Yahoo Lifestyle Kelly Ripa Reveals The 1 Thing That Happened When She Stopped Drinking
Kelly Ripa’s journey to sobriety led to a surprising plot twist: weight gain.
On Wednesday on “Live with Kelly and Mark,” Ripa welcomed Andy Cohen as a guest cohost while her husband, Mark Consuelos, was filming a new project.
During the segment, Cohen revealed he was in the midst of “Dry January,” prompting Ripa to ask how it was going. His response? “Boring!”
“Are you dry dry?” Ripa inquired, playfully wondering if Cohen was supplementing his hiatus from alcohol with edibles. Cohen admitted to partaking, and Ripa responded that he’s “not really dry.”
Cohen quickly clarified that his definition of “Dry January” only extends to abstaining from alcohol.
Cohen then stated that he usually expects “a little weight loss” during this period, but that a little over three weeks into the year, he’s not seeing the results he’s grown accustomed to.
“When I quit drinking, I expected there to be this windfall of weight loss,” Ripa said, noting that some people warned her she would become “too skinny.” But the opposite happened, she said, and she gained 12 pounds.
“I think I just took to eating the sugars,” Ripa said of why she didn’t lose the weight she expected. “Because apparently, alcohol is like, a lot of sugar, which you don’t really realize when it goes in it tastes kind of bitter.”
Experts recently told HuffPost that abstaining from alcohol can indeed lead to sugar cravings, as Ripa suggested, but also helps some people lose weight.
Shauna Faulisi, founder of a Los Angeles-based wellness coaching service, stated that when you drink, the first thing your body metabolizes is the alcohol itself. “This means that all fat-burning will temporarily be put on hold,” she said.
She explained that when one consumes sugar-heavy cocktails, the unnecessary calories can affect blood sugar. “When we have excess insulin in our blood, it can lead to a host of issues, including weight gain.”
According to People, Ripa eliminated alcohol from her diet in 2017. The outlet reports that she and her friends decided to try a sober month, but once she completed the challenge, she realized that she “felt great” and kept going.
