No benefits when stopping alcohol

[Gem2J]

Hi Everyone
I hope you are all well.
For 5 years now i have drunk 4 pints of beer a night. I really don't want to do this and would prefer to stop drinking all together.
I am not as addicted as I thought I was, because my new years resolution was to slowly cut down. I have my four pints once every other day:) and I find it easy.
But now I have decided to go back to my 4 pints a night, because for me the benefits of drinking alcohol every night far outweigh the negatives.
And please don't read this if you are suffering from alcohol dependence, cause i do not want to encourage anyone, because alcohol is bad.
I am just writing this cause just want to make sense of it all, and get your thoughts?
I am very weight conscious. and work hard for my slim figure, and i am not willing to put on weight, no matter what the cost to my health. I have been overweight before and it ruined my life and self esteem.
So anyway you might think that if i cut down alcohol i will lose weight, but i have gained weight! And i am not eating pizzas and chocolate, on my days of not drinking alcohol i eat chicken, lots of veg and for desert I have an orange. But I eat until I am satisfied.
On my beer days i have 4 pints and a potato.
So really i can't cope with the weight gain and have decided to go back on the beer.
Also to buy all this healthy meals like chicken, veg and fruit it costs me double! and i am already on the verge of food bank and so it is cheaper to buy 4 pints of beer and a potato from Morrisons, and i would rather have that extra money to feed my kids.
I am never violent when I drink and it does not affect my day to day life, I work full time. But now after being made redundant I have found a new job that requires me to be awake at 5am for a 6am start. I suffer from insomnia and if i wasn't on the booze I don't go to sleep till 8am. And even if i take sleeping pills and drink no alcohol I still feel rough the next day.
Also i am a very LAZY person by nature. not working but at home. I have always been like this and on the days when I didn't drink alcohol well the house would be trash, alcohol enables me to keep on top of housework and pursue my online business dreams. If I stopped then i would be in bed 24/7 and a fat lazy slob
But I don't know how this is right, surely i should stop alcohol for my health? but I honestly don't see any benefits

Ive not read all the responses but another thing to consider is that alcohol is a diuretic and also a depressant. Which may be why you are having some of the problems you are experiencing.

When looking at weight gain, you have to realise the number on the scale only tells you your actual weight, it doesn't tell you anything about your body fat. So some days you may weigh more than others but be completely the same size with no extra body fat purely due to fluctuations in water weight. for example if you ate something very salty your body would retain more water to combat the salt and therefore you would temporarily weigh more, once the salt in your body evens back out you would then "lose weight" as your body will stop holding onto extra water. Equally if you were to weigh yourself then get into a really hot bath and soak there for a while you would sweat to attempt to cool down when you get out of the bath and dry, if you immediately weigh yourself again you'll see a loss on the scales. You havent actually lost any fat so arent "thinner" but you have lost water weight. So it isnt a real loss or a real gain as the water in our bodies doesnt really mean anything just the fat loss/gain.

So as a diuretic, alcohol will make you dehydrated because you will urinate more and therefore artificially make it seem like you are losing weight. As your body is so used to being dehydrated as you reduce it and drink more water your body will hold onto it in the short term as it is dehydrated and it want to get back to normal levels. This isnt fat gain just water and once you even out and cut back even more this "weight" will drop off you as its water and not fat. If ever you are worried all you need to do to reassure you is remember you need to eat 3500 kcal per day EXTRA to your normal kcal to gain 1/2 a pound of fat. No way are you doing that with what you are eating so the obvious answer is its water not fat. Also note that normal hormone fluctuations throughout the month will also change how your body holds onto water. I have struggled with food and weight all my life. Even reaching a whopping 30stone. Now i'm a normal and healthy weight returning to my binge eating ways is my biggest fear so I know how hard an eating disorder is to break from. Tracking my kcal really helped me in the beginning to really understand what I was eating and to not have wobbles that everything was ruined and to go straight back to my tried and tested coping mechanisms.

With the alcohol being a depressant it can make depression worse when not drinking so you may find that you feel worse and have low mood etc when not drinking especially initially and hopefully your GP could help with those issues which arise as essentially you have been self medicating for years. Maybe make an appointment with your gp to see what they can suggest and get those in place before trying to stop again. Set yourself up for success.

