Alcohol and weight

TW: Body image, weight gain

When I would watch movies that had alcoholic characters, they would typically be thin/slim.  Think Emily Blunt Girl on the Train, Sandra Bullock 28 Days, Mary Elizabeth Winstead Smashed (I didn’t and still don’t expect to see BAME/BIPOC representation). 

This is not a criticism or comment on the actresses who portrayed these roles, or their bodies. Absolutely not. This is how these depictions (in addition to 10,001 more)  contributed to my misguided interpretation of alcohol’s effect on the body. 

Disclaimer out of the way, imagine my surprise when alcohol made me balloon. 

Logically, scientifically, factually, it makes absolute mathematical and chemical sense that alcohol made me gain weight. If we look beyond the zero nutritional value aspect and focus solely on the caloric weighting that alcohol has, of course drinking to excess made me gain weight rapidly.