Okay, so I’m on day 7 and I sat down and figured this out. Say I drank 40 beers a week, which was probably my average. 125 calories per beer (I wasn’t drinking lite beer) = 5000 calories per week!! Plus probably 2000-4000 more from the shit I was eating when I was all loaded up. That’s like an 8000 calorie deficit per week JUST BY NOT DRINKING. Awesome. I hope the pounds fall off (exercising too) and I become a lean machine again. Crazy how that adds up. I was a bloated mess!!!
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I drank about 2000 calories from vodka a night. That’s like a 5th and some extra.
They’re empty calories, the body stops all burning of real calories because it has to metabolize and remove the empty bullshit first.
I’ve lost about 40 pounds since getting sober in January. I’m also fairly active, I walk quite a bit and shoot hoops on the weekends, and follow the keto diet.
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It’s pretty crazy, right? And one of those things that takes adjusting to. The calorie crash that came with this lasted weeks for me. Nothing a few M&Ms didn’t fix!
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Calorie crash? I haven’t heard this term before.
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Yep. The body notices all the missing sugars from drinking. For me, it felt like increased brain fog on occasion if I hadn’t been eating right and still pops up now and then after almost two months. If I’m starting to feel brain dead I have a few bites of chocolate or fruit.
It’s a tricky part of recovery, probably depending how heavily one drank. Vitamin deficiency from poor alcoholic diet’s another one. Best to talk to your doc about it.
Getting on a healthy diet spaced throughout the day and back on to exercise helped me a lot with the mental haze. And… losing some of my drink gut to boot!
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Thanks for the explanation! I talked to my doctor a couple weeks ago about my drinking problem and got an appt with their in house therapist (not until Oct because there was a wait list for new therapy patients), but he didn’t mention this might be an issue. I was not a daily drinker. I was a 1-2 days a week binge drinker. So hopefully this won’t be a huge issue for me. At least I have a good reason to stock up on PB M&Ms!
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PB M&Ms for the win! 
Good plan. Also, found this article on sugar addiction in recovery. It has some good tips. I’m not so sure about the crave supplement they link to. But I did find a B vitamin supplement at the store that (in hindsight) looks suspiciously tailored for recovering alcoholics.
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Man I can get down on some dark chocolate peanut m&ms.
I’m a chocoholic as well as an alcoholic though, so I avoid sugar.
Idk that I’d ever be able to quick chocolate. Like, if I were allergic, I’d have to buy an epipen for daily use.
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I’ve never given it up completely, but I do without it a lot. It’s a treat, and it’s rare these days.
I’m sure your body appreciates that! I actually don’t crave seeet things often, and I rarely buy them, so when I do crave something I have to physically go to the store. It helps me not overeat junk.
I’m down 20 lbs in 49 days… high protein 2000 calorie diet and weights. But the biggest change I made is no Miller Lite calories!
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I do keto. 20 carbs a day. High fat. Moderate protein. So sugar is out for me.
Unfortunately my body forced me to compensate with icecream lol
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OMG, @Eke! This article could be illustrated with a picture of me in in. “Former drunk, now eating her weight in ice cream.” That article is fascinating and makes so much sense. Our systems are so interconnected. I will definitely be putting some of the nutrition tips into play. Thank you!
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Me too 