Why are so many heavy drinkers stick thin?

Too busy drinking to bother to eat anything.

I always wondered the same thing. Thin, with sunken cheeks.

Is it because boozing and smoking go hand in hand?

I've heard that smoking cuts your appetite, but on the flip side, drinking makes you hungry.

It's a very weird dynamic. But you're right, op... drunks are usually very thin.

I don't know for a fact but surmise that drinking and smoking are likely two closely related habits - each one and more so together,fooling the brain that the body is receiving the nutrients it needs.

Former boss, actually 2 of them - fairly heavy smokers -one liked the booze - both were over 6ft, thin, but with scary gray pallor I used to call one of them the Funeral Director.

Footnote: Both were extremely incompetent and in high level corporate positions.

R1 You nailed it. Alcohol is full of empty calories, but if you aren't eating, it doesn't matter. A friend of mine has been drinking 2-3 bottles of wine a day for years. He is 6 feet and weighs about 130lbs. He just eats enough to stay alive.

Sometimes hardcore alcoholics can be both bloated and thin. Todd Herzog, the cute little twink who won [italic]Survivor[/italic] a few years ago, was almost unrecognizable on [italic]Dr. Phil[/italic] because of the booze bloat in his face, but he was still really thin because he would go days without eating.

You must be a very trashy person if you know so many drunks that you can make an observation like that.

I've wondered this about Kris Kristofferson. In the '70s, he drank gallons of whiskey a day but had an insanely toned body.

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See?! Can't even post "ahem" properly!

BEER makes you bloated, vodka does not. My dad has been a functional alcoholic for the most of his adult life. He has a beer belly. He mostly drinks beer, very little vodka.

Alcohol kills my appetite better than prescription diet pills but I don't drink daily.

Also, a hangover makes me ravenous. I especially crave Coke, which is truly medicinal when you're hungover.

I never understood this either. It's all sugar. I knew one guy like this and he was even muscular on top of it. There is no protein in a margarita. It was baffling.

I agree, R11

Beer definitely makes people fat though, thus the term "beer belly."

Smoking might have something to do with it, and personality.

Most distilled liquor has no sugar unless it's added (e.g. Southern Comfort, honey-flavored whiskey, etc.) or if you add a sugary mixer.

Fat: 1 gram = 9 calories

Protein: 1 gram = 4 calories

Carbohydrates: 1 gram = 4 calories

Alcohol: 1 gram = 7 calories

R14 - 1 gram of alcohol delivers more calories to the body than 1 gram of sugar. Plus many drinks have sugar as well. You do realise a sugarless drink of alcohol is still high in calories?

Because some people have fast metabolisms and some have slow ones, even though DL likes to pretend that isn't so.

I've always thought Ann Coulter was a big ole drunk. When threads collide!

Like R14 said, it's the mixers that are usually LOADED with sugar. Take a look at a whiskey sour bottle next time you're in a liquor store. It's like 35g of sugar. And that's if you have 1! But if you mix your alcohol with club soda, you're all good.

I've known a few skinny alkies in my life, and all of them were also heavy smokers. That must have a lot to do with it.

I had a nervous breakdown a few years ago; did a couple of months in an institution and a year at a group home. Became friends with an older woman, 70ish. She had been both a heavy smoker and drinker; gave both up about 5 years before I met her. I was curious so asked her, which had been the harder habit to give up? She said: alcohol. By FAR. That she still really missed it; was often depressed because of NOT being able to drink anymore.

This surprised me; I would have thought smoking would have been harder. Interesting. She had gained weight after quitting smoking; similarly after quitting drinking. And she had always been "just" a "weekend drinker" (but, like, several bottles over a weekend.)

You don't eat a lot when you drink. You need a fairly empty stomach to absorb the alcohol faster and you don't snack either. Plus you're hungover the next day and might only eat one meal.

Even though liquor has calories, 9 calories an ounce does not add up to a lot

[quotel]You do realise a sugarless drink of alcohol is still high in calories?

You do realize I was discussing sugar in distilled liquor?

