John Goodman's Weight Loss Journey Was Kickstarted When He Gave Up This One Thing

In 2007, actor John Goodman embarked on a weight-loss journey that ultimately resulted in him losing around 200 pounds. According to Goodman, however, much of his weight loss success was due to his giving up one thing: alcohol. 

"It was getting to be too much," Goodman told The Guardian in 2012 about his decision to quit drinking and enter a rehabilitation program. "It was 30 years of a disease that was taking its toll on everyone around me and it had got to the point where, every time I did it, it was becoming more and more debilitating. It was life or death. It was time to stop," he declared. Goodman also confessed that the drinking was taking a toll on his "temperament, memory, and depression" — all of which he needed to maintain his acting career. 

Fortunately for Goodman, once he eliminated alcohol, both his body and his mind benefited. "John is very agile. When I see him running I get out of the way! He can be a different type of actor now. He can take on athletic parts," Goodman's health coach Mackie Shilstone told People in 2010. 

Anyone looking to lose or maintain weight should be aware that drinking alcohol can have real effects on their body, including impeding their weight loss and fitness goals. "Alcohol has calories," Psychiatrist Leslie Heinberg, Ph.D., told the Cleveland Clinic. "And depending on what we're drinking, the number of calories can be excessive," she said. 

Additionally, those who opt to stop drinking alcohol for reasons other than weight loss might also notice a surprise drop on the scale. "If heavier drinkers remove alcohol for a longer period of time, they might see weight loss, improvement in body composition, less stomach fat, improvement in triglycerides (one of the fat particles in the blood)," medical director of the American Board of Obesity Medicine, Rekha B. Kumar, M.D., told Healthline. 

According to registered dietitian Dana Green, however, the weight loss isn't just a result of consuming fewer calories. "You will make healthier choices in the moment, and when you give up drinking, you also feel better and will have more energy throughout the day to exercise," Green explained to Health Digest in December 2020 for a piece aptly titled, "When You Stop Drinking Alcohol, This Is What Happens To Your Body."

It should be noted that extra calories aren't the only way alcohol can wreak havoc on a person's body. As it turns out, it also slows metabolism. "Research has uncovered that alcohol especially decreases fat burn in the belly," integrative medicine specialist Pamela M. Peeke, M.D., told CNN in March 2015. "That's why you never hear about 'beer hips' – you hear about a 'beer belly.'"

But that's not all. Excessive alcohol can disrupt a person's healthy diet by introducing food cravings. "The body needs energy to resolve the effects of a big night of drinking, so it wants the richest source of energy it can find, which is fat," anesthesiologist Jason Burke, M.D., explained to CNN. "Also, greasy foods tend to settle the stomach a bit," he added. Think: greasy diner foods that quell nausea.