Alcohol

OMGoodness I had no idea how hard a couple of glasses of wine would hit me!

Labour day weekend and we have a houseful of guests. Tonight I had a couple of glasses of red wine and my husband said I was behaving like I was drunk! I've never had an issue with alcohol ever before. What is the appropriate amount of alcohol one can consume 5 months after surgery?

What is the appropriate amount of alcohol one can consume 5 months after surgery?

IMO the answer is "ZERO" or "0".: NONE

As we are losing weight, the process could be really hard on the liver. Add alcohol and in some extreme situation, liver damage is possible.

I never had problem with alcohol before my WLS. And I would never consider having issues of controlling how much I would drink if I start drinking. Over the years I realized that I have no problems not drinking alcohol at all, but when I have a serving of alcoholic beverage, I may have hard time limiting how much I drink. Alcohol affects me very differently than before I had WLS. I can get drank on small amount of alcohol, but it also wears out much faster. And that makes me want more.

Based on my experience, drinking alcohol not only allowed me to eat more food, but on 2 occasions when I chose to add alcohol to my way of eating, I gained weight and gained rather fast. Losing regain was very difficult for me when I had an occasional drink(s) over a weekend, or when out socializing. I had 2 significant regains of app 30-35 lbs each time. When I stopped drinking alcohol, I was able to lose regain without feeling deprived.

I know that if I started drinking alcohol before I got to my goal, I probably would have issues getting to my goal. I lost over 100 lbs in a 6 months.

Good luck.

Edited to correct some misspelled words.

Thank you so much for your advice. Pre surgery I was always fine with a glass or two of wine when socializing. I think I'll follow your lead though and abstain in the future. Getting to my goal and staying there is way more important to me than a glass of wine.

I try to avoid it. I've had alcohol three times in the last five years, only 1-2 glasses of wine each time, and not only does it hit me HARD, I find that I like it way more than I did pre-surgery. Since alcoholism runs on my mom's side of the family (luckily, she doesn't have it...), and since bariatric patients are at greater risk of developing it than the normal population, I'd rather not go there.

I will avoid it moving forward too.

I successfully avoided it up till now but felt a bit of pressure from some of my guests to just have one drink to celebrate with everyone. Sounds kind of silly at my age to follow peer pressure but I did.

Good for you in avoiding the alcohol. However you might run into the same kind of situation again in the future, where people will want to pressure you into drinking or eating something off your plan. For me whenever I didn't want to drink, usually I could drink some sparkling water & just nurse that during the night. It looks just like sparkling wine. Walking around with a glass in my hand helped.

Maybe coming up with a list of things you can do or say will help you stay on track going forward. There was an old post that gave suggestions for situations similar to yours, but you might have to search for it.

Good luck going forward!

Because of the risk of transfer addiction, I chose to give up alcohol. It wasn't that important to me, so it was an easy choice to make.

Zero is the correct answer.

A few times I had a glass of wine at a wedding or New Year's Eve and would be stumbling around in a daze.

Never plan to do that again.

I know exactly what you mean. I am not a big drinker and never thought VSG would make a difference with alcohol like the bypass. WRONG !!! I found out the hard way around 6 to 7 months post op. I am now 2 years out and it is the same as it was 6 t0 7 months out. If you are going to have a few glasses of wine just be careful and make sure you eat 30 min before hand . I would also like to add that there can be transfer addiction from food to alcohol so watch out for that also.

I had surgery in 2010 and did not drink prior to surgery, but after I lost weight I would drink from time to time and it gradually became a habit to do when we went out to eat or had get together events. Over time, my weight started to creep back up and I realize that the alcohol was the main reason. In my opinion, steer clear of it. We are very susceptible to trans addiction after surgery that it can become a major problem for us. I am dealing with regain at this time and I wish I had never given in to the need to have a glass of wine, which turned into the need for more and more.

My suggestion, don't drink your calories EVER!