Drying out for awhile

How many of you did it and how much weight could I potentially lose? I normally drink a few glasses of wine a night and on weekends more. I'm going to stop drinking on week nights for health reasons. I'm afraid I will have trouble falling asleep for a few nights while my body adjusts.

• If you are used to having a few drinks before bedtime you probably will have trouble sleeping. I'd recommend getting more exercise for the first couple days to try to tire you out. Also if you are doing it to lose weight be careful how you eat, a lot of people who are used to drinking tending to snack more or drink sweet beverages when they aren't drinking. If you don't introduce any other calories you will lose some weight. Not a ton, but some.

• In her later years in Monaco, Grace Kelly supposedly lost 40 lbs just by giving up drinking.

• I lost 20lbs.

• I went low-carb, and one thing I found I missed was my glass of wine (or two) before bed. Yes, I lost a good deal of weight fairly quickly (and eating more healthily than I'd been doing), but how much of that was due to not having a glass of wine or a beer is impossible to tell. A couple of weeks ago I met friends at a really good cocktail bar and ended up having a couple of drinks for a treat. It didn't send me back to wine at night, though.

• I lost a SHITLOAD OF WEIGHT giving up booze. A shitload. well, 30 lbs. For me that is a lot. I gave up carbs after 2pm, and no drinks just seems to kill my appetite.

• Day 4 here. Cranky and Sluggish.

  Wheres%20my%20Pinot

• I'm on the wagon as of Saturday am and decided I will drink socially but will no longer keep booze in the house for myself. I am forcing myself to go to the gym after work or do other things so I am not sitting home bored and looking for a way to unwind. So between the gym and not drinking, I think I will lose a bit of weight. Trouble sleeping hasn't been a problem. So far I feel more tired than usual. Saturday and Sunday I was in bed before 10 pm both nights and I am looking forward to getting to bed early again tonight. I will keep you posted. Good luck OP.

  Robert Mondalvi

• I lost twenty-five pounds and I wasn't exactly a pig to begin with. Quitting drinking for me tends to go hand in hand with eating better and getting a whole lot more exercise, though. Took me a couple of weeks to get back to sleeping sort of normally. I used to drink A LOT, thouh, so your mileage may vary. I quit smoking at the same time and still dropped the weight pretty quickly -- in a few months.

• I also stopped smoking when i stopped drinking and lost a lot of weight. It's really really really really really really hard to stop drinking socially. At least for me. There is NOTHING i love better than a delicious well-made cocktail. and i love being with friends when a little tipsy. However, it does ENORMOUS damage to your waistline.

  http://www.livestrong.com/article/411026-does-alcohol-slow-metabolism/

• I think raging alcoholics don't generally stay fat from drinking. It's like the career gals that suffer -the social drinkers. The ones who can't imagine a night out without a cocktail or glass of wine.

• I am putting the money I save each week that I don't drink into a savings account to fund my vacation.

• How much good will it do OP to stop drinking on weeknights when it's likely he'll drink more on the weekends to make up for it?

• You can lose weight if you don't replace drinking with eating lots of sugar and flour.

• r12, why would you assume that someone who stops drinking during the week will drink more on weekends?

• R14, maybe because I've watched lots of people do that very thing? It's very hard to successfully pull off controlling alcohol consumption by limiting the occasions when one drinks.

• Latching on to a few favorite mocktails can really save your social life if you're determined to give up drinking. I have lately become OBSESSED with Mrs. T's Bloody Mary Mix, so I just get a Virgin Mary and I'm set. I also have been absolutely SAVED by soda (or tonic, if that's your thing) water with a lime (or a cherry) and a splash of bitters. DELICIOUS, nobody doesn't know you're not drinking booze (if that matters to you), and you still get to enjoy the experience of being out with your friends with a drink in your hand...with the added perk of remembering it all the next day!

  Blackout%20Billy

• OP - Why don't you just reduce your drinking?

• I find flavored seltzers way too sweet, but a couple of splashes of flavored calorie-free seltzer in a glass of club soda, with a squeeze of lemon or lime, is my nighttime drink now (it used to be a glass of wine).

  r4

• After not drinking for 5 days, I am down a half pound.

• Funny when I'm in Europe I eat like a pig and drink like a fish. I usually start around lunchtime. I just came home from a three week tour and I'm down 7lbs. I eat much healthier at home in the U.S. and generally stick to about 5 glasses of wine a week, give or take, and the weight comes right back. The difference? Walking vs. driving. It's the only difference. So unless you've been hitting the hard stuff heavy and need to give your liver a break, i say screw that. Work out an extra 20 minutes and get your heart rate up if you want to lose weight. I suspect some of you are looking for a quick fix to losing a couple lbs, and the fact of the matter is that we all just need to exercise more than we currently do.

• AA?

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