Like so many women, I began drinking during my freshman year of college. I did plenty of stupid things during those first drinking sessions. Luckily, it was nothing that strong coffee and an Advil couldn’t fix—except for the weight gain.
When I was out, I’d down a couple of shots of Fireball, chase them with soda, and follow that up with a game of flip cup. (Spoiler alert: If you lose, you end up chugging beer. I was not very good.) During those first few months as a drinker, I also downed a good bit of “jungle juice,” a frat basement concoction of cheap liquor, soda, fruit juice, and whatever else they had on hand. I get a sugar rush just thinking about it.
Then, after drinking plenty of empty calories, I fed my booze-fueled cravings with whatever I could get my hands on—anything from bags of chips to Ben and Jerry’s.
The next morning (er, afternoon) when I woke up, I was in punishment mode. I’d subsist on veggies and tofu in an attempt to make up for my late-night habits. I still exercised, but I didn’t enjoy it anymore. In the past, I had loved waking up early for morning workouts. But now, thanks to my drink and sleep-it-off schedule, I was forced to exercise later in the afternoon. And since I was hungover and bloated from junk food, those workouts felt pretty crappy.
To be honest, I’m not sure how many drinks I downed each week, but it was more than five drinks during any given night out. If my classwork was light, you could expect to see me out four nights per week.
By the end of my freshman year, I put on the full fifteen. And as a 5′ 2″ woman, it was obvious that I’d gained weight in my stomach and lower back.
I knew if I wanted to say goodbye to the weight, I’d have to say goodbye to the booze.
Not even a week after my final days as a college freshman, I went on a family vacation. Needless to say, I wasn’t taking shots and drinking jungle juice with my mom and little sister.
Instead, I found myself naturally reverting to my healthier habits. For the first time since picking up drinking, I woke up for my early morning runs. At night, I no longer craved carbs and fat. There were no more morning trips for bagels (yes, bagels plural) and coffee to tend to my hangover. It was amazing how much better I felt. That’s when I realized that I didn’t want to drink alcohol anymore.
But it took me a few months of awkwardly trying—and sometimes failing—to avoid it before I worked up the courage to really cut it out.
At first, when I went to a party and someone offered me a drink that was already poured, I’d take it, say thanks, and hand the drink off to a friend. Occasionally, I just awkwardly sipped it because I didn’t want to say no and have to explain why. Eventually, I got to the point that I was able to say, “No thanks, I’m not drinking.” Most people didn’t care.
Without alcohol in my life, I soon found myself getting more into fitness, which made it even easier to turn down drinks. I looked forward to my morning workouts and booze was not going to get in the way of that. Bonus: I had no reason to mow down junk food after a night out or starve myself during the day. I was starting to find balance.
Of course, the changes I saw in my body also made abstaining easier. My body went from what I’d definitely call “skinny fat” to lean and muscular.
The weight around my middle was the first to go once I cut out alcohol. After about six months of not drinking, I lost all of the booze belly and the 15 pounds I gained.
McKenzie Maxson
Now, three years later, I live in New York, the city that never sleeps, and I’m constantly around alcohol. But I rarely drink.Most of the time, I stick to my guns and, if someone offers me a drink, I say, “no, thanks” or that I don’t really drink, and then conversation continues as usual. I don’t even bother to explain why unless someone is genuinely curious.
However, every couple of months or so, usually when a special occasion pops up, I’ll enjoy one glass of wine or a simple cocktail (like a vodka soda). I won’t touch margaritas, rum and Cokes, or anything else that’s overloaded with sugar. And, yes, even when enjoying healthier drinks, I limit myself to just one glass. I find that one drink doesn’t keep me from making healthy decisions—and it’s much easier to stop after one than after two or three.
In case you were wondering, I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything by drinking alcohol so rarely. Rather, I feel like it actually helps me have a healthier relationship with food, exercise, and my body. As far as I’m concerned, that’s not worth missing out on.
Alcohol affects your weight in several key ways.
It’s not just the booze itself that racks up calories and contributes to weight gain (though each drink, whether it’s light beer or a mixed drink, adds up to at least 100 to 110 calories, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine). The nutritional choices you make while under the influence aren’t optimal either.
A study from the journal Appetite found that moderate drinkers were 24 percent more likely to order something savory like salty fries, which may be the only edible item at your local dive bar, after drinking. And it’s not just the quality of food that affects your weight but the quantity you’re taking in, especially if you didn’t start off the evening with a hearty meal.
And if you work out, drinking on the reg can make matters worse for your health. “If someone is in the habit of drinking consistently, especially an athlete, this leads to dehydration and depletion of certain necessary vitamins and minerals as a result, as well as sluggishness because you’re not getting the hydration your body needs,” says Linzy Ziegelbaum, MS, RD, CDN, founder of LNZ nutrition. It also impairs your sleep-wake cycle too. That overall sluggishness and lack of sleep that come from alcohol may contribute to consuming more calories and weight gain, research published in Nutrition and Diabetes shows.
Even if you don’t drink heavily but like to enjoy a drink per night (which is defined as “moderate” drinking, btw), even doing a dry January may improve your food choices and therefore your weight, sleep quality, mood, and performance—both in the gym and at work, Ziegelbaum says. A recent Chinese study backs up those claims and showed that giving up drinking can improve your mental health, too.
At the end of the day, it’s a personal decision whether or not you drink and how much. But there are plenty of health benefits to cutting down on alcohol. It can contribute to weight loss over time, and you may simple feel better (mentally and physically) day to day without it.
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