You won't believe the effect cutting out alcohol can have on your body

A woman has showcased the amazing transformation giving up alcohol has had on her body.

If you want to lose weight and overhaul your lifestyle, you might think ditching the junk food, eating more healthily and upping the exercise is the way forward.

But quitting alcohol can have an equally huge effect on your physical and mental wellbeing.

For proof look no further than Jelly Devote.

The fitness blogger from Sweden first realised she needed to cut down on drinking when she started to put on weight in her 20s.

“I ended up weighing about 70kgs,” she wrote on her website. “I led a very unhealthy lifestyle – I drank a lot of alcohol and never went to the gym or exercised in general.”

But after reducing her alcohol intake to a glass or two of wine or Champagne every other week, the 27-year-old has seen dramatic effects.

Sharing a transformation photo to Instagram comparing how she looked before and after cutting back, Devote went on to say that she’s never felt better.

“I’ve now been “balanced” since the crazy party nights in Bali and I’m feeling SO good again!” she continued.

“Party life ain’t for me! I’d rather be in sneakers than heals, and rather drink protein and smoothies than sipping champagne.”

Now, Devote hopes to influence others, including her 574,000 followers, to cut down calorie-laden booze, and it seems to be working as since sharing the side-by-side images have been liked almost 14K times and received hundreds of comments from inspired fans.

“Great story thank you for sharing,” wrote one user

“Brilliant post thank you for sharing,” another fan added.

Though Devote also credits healthy eating and exercising regularly for her transformation, she believes the most important factor was cutting down her alcohol intake.

“It’s simply impossible to have a healthy body and mind with that much consumption of alcohol,” she told Cosmopolitan.

But though she’s mostly found sipping sparkling water rather than sugar-fuelled cocktails, the fitness influencer continues to drink, this time in moderation.

“I have balance. I eat a doughnut followed by a salad. I don’t drink alcohol often, I down my water and most importantly I’ve gone from hating myself to loving myself,” she wrote.

So how does cutting down alcohol help you to lose weight?

According to the NHS a standard glass of wine can contain as many calories as a piece of chocolate, and a pint of lager has about the same calorie count as a packet of crisps.

The average wine drinker in England takes in around 2,000kcal from alcohol every month and drinking five pints of lager a week adds up to a whopping 44,200kcal over a year – that’s the equivalent to tucking into 221 doughnuts.

“Wine, beer, cider, spirits and all our favourite drinks are made from natural starch and sugar. Fermentation, and distillation for certain drinks, is used to produce the alcohol content,” the NHS explains.

“This helps explain why alcohol contains lots of calories – seven calories a gram in fact, almost as many as a gram of fat. And, of course, additional calories can be present in added mixer drinks.”

Regularly drinking more than the NHS recommends can have a noticeable impact on your waistline as well as cause less obvious but more serious health problems.

The NHS has some tips for cutting down your alcohol consumption including alternating an alcoholic drink with a glass of water, reducing your intake with a friend, and avoiding binge drinking.

For more help on reducing your alcohol intake, read Tips on cutting down.

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