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

My best friend died of alcohol related issues, aged 41. Leaving utterly distraught late-teen children. It was a horrible, horrible death. Dont glibly say you’d rather die younger than not drink - it is an extremely painful, awful and often drawn-out death.
Your posts say you are female, you know weight fluctuates throughout the month. Your “weight gain” is an excuse. Cost of healthy food is an excuse. You can eat nutritious food cheaply if you choose to…daal, soups, stews etc. Your sleep, an excuse. Talk to the gp about different tablets/solutions.

It’s all just excuses.
Your children deserve a parent for as long as is humanly possible. You can give them that. Just stop.

If you weigh yourself in the morning I'd assume the 'weight gain' is actually just that you're no longer mildly dehydrated each morning. Or it could be the every other day sugar hit fucking with your hunger and metabolism. Why don't you try a week with no alcohol at all and see if the result is the same?

How long have you drunk every day? How much did it start off as? How long has it been 4 pints? then ask yourself, how long until it is 5, 6, 7 pints a day? Will you still be functioning then? You say you're not an alcoholic, but you also say you need alcohol to function so it sounds like you're an alcoholic to me!

4 days isn’t enough to give it, your body will be adapting. You will be suffering from malnutrition so your body will probably gain a little at first, but work out your daily calorie allowance so you don’t lose or gain weight. Whilst 4 pints isn’t a massive amount, your poor diet will be causing health issues long term. You might say now you’d rather have a shorter life and keep the same diet, but ask your DC that question. Ask yourself that if you’re dying and wish you had another 5-10yrs to spend with your DC and future grandchildren.

If you can’t change completely why not try reducing. 3 pints a night. You have to give your body time to adapt but your sleep will be better once your body adapts. Good luck

drinking and not eating ie prioritising alcohol over food is a sign shit is getting serious with your alcohol addiction. You put 2lbs on that is just a reversal of your dehydration.

Why a potato?

I think you’re trying the wrong tactic.
instead of a day on/day off move down to 3 everyday. Don’t change your eating habits much although maybe add a tiny bit of green with that potato just for the vitamins.
sounds like you have a very regimented mind though and I can see where you’re coming from.
whenever I quit drinking I gain weight.
obviously there’s calories in booze but it does also suppress appetite.

however your body must be really deficient in loads of stuff. When did you last get a blood test? And your sleep is down to the alcohol.
when I don’t drink my sleep returns to that of a normal human almost instantly. And the saying you get stuff done/aren’t lazy with a beer, well you’re running on false energy.
totally get where you’re coming from but maybe try everyday but less? And go from there x

I'm not judging. Just curious, do you eat in the day? Or is a potato the only food?

Poor attitude.
Poor kids.

My mother was an alcoholic who drank beer and didn’t eat. The long term effects on her body were not good. You don’t want to be a very thin old woman who looks like hell and breaks a bone every time you have a fall.

You need to stop drinking and start eating properly. Weight gain is a scientific thing. If you calculate the calorific value of the 4 pints and replace it with food of the same calorific value you will not gain weight.

Given your significant alcohol intake, would it be more sensible to cut down to 2 pints every night for a month, then one, then try not to drink at all? As you reduce the alcohol you can increase the food. And try swapping a chicken schnitzel or some other protein for the potato from today. Your sleep pattern will slowly adjust as you settle into your new routine. I think your frustration stems from the fact that reducing the alcohol is difficult for you and you are seeing no immediate benefits. This will take time, but in 6 months your health will be significantly better.

Just seen you’re on citalopram, probably won’t be working effectively as alcohol use messes with it. I totally get the weight thing, my booze issues are similar and have always been wrapped up in weight issues. I often do a full month completely dry though and I always feel sooooo much better for it.
Either try what I said in the other post, decrease and slightly up the Brocolli (you’re knackered cause your bodies getting no nutrients) or really give it a go no booze for a full week. Accept you may feel bloated and crave sugar. I dealt with this by realising each beer is like a cream cake. Only difference is I would never eat 6 cream cakes but I could easily neck 6 pints!

My goodness. If you’re surviving off 4 beers and a potato each day, it’s only a matter of time before one of your important organs decides enough is enough.

Appreciate the budget is tight, but have you considered batch cooking, and freezing meals? Or one pot dinners everyone can enjoy together?

OP, gently, you have an eating disorder and are a functioning alcoholic. This is from unresolved mental health issues stemming back from a traumatic childhood. You have gotten into a cycle which you currently cannot find a way to break out of through lack of support.
The alcohol is the root cause of your insomnia, not the cure. The lack of calories means you are not putting on weight and maintaining your current weight.

The alcohol is a natural depressant however you won’t realise that because you keep self medicating with it.
At the moment, you are not fearful of the internal damage it is doing because a) you can’t see or feel it and b) you are not fighting for your life.
One day you will need to fix this and you are putting off that day until it is forced upon you.

Have you seen a gp, asked for any talking therapy for help with the alcohol and food issues?

