Kelly Ripa, 54, reveals how much weight she GAINED when she stopped drinking alcohol

Kelly Ripa discussed the surprising way her body changed when she quit drinking alcohol nearly eight years ago.

On Wednesday’s Live with Kelly and Mark episode, which saw Andy Cohen fill in for Mark, the 54-year-old talk show host revealed how eliminating liquor from her diet transformed her figure.

It came after Cohen, 56, revealed he’s not drinking this month as he participates in ‘Dry January.’

Cohen noted about his experience, ‘Usually a little weight loss comes my way after [I stop drinking],’ but said that this time around it’s ‘not really happening yet.’

That’s when Kelly chimed in and said: ‘I told you when I quit drinking, I expected there to be this windfall of weight loss because everybody’s like, “Well, you are going to get too skinny, and you can’t afford to lose it.”‘

The mother-of-three went on to share: ‘I gained 12 pounds [and thought], “I don’t understand this magical weight loss that people apply.”‘

Kelly Ripa discussed the surprising way her body changed when she quit drinking alcohol nearly eight years ago. On Wednesday’s Live with Kelly and Mark episode, which saw Andy Cohen fill in for Mark, the 54-year-old talk show host revealed how eliminating liquor from her diet transformed her figure

The mother-of-three went on to share: ‘I gained 12 pounds [and thought], “I don’t understand this magical weight loss that people apply”‘

The petite blonde mused, ‘I think I just took to eating the sugars. Because apparently, alcohol is like a lot of sugar, which you don’t really realize [because] when it goes in it tastes kind of bitter.’

She initially revealed that she cut out alcohol back in 2020, telling her morning show audience that she was nearly three years alcohol-free at the time.

The media personality was discussing a drop in wine sales in 2019 with her then-co-host Ryan Seacrest when she said, ‘They’re saying that Americans bought less wine last year. 

‘It’s the first drop in a quarter of a century. Now, I believe this is because I quit drinking, that I caused this dip. I have influenced the market.’ 

Kelly clarified, ‘I’m not saying I’ve driven people [out of drinking alcohol], I’m saying I stopped buying wine and there’s a dip.’

The star continues to drink coffee, however, and on Wednesday’s episode she told Cohen her mug was filled with a latte.

Back in 2015, she told People magazine that she sticks to a mostly vegan diet and will occasionally do an alkaline diet to ‘cleanse.’ 

‘I like to drink coffee. I occasionally will have fish. The alkaline diet is primarily a vegan diet, but I like cream in my coffee. I like to have a glass of wine,’ she dished to the outlet. 

It came after Cohen, 56, revealed he’s not drinking this month as he participates in ‘Dry January’

And she added, ‘So I don’t adhere to it strictly, but when I do a cleanse, it will be seven days, and then I go back to my normal life. But my normal life, like I said, is not that different than the alkaline cleanse.’ 

On the mid-week episode of her long-running show, Kelly also said that she was disengaging from using social media as a sort of New Year’s resolution.

‘I’m not spending time on things that don’t serve me,’ the former soap opera actress revealed.

However, she said that her imminent co-hosting day with Andy prompted her to ‘check in’ to see what he’d been up to online.

Kelly herself has not shared a new post to Instagram since December 8, when she shared a photo of her glowing Christmas tree with her 3.4 million followers.