18-30's: LOSING WEIGHT WHILE PARTYING.

desixx

Hey guys I love going out every weekend, I love my alcohol (as most 18 year olds do) but I'm finding it hard to lose weight because of it. Not only is alcohol high in calories, but when the night is coming to an end and I'm quite intoxicated my body is craving oily, fatty food. Maccas, Souvlaki, ANYTHING... Ill have it. When I'm at that point I don't really care about losing weight, it happens every week and then the next day I wake up with regret...not regret about stupid mistakes I did while I was drinking, but instead worrying about the amount of food and the type of food I ate.

PLEASE HELP ME! Anyway I could get over this, or any food I could eat that fulfills my cravings but isn't as bad?

carlyturns

Same problem.
Maybe avoid wine, sugary drinks, cider etc?

karen_fitzgibbon

Low calorie beer!!!!
It's my go to drink. As for the craving oily food when drunk, I can't help you there.... But um dancing is awesome for us isn't it? Lol

desixx

carlyturns wrote: »

Same problem.
Maybe avoid wine, sugary drinks, cider etc?

Yeah I tried that, I'm starting to drink vodka and tequila straight rather than mixing them, or having cocktails. It helped a bit but not too much

fara180

Lay off the mixed drinks. If you're gonna drink liquor...drink liquor. Take shots. Maybe drink a low calorie soda with it. I have steadily lost weight while partying pretty hard, so I know it's possible.

DaniiMarie13

Moderation is something that is needed during weight loss, with food and with alcohol. Just don't drink as much, or as often?

desixx

karen_fitzgibbon wrote: »

Low calorie beer!!!!
It's my go to drink. As for the craving oily food when drunk, I can't help you there.... But um dancing is awesome for us isn't it? Lol

haha low calorie beer, i have not tried that before. Does it taste just like normal beer?

desixx

DaniiMarie13 wrote: »

Moderation is something that is needed during weight loss, with food and with alcohol. Just don't drink as much, or as often?

Yeah I'm thinking ill just need to cut down my alcohol consumption. But I was hoping not to

desixx

fara180 wrote: »

Lay off the mixed drinks. If you're gonna drink liquor...drink liquor. Take shots. Maybe drink a low calorie soda with it. I have steadily lost weight while partying pretty hard, so I know it's possible.

thanks hun! Yeah I've started just drinking straight alcohol. Not as enjoyable but does the job!

richjones1968

Nothing you can do. Once you`ve had a few drinks your normal reasoning goes out the window - I`ve been out for a 3 course meal with a lot of drinks and stopped for a curry on the way home. Try to regulate the drinks (make every third drink water or orange and lemonade) so that you`re less drunk and can control the decision making - but this kind of obviates the whole point.
- It took me until my thirties too decide that the cost, days lost to hangovers and weight associated with a good night out were not worth it. Eventually a desire to run Sunday mornings and not eat too much became so ingrained that I could make the decisions
- Two choices really - best one is to hit the gym and burn it all off, other is to drink/go out less.
-

karen_fitzgibbon

desixx wrote: »

karen_fitzgibbon wrote: »

Low calorie beer!!!!
It's my go to drink. As for the craving oily food when drunk, I can't help you there.... But um dancing is awesome for us isn't it? Lol

haha low calorie beer, i have not tried that before. Does it taste just like normal beer?

I'm in Australia and I drink what's called xxxx summer bright. I love it, especially with a slice of lemon.
Um it tastes like normal beer to me. But every brand tastes differently here.

battybecks

Make sure you have bacon and burgers and sausages and breadrolls at home (and cheese and mustard etc) and programme your mind that you absolutely cannot have a takeaway, because you're going to have a big hangover cure breakfast when you wake up in the morning. Works for me. No matter how drunk I am, I won't eat extra food if I've programmed my brain not to expect it when I'm sober.

I've never tried low calorie beer, and I don't drink shots. I like drinking proper real ale, or wine, of decent cider. Ale and cider particularly are calorific, but I don't care - I exercise more on days when I'm going out, and allow for a certain number of pints - I've got pretty good at stopping when I get to the number I've allotted myself. It has meant that I've been drinking slightly less than I used to (three pints is normally my limit, because I just don't have time to burn more than that) but sometimes I can make the extra effort (like new year, when I burned myself enough calories for two bottles of wine, couldn't drink it because my tolerance had gone down, and got a bit ... ill ... !

Anyway, I've lost all my weight drinking most nights, so it's totally doable! You just need a strategy.

krawhitham

I didn't drink until I was 21, but in my experience it didn't cause me to gain weight when I did start. What caused me to gain weight is less and less movement as I got older.

If you do believe alcohol is hindering your weight loss, go a month without drinking and see if it helps any. If it does, don't drink until you reach your weight loss goals, and then slowly start adding it in little by little and see what your body can handle without gaining.

A month without alcohol might sound like a long time now, but having that information will be invaluable as you get older and tend to gain weight just by *looking* at food... hah!

Amandatorie

I force myself to intersperse glasses of water. I find no one even notices. It slows me down, and I end up not drinking as much (and having less of a hangover) but still having a blast going out. And for whatever reason I also crave the junkfood so much less after drinking if I've stayed well-hydrated.

Have you tried recording the alcohol to add up the calories? That was a huge eye-opener to me. If I'm planning to drink, I'll try to factor those calories into my day. I actually pre-record everything into MFP. You're going to go over your calories, but as long as it's not every day it's fine. If I put 4 glasses of wine into MFP, I'm going to try my best to stick to that. Also, I won't eat a bunch of food afterwards, because I'll be thinking (if I was going to eat those cheese-fries, than why was I stopping myself from having that extra glass of wine?!)


Also, I've found my tolerance is much lower when I'm eating a healthy and lower-carb diet overall, so I don't drink nearly as much as I used to. Cut out all the starchy foods you eat, and see if that helps!

Finally, plan morning workouts. FUN morning workouts. With friends that don't party as much as you, so they'll be there and waiting for you. This has curbed my drinking more than anything else. You don't want to get wasted on Friday night if you have big plans for an 11am activity with a great friend!

johnnycan415

Alcohol calories was a huge eye-opener for me, too.
Martini glasses now start at 7 ounces; you put 6 ounces of vodka or gin in there and that's really 4 drinks and 384 calories. And I'm not a one drink guy.
And then there's the bottle of wine with dinner after cocktails.
And then a nitecap...
The calories have really been impetus for me to cut down on weekends.

desixx

Thanks guys for the tips!

holly55555

Hi! I'm 24 and honestly, you're just going to have to cut out some alcohol. Every activity my friends do seems to involve alcohol. I decided to restrict my drinking just to weekends and it has to fit in my weekly calorie budget. That way I don't wreck my nutrition goals just to make room for more alcohol! I also drink skinny cocktails (rum and diet coke, skinny margaritas, etc) or just wine or champagne.

holly55555

Oh and also, eating while drunk is one of the worst things for your diet. It's not just about the calories, but basically, here is my (very loose) understanding of it. Your liver is where your metabolism is. Normally on a diet, your liver is processing your stored fat. If you drink ANY amount of alcohol, that process stops and your liver takes care of ridding your body of the alcohol. Until your body has fully processed that alcohol, ANYTHING you eat will be stored as fat.

What my trainer told me to do is wait to drink AFTER I'm done eating for the day. That way, you won't have to make decisions on what to eat while you're drunk, and it will not be stored as fat.