Think logically. You have not put on 2lbs of fat on in 8 days. You would have to have consumed an extra 7000 calories on top of the calories you usually eat and drink each day and that has not happened - nowhere near. The 2lbs will be water weight that was appeared from the changes that your body is not used to. If you carry on, the water weight will disappear when your body settles down and gets used to the changes. You KNOW you are making excuses and that drinking so much and eating so poorly is terrible for your physical and mental health. You are an alcoholic: you are going to experience sleep problems while you go through withdrawal. See a doctor and do it properly.

You are an alcoholic and have an eating disorder and you are in denial. You are drinking 56 units of alcohol a week.

Please get a liver function test ASAP.

Dying from cirrhosis of the liver is extremely unpleasant.

Is this a joke? A new Richard Curtis film- ‘4 pints and a potato’ ??
Seriously op, you need to take your health as seriously as you take being slim. There are skinny alcoholics you know, they are NOT healthy.

If you genuinely just want to announce you are going back to drinking (and no, going to every other day for a total of 8 days does not mean either that you are not an alcoholic or that your drinking is under control), why did you post in alcohol support?

I’m almost sure it’s because deep down you know you need help. The only alternative is that you’ve posted here in the hope of encouraging other people who are seeking support with alcohol misuse to drink as well to make you feel better about your drinking which would be a horrible thing to do so I hope that’s not the case.

If going without booze means you can't sleep then yes you are addicted. I speak without malice, as I like a drink or three myself and probably drink more/more days than is advised (nothing like 4 pints a night though!)

The most concerning bit is that you don't see any benefit of giving up/cutting down. It's really not about losing a few pounds, it's about preserving your long term health and staying fit and well for you and your children. You might think you are "fine" but so did my alcoholic MIL. Eventually she got an everyday stomach bug and the sudden strain on her deteriorated liver was enough to tip the balance and she died a month later. Her children were adults but absolutely devastated because she really did seem "fine" until then.

I would be reeling after three pints, let alone four. The fact that you can function normally shows what a high tolerance your body has built up. That is very concerning.

You can’t stop drinking every other day is not stopping. You have an alcoholic addiction. At least admit it when you are drinking your larger. Don’t try and convince anyone you are not alcohol addicted you are!

No judgement from me as I could easily drink alcohol everyday however, when I do stop I stop for weeks and months and years sometimes and when I mean I stop I stop NO ALCOHOL at all.

Your post did give me a laugh this morning though, thanks for that. It is an argument I have never heard before to keep drinking alcohol.

For me all the benefits of stopping kick in after a couple of weeks and weight loss is one of them. However, I don’t drink larger. I drink wine and I pair it with delicious food so when I stop drinking alcohol I eat less calorie dense food. It seems to be you are substituting food with larger which is the definition of an alcoholic.

There is no way you can attribute 2lb weight gain to reducing your beer intake for 7 days. Everyone's weight fluctuates by that much almost regardless of what they've been eating or drinking.

You can use your tiny weight gain as an excuse to resume drinking but really it's absolutely ridiculous.

Yes, you are an alcoholic. You have just said that you can’t give it up. I know you said it’s a choice not to do so but it’s clearly not because a rational person wouldn’t make a choice that will kill them and cause them untold damage. I don’t know what sort of beer you drink but there’s between 2 and 3 units per pint, so you are drinking 8-12 units a night, which is between 56 and 84 units a week. The recommended limit is 14 per week. You will die at some point - a horrible death of liver cirrhosis. Your kids are no doubt terrified and they 100% know you are an alcoholic. Google what impact having an alcoholic parent has on children- please. Because you are an alcoholic.

live a good time not a long time!

A death from alcohol is not an easy death, nor a good time. Also look up Korsakoff’s .

Also I was not brought up in a lovely family at all. My dad was very abusive which has had a really bad impact on me. I don’t drink 60 units a week though.

@Gem2J I haven't read all replies but enough to know that it's all focussed on the four pints being bad and not enough food etc. I'm an alcoholic in recovery and used to drink four bottles of wine a day and only food if I remembered it. It's very common to put on weight when you stop drinking. Pretty much all women I know in AA experienced the same at the start. I could go on at length on this.

So - after a period of time as the body adjusts to its new normal - and my body was starved of nourishment - you revert to your normal weight. As long as you are eating healthily. It's common to replace alcohol with sugar, as your body will be craving it as a replacement.

I get the cost aspect too. I'm vegetarian and you can make meals very cheaply so I guess that wasn't a concern but work out a budget and stick to it.

Sleep returns after a few nights of dreadful sleeplessness. I can't really recall how long as it was many years ago but I did resort to night nurse, even though it contains alcohol, to tide me over for a couple of days. Non intoxicated sleep is honestly the best ever, waking with a clear head.

I won't go on about liver count etc but it is a concern. A healthy mother is what your children need and one who's got energy and will stick around.

My late BIL had this. He lingered on for years. He was so bad that he ended up in residential care.

His death certificate states alcoholism.