Hi everyone,
I am only 10 days sober, and I am looking for some positive reminders to stay sober. Can anyone share any significant health benefits from being sober? Has anyone had significant weight loss? (I drank heavy on beer). Also how many months along did you notice these changes? Thanks! 
Fellow alcoholic here! There are soooo many things my body thanked me for after I stopped drinking. The bloating not being constant is amazing. Replacing beer with bubble water and eating better will def shed some pounds for sure. My skin started getting a lot better. My hair was more… alive? I literally thought I had ibs bc of my guts but nope! Just alcohol. After I stopped drinking my stomach and my guts regulated themselves a lot. My mental health was/is the biggest change since sobriety. As someone who struggles with mental illness, getting sober was the best possible thing I could ever do to start healing. Congrats on your 10 days. Keep it up, friend. 
That sounds wonderful thank you for sharing! After 10 days, my mental health has already improved greatly! Do you feel like your self esteem and confidence has improved as well??
Yes and yes. And heart has gone back to a normal rhythm.
Congrats on 10 days! There’s been many positive changes in sobriety for me! Weight loss was a big one for me bc I blew up after 2020 and was so depressed I couldn’t bother doing anything about it. As soon as I got sober I got back into fitness and a healthy diet (not 1 piece of bread and butter followed by 2000 liquid calories 
) and was down 25 lbs by 5 months. My blood pressure had been high for the first time in my life but it’s back in a normal range again. Same as @Knives69 said, my digestive system did a 360°. No troubles whatsoever, and that only took a week or two surprisingly. It’s nice to be able to remember everything now bc I was the blackout type. Not forgetting entire conversations anymore! I appreciate everything so much more. Always thinking positively. Seeing beauty everywhere I go. Being real with people. Every relationship means something more to me. I know there’s more but I hope this helps motivate you to keep moving forward. It only gets better 
There is some general information here
For me personally, I had more energy within a week or two. Having more energy meant I cooked better, could exercise, etc, which made a virtuous cycle.
I stopped feeling so faint and having better poops (classic thread here Sober Poops) soon after, and brainfog lifted after a few months.
I personally was dealing with binge eating too, so I didn’t lose weight, but I concentrated on sobriety, and since have been able to work on eating better and have lost a fair amount.
I get far fewer and smaller coldsores!
I have definitely read other people losing weight, improving liver function and blood pressure.
Mental health benefits!! At my worst I would have struggled through most work days with anxiety, doom and gloom was ever present. I’m at 89 days sober today and I feel so much better day to day. I can function on a Monday where in the past I had to just try and survive. Obviously there are the physiological benifits mentioned above also which can’t be underestimated.
I shared something on here last week. Ttye body keeps score. Years of heavy drinking has a serious impact on our health, you may not feel it or become accustomed to it but the body is keeping a sore and it will eventually catch up with you.
Good morning everyone!
I too had my heart go back into a more normal rhythm. Have lost some weight, and my blood pressure is back to normal. Sleeping so much better!
The weight is distributed differently on my body. I’m very slim but the alcohol put weight onto my stomach area.
My stomach and guts are way better, no more wind no more rotten guts feeling walking up every morning.
I have more energy and spare time, before I was a slave to sitting and lying in bed.
No more mental gymnastics or cravings every single day over and over. I still have them occasionally but it’s not the mental drain and continuous fight
Ive noticed the alcohol put weight on my belly as well. I work out 3 times a week and my legs and butt have gotten toned but the stomach wasnt changing because i was still drinking. Maybe it will slim down the longer I stay sober.
When I was drinking I had horrible heartburn every day and had to take drugs for it. Now I only get it occasionally and I take a safer drug when it happens.
I can’t think of a single health parameter that quitting alcohol hasn’t improved. I have better skin, better sleep, a better relationship to food, more stable mental health and I lost 10 pounds the first month I quit. That was a huge wake up for me. It all gets better. 
Any prior heavy beer drinkers notice any weight loss in the stomach area after abstaining?
Yes, but with hard work.
I drank mostly beer, IPAs when money was plentiful and malt liquor when it wasn’t. I drank nearly everyday. When I quit, I hit the gym and ate healthy and I started losing my gut in a matter of weeks.
Then the pandamic happened, and well, the gut came back, unfortunately. (Also older too).
The thing is, when I drank, I didn’t eat. When I quit drinking, I ate. So I was getting calories either way, it’s just that the beer calories were empty.
If you ate AND drank and now you’re not drinking, and you have a calorie deficit, you will lose weight, slowly. If you add exercise, it will happen faster.
If you were like me, drank and hardly ate, you will have to work at it. Unfortunately, if that’s the case, there’s no magic bullet for that.
But, there’s a million more benefits, aswesome sleep tops the list! Then there’s lower blood pressure, reduced risk of heart disease.
Fun fact: the average life expectancy of an alcoholic is 45-55 years old, and after only 5 years of abstaining, you no longer have the risks of premature death that an active alcoholic has. So, there’s that too!! Being alive is rad!
Thank you that makes sense and is very helpful!