No one claimed it was calorie-free. "High" in calories is a matter of opinion. Most people would be dead drunk if they consumed in liquor the caloric equivalent of an average lunch.

[quote]Even though liquor has calories, 9 calories an ounce does not add up to a lot

80 proof alcohol is 7 calories per GRAM (not ounce).

Hard liquor contains 64 calories per ounce for 80 proof varieties, and 80 calories per ounce for 100 proof.

The body cannot store calories obtained from alcohol as fat, so it's a "use it or lose it" intake. So if it's not used, the body pisses it out and it doesn't get stored and thus no weight gain.

There was a major study that came out, fairly recently, that showed consuming alcohol itself doesn't lead to weight gain — it's all the shit that some people eat after drinking.

People with advanced alcoholism have trouble eating and keeping food down because their digestive system is so fucked up.

remember the 80s British film "Mona Lisa"? The teen hooker in that film was fascinated that the decades older character played by Bob Hoskins didn't get the fact that she could only keep down ice cream since her insides were messed up by boozing and drugging.

Heavy alcohol intake leads to an enlarged liver and pancreas, so when an alcoholic has a stomach full of food, it causes painful abdominal pressure. Advanced alcoholics can't eat full portions because it causes too much pain, so they end up not eating at all.

Remember the father in 'Angela's Ashes'? He would always say that food was a shock to the system, and it was bad for the body to eat what other family members considered normal portions. That's because he his internal organs were so big there was no room for food in his stomach.

My father drank and smoked and was rail thin. My brother drank and smoked and weighed over 300 pounds. Luck of the draw maybe.

To Reply 28 @R28, Wow, thanks for that info re the liver and pancreas. "Angela's Ashes" is one of my favorite books, but I did not know that an enlarged liver and pancreas is why the dad (Malachy Sr.) never ate very much. I thought he just wanted to give his food to his sons because he knew they were starving. And yet, in real life, Malachy Sr. lived to be about 85 years old, enlarged liver and all.

R25 Yes. When I was drinking I would think nothing of eating a bag of chips at 10:00 PM. Yuck.

Real alcoholics opt for booze AS a meal.

Appetite for anything other than alcohol pretty much disappears.

Advanced alcoholics don’t properly metabolize what they do actually eat, because of liver and pancreas dysfunction.

It affects individual metabolisms differently, y'all.

I stopped drinking a few years ago. Until then, I drank only "clear" or "light" booze: gin, vodka. Hated beer; wine only occasionally. And I was an obese daily drinker in complete denial about the effects on my health and well-being. Years later, I'm still managing the weight gain but in much better shape overall.

I still know people who drink a great deal--you'd never know it from their bodies. But it does eventually catch up with you, and the risks of disease are substantial.

I've seen a lot of episodes of "Intervention" featuring alcoholics. It seems like the families urge the alcoholics to eat, but the alcoholics can't keep the food down. (End up barfing up the food.) Except for Marie, who was overweight.

All the ones I've known were chubby and out-of-shape

I have a theory and this is just from personal observation. People with fast metabolisms, i.e. skinny ectomorhps, tend to have addictive personalities. That is because just calories they consume everything fast including joys and the natural highs of life. This is not to say there aren't fat addicts as there are many and of course uprbingings and drug of choice play apart as well.

The one friend I had who was an alcoholic really didnt show his colors until I went out to dinner with him and his partner. At first he was making all sorts of excuses about how eating out was expensive and cooking at home was much better. I kind of bought that line and he did cook but every serving was like fashion model portions. Like one steak for 4 people cut into tiny cubes so he could pawn them off as shish kabobs. Anyways, the very first time we finally met for dinner, he had already been drinking, but didnt look wasted. We sat down, he had another drink like a normal person, but when dinner came he wouldn't even touch his food. He walked outside to smoke and thew up. I realized then, drinking was way more import than enjoying a nice dinner or building friendships. Real alcoholic don't eat, it's just not as important to them as drinking. I didnt end it then, everyone makes mistakes, but I should have. I put up with a series of similar alcohol fueled drama.

Now that I no longer drink, it's fascinating to watch friends and colleagues who do.