Depending on how much you drank, your starting weight, your age, and how you've treated diet and exercise since you stopped drinking, it's not uncommon to lose anywhere between 6-15 pounds after a month without alcohol.
After two weeks of giving up alcohol, some people find that they begin to effortlessly lose weight during this time, thanks to removing the excess calories associated with alcoholic beverages. If you don't lose weight, don't panic, it's normal for this to take longer too.
It appears that alcohol can actually stimulate cravings and that it may influence certain hormones that are linked to satiety (fullness). The current research suggests that, if you're a heavy drinker, and you stop drinking, you will lose weight.
Cutting out two, 12-ounce light beers per night could help you lose almost 2 pounds in 31 days. Skipping your nightly 2 glasses of wine would spare you 7750 calories in 31 days, which could help you lose a little over 2 pounds.
After two weeks off alcohol, you will continue to reap the benefits of better sleep and hydration. As alcohol is an irritant to the stomach lining, after a fortnight you will also see a reduction in symptoms such as reflux where the stomach acid burns your throat.
If you ditch drinking for a month, it will significantly improve your overall health and well-being. You will be able to sleep better, feeling less fatigued and sluggish. Concentration and memory levels will increase as a result of better sleep and it's likely your mood and mental health will improve too.
However, by day 4 without alcohol, most people will have got beyond any initial withdrawal symptoms. All the alcohol will have left your system by now, and your body will begin to bounce back. If you're not as focused on alcohol, you may be eating better, drinking water, moving more, and perhaps sleeping more deeply.
Overall, if they are physically active or their digestive system works well, the bloating can disappear in less than a week. In cases of alcoholic gastritis (inflammation in the stomach lining), bloating can disappear in under 2 weeks.
Whether weight gain or an inflammatory condition such as gastritis is at the root of bloating after drinking alcohol, lifestyle changes, medications — or both — can help. It can take anywhere from a few days to a few months for the appearance of bloating to reduce, depending on the cause and severity.
YOUR METABOLISM WILL CHANGE
Conversely, medium and heavy drinkers see their metabolisms slow significantly with alcohol consumption. Cutting out the drinks completely should see it speed up and make you burn energy more efficiently.
What do you mean by heavy drinking? For men, heavy drinking is typically defined as consuming 15 drinks or more per week. For women, heavy drinking is typically defined as consuming 8 drinks or more per week.
Physical Changes. One of the greatest rewards of sobriety is feeling physically better and healthier. Without alcohol in your life, you'll get better sleep, and wake up without a hangover. This can lead to more energy and productivity.
When you're insulin resistant, your blood sugar levels are higher and you store a lot more fat than normal. When you stop drinking, you're less insulin resistant, and therefore store less fat. At the very least, this stops weight gain. At best, this promotes weight loss.
Most people who give up alcohol notice that their skin is dewy, and healthier looking after just one week. By the end of Dry January, you're likely to see less swelling, clearer skin, and an overall healthy glow.
At 3 weeks of not drinking, most drinkers have successfully reduced their risk of heart disease, including stroke, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure. Their kidney health and even their vision may improve. For dependent drinkers, blood pressure may reduce to normal levels by the 3rd or 4th week.
Alcohol can cause weight gain in four ways: it stops your body from burning fat, it's high in kilojoules, it can make you feel hungry, and it can lead to cravings for salty and greasy foods.
Alcohol bloating may last a few days or even a few weeks, depending on what is causing the irritation and inflammation. The length of time it takes for the effects of alcohol on a bloated stomach to improve depends on how regularly you consume alcohol and the extent of your bloating.
Alcohol can cause water retention in your face. This makes your face look bloated and puffy.
Your healing gut may be absorbing more nutrients.
Taking a break from booze also gives your gut a chance to heal alcohol-induced damage and take in more nutrients. That may mean weight gain because your body "is finally getting nourished again," Brooks said.
And if you don't drink at all, so much the better. Food and health consultant Juan Revenga said, “Obviously, it's better to drink less,” and to abstain for three days. He also believes that promoting “moderate consumption” is an “entelechy,” in that it realizes or makes actual what is otherwise merely potential.
Going even 7 days alcohol free can help reduce your anxiety and depression levels and help your brain chemicals come back in balance. It leads to an overall improvement in brain function and mental health, even if you haven't experienced issues before.
Fatty liver disease is reversible. If you stop drinking alcohol for 2 weeks, your liver should return to normal.
If you stop drinking completely, one of the first things you notice should be improved energy levels, better sleep and finding it easier to wake up in the morning. Regular drinking can affect the quality of your sleep making you feel tired and sluggish during the day.
1 One study showed that after 6 weeks of abstinence from alcohol, brain volume increases by an average of 2%. 3. After Six Months: After half a year without drinking, you will really start to reap the rewards. Your risk of developing cancer will decrease, and your liver function will have greatly improved.