Also out of 8 days you have only actually not drank for 4. 4 days isnt long enough to see a meaningful change. Giving up is a short term pain for a long term gain. Its important to give it more time, find the issues and seek help for those. Give the new solutions a real chance of working. Even if it means taking a bit of time off work if needed. Also dont underestimate how hard it is in the short term, you have used alcohol as a crutch for so long, its a habit now and habits are really hard to change. For me I had a clear goal of how I wanted my life to look, what I wanted my relationship with food to look like etc etc. I also wrote down everything negative in my life that I wasnt happy with currently and I wanted to change. I wrote it out and stuck it to the fridge. It was like my mantra and every time I had a wobble I would re read it all. Id also go through every time I noticed a change in myself and add little notes to my negative list to keep a track of how far ive come and what ive achieved to keep me motivated. It took alot of therapy, soul searching, alot of support and trusting the process to get there. So take as much support for others as you can and if you really want to change your life you can get there too.

Sorry for such a long rambling post.

I think scarasm, when the OP is clearly facing additions and an eating disorder is spectacularly unhelpful

I think you should be careful about posting advice about tapering when you have no qualifications to do this . The OP is unlikely to require tapering at approximately 10 units per day and the fact she gave up for 8 days without serious withdrawal/ side effects confirms this , but the best advice is always to seek medical advice .

Seriously, if you can get some support, please don't reject it. I am dying because of alcohol

I posted no advice about tapering? I said it could be dangerous. She didn’t give up for 8 days - she halved her intake. I’m not medically qualified so I can’t say for sure whether she will have adverse effects from cold turkey but I stand by my belief that she needs professional help with this.

Given your obsession with staying slim I wonder why you have not considered how you will look if you develop Ascites from liver cirrhosis caused by your alcoholism?

You'll look 9 months pregnant at least.

My DH drank like you do and ate very little also.

He's just had his 3rd hospitalisation with advanced cirrhosis, his liver is decompensated (means it can no longer heal), he has about 12 different medications to take 3 times a day, he MUST eat at least 3 meals daily plus protein drinks or he'll die quickly. His life span is unlikely to be more than 2 years, we're already talking with palliative care in readiness.

He can barely walk, his tummy was huge but is now going down somewhat, his skin is an odd colour now he's no longer butter yellow and he looks 90 (he's 64).

You think you'll be able to carry on as you are and you'll stay slim even if you get cirrhosis?

You fool.

You'll look like shit just as he does now. Then you'll die just like he is.

@BMW6 you have described exactly what BIL went through. His legs became like tree trunks as well.

I'm sorry you are dealing with this.

I certainly agree the OP needs professional help but you stated it could be incredibly dangerous to stop from this level of drinking where the professional viewpoint ( if OP is being candid about her intake ) is that it would be safe to stop, un- medicated apart from some supplements and maybe some short term support to sleep . However each individual should seek their own individual advice . In general wouldn't want OP to use unqualified advice as a reason to keep drinking.

Is "Four Pints and a Potato" the sequel to "Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps"?
Loved that show...

This is what happened to a friend of mine. He lost everything including his life. I hope OP seeks help. I hope you are seeking help as well.

If you have only given it such a short time of reduced alcohol your body will be putting on weight because there's been a sudden change to routine, so your body goes into starvation mode and holds onto weight. You need to give it more time and a proper chance. Also it could well be that you are less dehydrated given alcohol is a diuretic so you were holding slightly more water weight. I'd give it at least a month before you decide it isn't working. If you say you don't really like the alcohol anyway I'd say it is worth trying something else.

Oh my sweet. I probably could have written a post like that years ago.

It's amazing what we can tell ourselves.

I'm sure other posters have pointed out all the ridiculousness in what you've written.

I'm over 5 years sober.

You have a journey ahead of you.

Thanks

Yes the fluid retention in DH's feet and legs is why he can't walk properly. He can manage a painful shuffle and is very unsteady. He came out if hospital on December 9th and has fallen over twice. Very difficult to get him back up on his feet because of the swelling in feet and stomach.

