Featured Article: Effects of Drug and Alcohol Use on Your Weight

My mother is a drug addict and she has lost a lot of weight. The last thing on her mind is food and the first thing is drugs. She used to be a very attractive woman, kept herself looking nice and now she has just let herself go. She has lost a lot of weight and she will say that she is fat, when she is clearly underweight

Back when I started taking care of my body and decided to reduce the amount of calories that I ingested, I realized that alcohol is one of the worst things to consume. Alcohol is full of calories and it doesn't add anything to the body, it's definitely one of the worst things you can ingest because it has the potential to destroy everything you've worked so hard to achieve.

That is very true. I've never seen an overweight drug addict either. It takes a massive toll on the body and it's very noticeable when someone is addicted most times.

I know from first hand experience that drugs and alcohol can affect weight. So can quitting!!!! I gained weight during my time as an alcoholic and gained weight when I quit, because I was binge eating. The only way to stop the weight gain is by sticking to your guns and staying sober. Within a year of sobriety, my weight went back to what I was before the drink.

As a recovering addict, I can attest to weight issues while I was using. With my increased alcohol use, I found myself getting thinner and more frail daily.

Since we are not nourishing or bodies correctly when we abuse drugs or other substances, your quality of life begins to decline. I remember noticing that as my weight dropped and I became more and more unhealthy, I stopped being social and turned into a deep depression. Since I wasn't nourishing my body correctly and giving it the vitamins it needed, not only did my body shut down but also my psyche/mind.

A few weeks ago I was reading about vitamins and how simply having a vitamin deficiency can cause depression. I myself have vitamin D deficiency and noticed that when I was drinking heavily abd not taking my meds for it, I became a shell of a person psychologically wise.

In all , substance and drug abuse has major implications on our bodies. If we don't take care of ourselves in that aspect, everything else will be impacted as well.

The weight issues are definitely true. When I first started smoking pot and drinking at 18 I lost 30 pounds and didn't gain them back until I quit. I also only ate when I was high. When I quit it took me awhile to go back to eating normally like I did before I started abusing. I'm thankful I had the willpower to kick the habit so many people are having a hard time doing it.

It is so sad to watch someone who had so much going for them, spiral into a shell of their former self. That is so sad that there are so many negative repercussions from substance abuse, and many young people don't fully understand its effects.

It's kind of obvious that drugs can impact your weight; after all, it's a substance that goes through your body, and changes the way it works. What is very worrying is seeing the first graph: there are almost four times more obese people than drug addicts! Given the fact that there is a very large number of users, this should really make some people wonder about their health and lifestyle choices. Too bad most of them state that they have no time of getting in shape and try to find excuses for everything.

I agree that both alcohol and drug abuse can affect your weight. I seen it first hand with a long time friend of mine. It took awhile to actually notice a change in her look but after some time her belly just stayed bloated from drinking beer but the rest of her body was slim from smoking cigarettes and taking prescription pills that helped her focus. She is finally slowing down on the beer and I still encourage her to quit the cigs but she gets annoyed with me sometimes.

There are also a lot of pressure on the youth to "fit in" and especially girls who see their role models being stick thin. Drugs are the easy way of achieve what they see photoshop does to their role models

Alcohol is just full of carbs and is basically sugar. That is why so many alcoholics in recovery are such sugar addicts. They just exchange one addiction for another. I know through reading the other posts that pretty much only cocaine and meth were what was referred to as "drugs" but I think what has been overlooked here are prescription drugs. Opiates cause a lot of weight gain where other medications can cause weight loss, so it really depends on what someone is addicted to. But any substance abuse is bad for your body physically.

Drugs and alcohol tremendously affect a person’s appetite so it just goes hand in hand that they will have a great effect on people’s weights as well. Not to mention the contents of the substances being abused. Beer has a lot of calories, which is why most beer drinkers have fat bellies.

I can definitely see alcohol effecting your weight. I experienced this myself. I gained a good fifty pounds from drinking every single day. This was around the time I turned 21 years old and had no fear in the world of alcohol.

This piece of information can be very dangerous for people who are suffering for obesity. Please use the word unhealthy instead of weight loss you might end up convincing a lot of people to start substance abuse.

My father has been drinking for most of his life and he has lost and gained weight in intervals. Overall the weight fluctuation let to weight gain, though. This has been proven and seen all over that drinking can cause weight gain. Thank you for this post!

I have seen drug users who are very emaciated. They look sickly and thin and obviously very unhealthy. Even less hard drugs like marijuana have that effect. It is so depressing to see a life both physically and spiritually wasting away before your eyes.

Most drug users I've seen are very thin and have a very bad appearance. I always thought that alcohol would cause weight gain though, because of how many calories are in it.

I personally know an alcoholic (J) that is stick thin. He drinks 2 cases (24x) of 750ml Quarts Black Label beer in one weekend, and believe me this man could eat! So a friend (S) came to stay with J for a few months, drinking with of course since it was free beer and J has always been the sharing type, and barely 3 months after, S had picked up a lot of weight and a beerbelly!

I have not followed up on this, but I have heard tell that underweight children and/or lactating mothers are fed Milk Stout for WEIGHT GAIN and not weight loss. This is mostly recorded in underdeveloped countries. This to me makes it sound as though each person's body metabolism process has a lot of effect on whether you loose or gain weight. Where one person may gain weight from using the same brand, the other may actually loose weight.

This being said, resolving to beer or ANY type of chemical, for weight gain/loss is NOT the way to go. There are many healthier alternatives.

Speaking of men, these 2 things actually have pretty opposite effect on a user.

Alcohol tends to increase the weight if consumed often. That's why some part of heavy drinkers have enormous bellies. Drugs don't works that way. They make people lose the weight pretty fast, turning them into skinny sketetones. Regardless of sex and gender.

I have seen both, loosing and gaining weight. Usually alcoholics have that issue of gaining weight or they just appear to be bigger because their bellies get all round and they get the ready to 'explode' look. It is probably because they care more about drinking than eating habits so the food is usually the worst they can find and alcohol is not helping either. Drugs on the other hand, at least what i saw, leave people to meat and bones. I have seen some really big people turning into skeletons. I guess it has to do with eating habits as well but they probably do not eat at all. Drugs can be expensive and they don't leave space for anything else.