Stopped drinking, lost 10 lbs

How long since you stopped? Unless you are eating more, removing ~600 empty calories seems like a sure way to lose weight. Alcohol can have a short term diuretic effect, so 4lbs could be water weight.

I felt better after a few days, but the weight didn’t really start coming off until 6 weeks into it. My all time high about 6 months ago to recent low after a long run is 20lbs down. I know I’m down at least 10lbs of fat, maybe even 12-13lbs at this point. Unlike you, my mileage has increased, but I’m still not at 70mpw.

To the other poster about the hard stuff, I liked it all. Wine, Gin, Vodka, Tequila and more. I didn’t like any type of Whisky and I rarely drank Rum.

HarderStuff wrote:

A lot of beer talk here but anyone hit the stronger stuff regularly? I don't like beer as much as whisky, gin and tequila. Hangovers suck especially when I washed everything down with wine the night before. Ugh.

Yeah, bourbon was always my preferred drink, and I still indulge from time to time. Makes me feel like sh1t the next day and ruins my running. Always turns out to be a bad idea, but never stops sounding like a good one...

FYI if you drink beer for the taste but get sucked into drinking more than you'd like because of the alcohol, I would strongly suggest checking out non-alcoholic (NA) beers. Some of them are truly outstanding and 1-2 satisfy the itch without the effects of booze. Plus most NA beers have 1/3-1/2 the calories of normal beers. I'll often drink an NA IPA with dinner, and an NA stout or porter for "dessert", for a whooping total of 170 calories. Some of the heavier real IPAs can pack 250 calories in a single 12oz can!!

How much money did you save by not drinking? I would assume it could be $100 a month or more.

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

How much money did you save by not drinking? I would assume it could be $100 a month or more.

This is one reason I never started. Drinking seems like an expensive hobby!

Interesting, I stopped drinking and gained 20 pounds. A funny thing happens when you stop eating and only drink. Towards the end I couldn't eat an apple without throwing up. Good times! Back up to about 50mpw and don't have to worry about organ failure, so I've got that going for me.

One was too many and a thousand was not enough with me. Addictive personality with everything, made me a decent runner, but also a drunk. Best thing I did was give it up. I always wondered what it was like for guys who could have two or three at dinner and stop? Do you like the taste or the relaxing feeling? I drank purely for the effect, and once I worked on fixing outside factors, I could give the booze up. I'm not anti-Alcohol by any means, just know that it's not for me.

I massive reduced my drinking on 4/20/21. I've run every day since, 112 consecutive days, and I'm down 53 lbs (I was massive at 293) At the same time I switched to a little bit of cannabis instead of a beer or cocktail and have had no hang overs, sleep better, and have had minimal issues with inflammation in my knees (long term chronic issue) . So while I was not necessarily drinking to excess, dropping down to a single Saturday night cocktail with nothing but a little water and a joint on the other days of the weekend has helped me reach a bunch of goals well ahead of schedule.

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

How much money did you save by not drinking? I would assume it could be $100 a month or more.

Probably closer to $350-400 per month. I do fairly well financially, and enjoyed nice wine when going out to dinner, in addition to other social drinking. It wasn’t uncommon to have a $100-150 bar tab when hanging out with my drinking buddies. We would take turns paying the tab.

The $$ savings is an added bonus.

Thread hitting

I drink a six pack every night. Light beer but doesn’t really matter. Have been for a few years. Use to manage medium mileage okay and was in low four minute mile shape leaving college few years back. Struggling to get to 20mpw without something flaring up. I know I can get into PR shape again and my overall weight hasn’t changed. Need to quit, it’s sad.

Real money, for sure.

CinqueMinute wrote:

Why is a drink a day classified as an alcoholic and a run a day is not classified as an addict?

Because humans and their primate ancestors evolved for 25 million years with essentially zero alcohol, loads of walking, tree climbing and some running and fighting to the death.

Old and slow wrote:

HarderStuff wrote:

A lot of beer talk here but anyone hit the stronger stuff regularly? I don't like beer as much as whisky, gin and tequila. Hangovers suck especially when I washed everything down with wine the night before. Ugh.

Yeah, bourbon was always my preferred drink, and I still indulge from time to time. Makes me feel like sh1t the next day and ruins my running. Always turns out to be a bad idea, but never stops sounding like a good one...

I regularly drink both beer and hard liquor. I drink nearly every day, my real problem is that I rarely ever get hangovers. In 8ish years of drinking I've been hungover 3 times and many nights were very heavy with no ill effects the next day. The next morning I always wake up feeling fine other than the dehydration. Even before drinking I was always a night owl and had trouble waking up early anyway. My running is definitely hampered a bit right now but I think it's a general lack of motivation as I have no races lined up in the near or distant future.

Gave up sugar and lost 5 lbs.

ShilohDoesntCare wrote:

[quote]Old and slow wrote:

[quote]HarderStuff wrote:

I regularly drink both beer and hard liquor. I drink nearly every day, my real problem is that I rarely ever get hangovers. In 8ish years of drinking I've been hungover 3 times and many nights were very heavy with no ill effects the next day. The next morning I always wake up feeling fine other than the dehydration. Even before drinking I was always a night owl and had trouble waking up early anyway. My running is definitely hampered a bit right now but I think it's a general lack of motivation as I have no races lined up in the near or distant future.

That's how I was 20 years ago (in my 30's). I lived in Ireland and drank Guinness every day after work followed by lots of red wine. I always felt fine after my morning coffee! For better or worse, those days are gone. I flippin' loved drinking, and that memory is hard to shake. It just doesn't work for me anymore.

No snark here, just, OP, I'm sincerely pleased for you. Well done.

I've cut back over the years, now I drink 3-4 beers on Sunday afternoon, as Monday is my rest day. Almost all all the beers I drink are in the 4.5-5.5% ABV range as well which means 120-150 calories per beer. Not exactly catastrophic. I've considered quitting entirely but there's no better way to end the week than to pop open a few cold beer.

No more double IPAs or Imperial Stouts for me. I also avoid almost all sweets, candy, cakes, ice cream, etc.

burnout boi wrote:

Thread hitting

I drink a six pack every night. Light beer but doesn’t really matter. Have been for a few years. Use to manage medium mileage okay and was in low four minute mile shape leaving college few years back. Struggling to get to 20mpw without something flaring up. I know I can get into PR shape again and my overall weight hasn’t changed. Need to quit, it’s sad.

Hey, you can do it man.

side note this is one of the better non-running threads ive seen on LRC for a while, fairly supportive

burnout boi wrote:

Thread hitting

I drink a six pack every night. Light beer but doesn’t really matter. Have been for a few years. Use to manage medium mileage okay and was in low four minute mile shape leaving college few years back. Struggling to get to 20mpw without something flaring up. I know I can get into PR shape again and my overall weight hasn’t changed. Need to quit, it’s sad.

Beer for me (and alcohol in general) is just another habit. It's just like running. When you are running 7 days a week, missing one single day feels bad, and the thought of having to stop for 3 days for a small injury feels like the end of the world. But if you take a month off of running? 3 more days is nothing, and getting started again can feel like climbing a mountain, even if it's just a few miles a day. Not physically, but mentally

Drinking every night is the same way. I got into ruts where I would want a drink every night after work. Sometimes that was 1, sometimes it was 4. But if you can get into the habit of not drinking, you will find it's multiplicative and it's much easier to quit or cut down significantly than you currently think. You will go days without even thinking of having a drink because you just went days without having one.

Best of luck to you!