I'm sorry you've lost someone to it too.

I wish someone would make a public information film showing the reality of cirrhosis and how you can end up looking and feeling. Maybe some people who set such a store by their appearance would think about their alcohol consumption and take heed.

From what I've been reading more and more young people are developing it, not old fellas anymore but under 40 and women increasingly more than men.

This is one of the saddest posts I've read on here in a long time. It's honestly heartbreaking. The fact that it reads like a cross between Angela's Ashes and Shameless makes it sadder not funnier

OP if you're still reading and you're not a troll you are not being honest with yourself.

Please get some medical help with the alcoholism and the eating disorder. For your kids if not for you. This is really desperate stuff and I don't think you realise how much you're damage you're doing.

MN has become incredibly unkind in the last few years

@Gem2J of course you’re an alcoholic. You rely on it. You can’t do without it. It affects your life. Don’t kid yourself. You can live without it but you would need professional RL support. But you don’t want to stop so you’ll likely end up drinking yourself to death. Your poor kids.

Op my Dad was fine until he wasn't, he drank every day and didn't eat properly. He died at 45 hallucinating, not knowing who I was choking on his own fluids. I have nightmares every night. Do it for you and your kids future. Best wishes.

Yes, only follow withdrawal under a medical professional, it's extremely dangerous.

Part of the reason you could see a small weight loss the morning after drinking lots of alcohol is that it is a diruretic. That means it expells water from the body (via wee) so you are slightly dehydrated. Water is very heavy. But by the time you are rehydrated or haven’t drunk the alcohol and dehydrated the weight is back, it’s not a real weight loss/gain. You can also easily loose or gain a couple of pound due to your monthly cycle for similar reasons and can’t really guage weight loss over such a short time.

You need a psychiatric assessment and PRONTO.

You boast about how wonderful your kids are because they don't drink - the reason they don't is because THEY ARE UTTERLY REPULSED BY YOUR BEHAVIOUR. You think they don't notice or that you aren't doing anything wrong but they do and you are.

My father was, like you, a functioning alcoholic. Although his poison of choice was strong cider. Litres of it. Yet he still managed to go to work and contribute to managing the home and to be a present father...

Guess what? One day, when I was 14, he woke up with flu and decided to stay in bed all day. I went into the bedroom at 6pm to ask if he wanted something to eat and found him dead. Alcoholic cardiomyopathy. No signs or symptoms, let alone any of the classic 'alcoholic' health indications.

SORT YOURSELF OUT BEFORE THIS HAPPENS TO YOU - YOU MIGHT NOT CARE IF YOU DIE YOUNG BUT BELIEVE ME A LIFETIME OF THERAPY AND TRAUMA ON YOUR KIDS IS NOT A GOOD EXCHANGE FOR FOUR PINTS A NIGHT AND A POTATO!!!!

I’m not taking the piss, op, I genuinely wish the very best for you having had my own and family challenges with alcohol and disordered eating.

But whenever anyone writes ‘four pints and a potato’ my brain sings it to the tune of ‘Midnight at the Oasis’ and tbh it’s sending me every time.

You’re an alcoholic, drinking 70 units a week and you’re going to die well before your time, but sadly, you’re unlikely to remain slim. You’ll get bloated, swollen and jaundiced as your liver fails.

Please, seek help.

You don’t seem to care about yourself OP and that is understandable given your difficult upbringing. Have you ever had any therapy to explore the impact your past is having on your life and how you can start to take better care of yourself?
I really hope you can start to make healthier choices for yourself and wish you all the best.

This is wrong - we would never advise a patient drinking this amount that they would be safe to just stop. I’ve seen patients drinking less who have tried to stop and get awful withdrawals. Also look up the kindling effect - repeatedly stopping and starting increases risk of seizures over time. The OP needs professional advice on reducing safely.

Id say your advice is even more dangerous actually. You don’t know the OP or her medical history yet you’re confidently claiming that she doesn’t need to taper based solely on the number of units you think she’s consuming. All I have said is that it could be dangerous (and it could although it might not be) and to seek medical advice. Others agree with me.