. An occasional habit turned into a nightly one. And with the nightly beers and wine came the weight gain.

Not only was I easily consuming an extra 1, 000 calories a day from craft beers, but this buzzed version of myself was also making all our dinner and dessert choices. A bad version of myself was in control every single night…and his decisions ultimately led me to gain 100 pounds over the last two and a half years.

But no more. I am now on the journey to spend 1 year alcohol free. And in the process, lose the 100 pounds I packed on during the last few years. I will be sharing this journey here in the hopes that it helps some of you who want to do the same. Because weight gain from alcohol becomes a vicious cycle. You drink because you’re unhappy, and you’re unhappy because you drink.

Brain Pathway Links Nicotine And Weight Loss

But it doesn’t have to stay that way. Let’s look at how quickly your body changes (and how quickly you can lose weight) when you quit drinking and sub in the world's best tasting alcohol-free beers, wines, and spirits.

Sure, there’s simple math involved. A typical light beer has 100 calories, while craft beers can be a whopping 350-400 calories per 12oz. Most mixed drinks with spirits have anywhere between 90-150 calories per drink before you add in the mixers (that sugar bomb of a piña colada from the Mexican joint down the street is most likely more than 500 calories!). And calories in both red and white wines generally fall between 125-175 calories per 5 oz pour.

When you quit alcohol, you quite literally quit hundreds or even thousands of calories per day from your diet! It takes a caloric deficit of 3, 500 calories to lose one pound, meaning even moderate daily drinkers could expect to lose at least one pound per week by doing nothing more than eliminating alcohol from their diet.

These Before And After Pictures Of People Who Stopped Drinking Will Make You Want To Do

But here’s why you’ll really lose weight if you give up alcohol. It’s all about Keystone Habits. In Charles Duhigg’s phenomenal book

, he outlines how human beings have a set of Keystone Habits that drive many of our other, unrelated behaviors. For example, those who start going to the gym tend to eat better and wake up earlier. Working out has nothing to do with these other two habits, but once you start putting in the effort to sweat, you subconsciously want to start eating better and going to bed at a decent time as well, so that you’re maximizing your collective efforts and results. Going to the gym was the conscious habit you created (the Keystone Habit) – eating better and getting good rest were the subconscious habits that followed suit.

Drinking (or abstaining from) alcohol is one of the most prominent Keystone Habits. When you drink, you don’t just consume more calories in the moment. Your sleep that night suffers, so you wake up tired, dehydrated, and perhaps even hungover. And when you wake up that way, your body does not want to hit the gym and it craves unhealthy food. And at the end of that long, crappy day, you want another drink to release yourself from the fog of the day. It’s a vicious cycle that repeats day after day, all driven by the negative Keystone Habit of drinking.

These 7 Body Benefits Will Spur You To Quit Drinking

But when you stop drinking, your body starts sleeping better within just a few days. This increases your energy, giving you the urge to get more exercise. And when you get more exercise, you start to crave better foods. Next thing you know, you’ve cut out the calories from alcohol, you’re exercising, and you’re eating better overall.

Curious to know how fast you’ll start experiencing a difference? Let’s explore the way your body changes as soon as you quit alcohol:

One week without alcohol may not seem like a lot, but in those first 7 days your body is undergoing some incredible changes.

Weight Loss And Not Drinking — Mocks & Cocks

Of course, there are the immediate benefits, such as no hangovers, and the headaches and nausea that accompany them. But there will also be tangible improvements to your health and wellness, including:

Now, it’s important to note that your first week without alcohol can be especially challenging if you were a frequent and heavy drinker (and if you are suffering from alcohol use disorder, be sure to consult a doctor before abstaining completely, as alcohol withdrawal can have serious side effects). You may experience some mild withdrawal symptoms, including headaches, nausea, trouble sleeping, and general anxiety. You may also experience strong cravings for sugar and other comfort foods, which could counteract any possible weight loss from your first week without alcohol.

Just remember that week one is only the beginning. If you can get over this first hump, there are many benefits to come.

Perks Of Giving Up Alcohol For Good

If your primary reason for quitting alcohol is weight loss, week two is where you can really start to see some progress.

Provided you only indulge in sugar (and other) cravings on occasion, two weeks without alcohol can cut thousands of calories out of your diet, meaning it’s not uncommon to see anywhere from 2-5 pounds lost already. Plus, it’s likely that you’re treating not drinking as a new Keystone Habit, picking up other healthy habits alongside it, including improved diet, exercise, and more…all of which help accelerate your weight loss.

One of the less talked about but most significant benefits you’ll see after two weeks without drinking is more money in your pocket. Depending on how frequently you drank, where you drank, and what you drank, some people easily spend upwards of $100 or more a week on alcohol. Without this expense, after just two weeks you should start to see some cash reserves piling up.

What Happens To Your Body When You Stop Drinking Alcohol

They say, “21 days is all it takes to form a new habit”. While there’s been some debate as to whether this is true, one truth you cannot deny is that after 3 weeks without alcohol, you’re going to see some serious changes in your life. And habit or not, at this stage it’s going to start getting a little easier, as you now have some serious momentum.

If weight loss is your main goal for not drinking, you’ll be happy to know that many folks have already dropped 5-10 pounds after three weeks without drinking. And with increased energy and better sleep, finding that motivation to hit the gym is