Kelly Ripa Reveals How Much Weight She Gained When She Quit Drinking — and Why It Surprised Her

Kelly Ripa reflects on initially giving up alcohol nearly eight years ago.

During the Wednesday, Jan. 22 episode of Live with Kelly and Mark, Ripa was joined by Andy Cohen as a stand-in co-host while her husband. Mark Consuelos, is filming a new project. During the opening segment, Cohen, 56, revealed he’s currently participating in “Dry January” and not drinking for the month.

However, as Cohen detailed his experience, he remarked that “usually a little weight loss comes my way after,” but this year, it’s “not really happening yet.”

“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,’ ” Ripa, 54, said before revealing the opposite occurred. “I gained 12 pounds [and said], ‘I don’t understand this magical weight loss that people apply.’”

“I think I just took to eating the sugars,” she continued. “Because apparently, alcohol is like a lot of sugar, which you don’t really realize when it goes in it tastes kind of bitter.”

Ripa revealed in January 2020 during an episode of Live with Kelly and Ryan that she eliminated alcohol from her diet in 2017.

The following month, she told PEOPLE that she and her friends decided to try a sober month, and once she completed it she realized she “felt great” and “liked the way [she] felt.”

“It wasn’t even really a thought process. It felt great, I felt like I looked great, I felt like I didn’t feel hungover. Not that I was a heavy drinker — I wasn’t someone who got drunk — but even like two glasses of wine at a girl’s night out dinner; I would feel it the next morning,” she said.

“I just didn’t really feel the need or desire to go back to it,” she continued. “It wasn’t really a choice or a thought, it was just, ‘Yeah, I guess I don’t drink anymore.’ ”

At the time, Ripa said quitting smoking in the early ’90s was something that she “really had to think about,” noting that quitting drinking “was very easy” and she “didn’t really think about it at all.”

“I’m not comparing cigarettes to alcohol, but for me it was just like, I don’t do that anymore,” Ripa added. “I felt better so I just stopped.”