When you stop drinking alcohol, you'll probably lose weight, especially when you follow other effective weight loss strategies. Plus, quitting drinking comes with other health benefits like reducing cancer risk, lowering blood pressure, getting better sleep, and strengthening your immune system.
If you're able to create that 500- to 1,000-calorie deficit every day by cutting alcohol, eating a nutritious diet and exercising, you may lose a pound or two of weight in the first week after stopping drinking, according to the Mayo Clinic.
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's possible to experience withdrawal symptoms such as hangxiety, heart palpitations, and even seizures. This is why it's vital to consult with a medical provider to make a plan before you stop drinking.
Suppose someone drinks a bottle of wine every night and experiences negative consequences, such as problems at work or in relationships, difficulty controlling their drinking, or withdrawal symptoms when they try to quit drinking. In that case, it may be a sign of alcohol use disorder.
They define moderation as one drink per day for women, and two drinks per day for men. Also, consider that a standard glass of wine is 5 ounces, but many people pour more. Given that information, if you drink a bottle of wine per day, you're already well above this recommendation.
When you stop drinking alcohol, you'll probably lose weight, especially when you follow other effective weight loss strategies. Plus, quitting drinking comes with other health benefits like reducing cancer risk, lowering blood pressure, getting better sleep, and strengthening your immune system.
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.
After a fortnight, you are also likely to start losing weight as a result of giving up alcohol's empty calories. If you were to stop drinking six 175ml glasses of wine per week, you would have saved 1920 calories at this point, and 2160 if you'd stopped drinking around six pints of lager.
Your Heart Gets Healthier
But that may not be true, or true only for light sippers (less than one drink a day). If you use more than that, cutting back or quitting may lower your blood pressure, levels of fat called triglycerides, and chances of heart failure.
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.
Heavy drinkers who suddenly decrease or stop drinking altogether may experience withdrawal symptoms. They are potentially dangerous and should be treated as a serious warning sign that you are drinking too much.
A 750 ml bottle of wine contains about 600 to 800 calories. The fact that excessive calorie consumption can lead to weight gain can't be denied. Our body is designed to store extra calories as fat that can in turn lead to weight gain over time.
Daily use of wine can add an additional 100 to 300 calories per glass of wine. If an individual has one glass of wine a day that may account for 700-2,100 extra calories per week. In a month's time, this number may jump to 8,400 additional calories leading to potentially gaining 2.5 pounds per month.
Having a glass of wine every day may not lead to weight gain, but when you begin to increase the number of servings and their frequency you are also increasing your calorie intake. Prolonged wine consumption of excessive amounts of calories without burning them will lead to weight gain (2).
Dry January doesn't always lead to weight loss in part due to the way the body metabolizes alcohol. Some gain weight after giving up booze since their guts heal and their bodies get more nutrients. Focus on what you can control, like nourishing your body and appreciating the benefits of sobriety.
Drinking alcohol can make it harder to lose weight. There are many reasons for this, including: Alcohol is high in calories, and so are the mixers that are popular to use in many drinks. Calories from alcohol are empty calories, as they do not help the body meet its nutritional needs.
YOUR METABOLISM WILL CHANGE
Cutting out the drinks completely should see it speed up and make you burn energy more efficiently.
Drinking alcohol (especially drinking more than 1 to 2 drinks per day) adds extra calories to your diet, enhances food cravings, and slows down metabolism. Quitting (or cutting back) on alcohol is one effective way to lose excess weight — especially when combined with other evidence-based weight loss approaches.
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.
Weight Loss
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.
The term “wine belly” typically refers to the belly fat that some people accumulate after regularly consuming wine or other types of alcohol. While the name might suggest that this phenomenon is exclusive to wine drinkers, it actually applies to anyone who frequently drinks alcohol.
"What is certain about wine and other types of alcohol is that drinking beyond moderation has clear impacts on a person's health," warns Dr. Septimus. "Regularly drinking more wine than recommended increases a person's risk of developing cancer, liver disease, chronic pancreatitis, sleep disorders and more."
If you feel that you need a drink every night or to get through a social event, stressful situation or personal struggle, and you have a compulsion to drink or constantly crave alcohol, maybe even daily, this could be a sign of psychological dependency.