How to Quit Drinking Highballs: Why 'Zero Sugar' Is a Trap and 7 Steps to Stop

“I switched to highballs because they’re zero sugar, so I figured they were the healthy choice.” “I quit beer, but the nightly highball is the one I can’t shake.” “Lately a regular highball doesn’t cut it—I keep making them stronger.”

If any of that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. A whiskey highball—whiskey and soda—has a reputation as the “clean,” waistline-friendly drink, which makes it easy to pour one every night without a second thought. But zero sugar doesn’t mean zero alcohol. In fact, that very sense of “this one’s fine” is often what quietly pushes the count from one glass to three.

This article covers why highballs are so hard to quit, why “zero sugar” doesn’t mean you won’t gain weight, how much alcohol is really in a single highball, and seven practical steps to cut back or quit for good.

Why highballs are so hard to quit

Highballs have three qualities that make them stickier than other drinks.

1. The “zero sugar = healthy” halo

Canned highballs and whiskey sodas are marketed as sugar-free and low-calorie. That creates a mental permission slip: “this one isn’t really bad for me.” With less guilt attached than a beer or a sweet cocktail, one glass slides into two, then three.

2. Carbonation makes you drink faster

A highball’s crisp, fizzy finish goes down easily alongside food. Carbonation can speed up how quickly alcohol is absorbed, so your blood alcohol rises faster than you’d expect. The result is the classic “wait, how many did I have?” moment.

3. Cans are cheap and always on hand

Canned highballs are inexpensive and easy to keep stocked at home. Cracking one open right after work, or every evening with dinner, quickly becomes part of the daily rhythm—and habits built into your routine are the hardest to notice, let alone break.

Does “zero sugar” really mean you won’t gain weight?

Short answer: no. Drink enough of anything alcoholic and you’ll still gain weight.

Your liver treats alcohol as a toxin it has to clear first, ahead of everything else. While it’s busy doing that, fat and sugar metabolism get put on hold, so the fat from whatever you’re snacking on is more likely to be stored. In other words, it’s the presence of alcohol—not just the sugar—that drives weight gain.

On top of that, alcohol itself carries about 7 calories per gram. Zero sugar or not, several strong highballs add up to a meaningful pile of calories. Some liver specialists flatly call the “sugar-free drinks won’t make you fat” idea a myth.

If “it won’t make me fat” was your main reason for choosing highballs, that premise is worth rethinking. For what actually changes when you stop, see what happens when you quit drinking beer and how the liver recovers after you quit drinking.

How much alcohol is really in one highball?

The honest way to measure a drink isn’t sugar or calories—it’s grams of pure alcohol. You can calculate it like this:

Pure alcohol (g) = volume (ml) × ABV (%) ÷ 100 × 0.8

Run the numbers on a few typical highballs:

Type of highball	Approx. pure alcohol
Home pour (double, 60ml whiskey at 43% + soda)	~20.6g
Canned highball (350ml at 7%)	~19.6g
Strong version (350ml at 9%)	~25.2g

Health guidelines often put “lower-risk” drinking at roughly 20g of pure alcohol per day. That means a single highball—one double, or one can—can already hit your daily limit. For a drink that feels so light, the actual alcohol load is anything but small.

Not sure how your usual pour stacks up? Run it through the pure alcohol calculator—seeing the number often reveals you’ve been drinking more than it felt like. For a fuller reference, see the standard drink units guide.

What happens if you keep drinking highballs

A nightly highball habit—zero sugar or not—tends to bring on changes like these over time:

Worsening liver markers (rising GGT, fatty liver)
Higher triglycerides and more visceral fat
Poorer sleep quality (you fall asleep but sleep lightly)
Morning grogginess and daytime drowsiness
Creeping tolerance—needing them stronger to feel satisfied

The trap to watch is the one built on that “healthy drink” feeling: someone who could stop at one beer ends up having three or four highballs. That doesn’t cut your alcohol intake—it quietly raises it.

7 steps to cut back or quit highballs

Whether your goal is to stop completely or just drink less, the principle is the same: don’t rely on willpower alone—build a setup where not drinking is the easy default.

Step 1: Stop keeping them in the house

As long as cans and a bottle of whiskey are within reach, resisting every night is nearly impossible. Clear out your stock first, so that having a drink requires a trip to the store. That single extra step kills a lot of “might as well” pours.

Step 2: Replace the fizz with soda water

Much of a highball’s appeal is that crisp, carbonated finish—and plain soda water covers a surprising amount of it. Pour soda over a glass full of ice with a squeeze of lemon and you satisfy the “I’m having a drink” feeling without the alcohol. For more ideas, see what to drink instead of alcohol.

Step 3: Identify your triggers

“Right after a bath,” “with fried food,” “Friday night”—the urge to reach for a highball usually follows set patterns. Knowing your triggers lets you get ahead of them. There’s a full breakdown in drinking triggers and how to defuse them.

Step 4: Drop the “strong” pours first

Switching to weaker highballs tends to backfire—you drift back to the strength you’re used to. For the first few days, cut out the strong pours entirely instead. Resetting your palate and brain from that heavy hit is the fastest route to drinking less.

Step 5: Ride out the craving

A craving usually peaks and fades within about 15–20 minutes. Slot another action into that window—brush your teeth, take a short walk, hop in the shower—and it becomes far easier to get through. See how to handle alcohol cravings for concrete tactics.

Step 6: Decide between full sobriety and alcohol-free days

If going straight to zero feels too hard, it’s fine to start by cutting back—say, two alcohol-free days a week. If the nightly drink is your sticking point, how to stop drinking every night is worth a read. What matters is adding “off” days at a pace that fits you.

Step 7: Track your progress

For both quitting and cutting back, seeing your progress raises your odds of success. Log the days you didn’t drink, the alcohol-free days you hit, and the money you saved. Once you’ve built a streak, the “I don’t want to reset this” instinct becomes a real source of momentum.

When quitting on your own feels too hard

If cutting your nightly highball to zero feels out of reach, starting with more alcohol-free days is a valid path. SoberNow lets you choose not just full sobriety but an alcohol-free-days mode, where you set a target for how many nights a week you skip drinking.

Track sober days and alcohol-free days you hit
Automatic tally of the money you’ve saved
A weekly view that shows this week’s progress at a glance
Evening reminders to help you keep the habit going

If you’re weighing which app to start with, 8 best sobriety apps is a helpful comparison.

Cutting back on highballs is about more than “drinking less.” Rethinking your relationship with a drink you assumed was light and healthy is a first step toward fewer groggy mornings, that slowly-creeping weight, and less strain on your liver. Tonight, try swapping just one highball for a glass of soda water—and see how it feels.

This article is for general information only. If you can’t control how much you drink, or you get symptoms like shaking or sweating when you try to stop, you may be dealing with alcohol dependence. Don’t try to tough it out alone—talk to a doctor or a professional support service.