Nights out and alcohol!
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I'm interested in knowing how people factor in nights out/alcohol into their diet/lifestyle? Do you plan ahead, eat at a bigger deficit than usual that week so that you can enjoy your night out without having to pay much attention to calories? Do you just try to be conservative with your alcohol intake on the night? Or do you just throw caution to the wind and go for a big blow out, and then get back on track the next day?
I've been limiting my alcohol consumption since I've started losing weight (alcohol was a major factor in my weight gain - I succumbed quite willingly to the binge drinking student culture at uni) so it made sense to give my body a break. I'm going on my first night out in a long time this weekend and, whilst I know that I will be more conscious of how much I'm drinking, I know that I will still drink a fair bit. I always stick to vodka and diet coke, so it's probably one of the 'better' options where calories are concerned... But I know that I'll drink the majority of my daily calorie limit. I'm not going to beat myself up about one night, I feel like I deserve a wee night out, but I'd still like to stay on track with my weightloss for the week if I can.
Only having a few drinks isn't really an option for me - lovely social anxiety issues
and once I've had a few it's so easy just to convince myself to have a few more... And a few more...
So how do you personally contend with nights out? I can't decide what option would be best for me, so any advice or suggestions are appreciated!
Right. This post has got my name written all over it. I got this.
Ok so first of all you'll need to know, if you haven't already figured out by now, that drinking large quantities of alcohol is going to be a big problem in your weight loss journey. Binge drinking and a healthy lifestyle are about as mutually exclusive as two things can be, so basically the advice I'm about to give you, on how to binge drink more successfully, SHOULD NOT BE FOLLOWED.
Nah but seriously, there are a few things you can do to ease the problem....
Obviously alcohol is empty calories and if you're having 19 vodkas, that's around 950 calories to add into your diary. The first, most obvious lesson, is to reduce your intake; not by drinking fewer drinks, but with smarter drinks choices. With vodka and diet coke it seems you've done this already, so just keep off the shots (especially that rank Corky's stuff that they throw at you in student bars, they're full of sugar and not even particularly alcoholic) and you're already doing what you can in this respect.
So if you can't cut down any further on that 950 cals, then clearly you're going to be over target that day unless you starve yourself....DO NOT DO THAT! I know "eating's cheating" but if you're a binge drinker (like me) you'll **** yourself up if you don't eat. And I'm not talking about just getting drunk quicker, or getting a worse hangover, or any of those things that just give you better stories to tell, I'm talking about actual liver damage that you will seriously regret.
But if it's not from starving yourself, you need to make that 950 calories back from somewhere, right? So.... DANCE! Dance like nobody is watching and you'll burn plenty of calories. It won't be the whole 950, maybe not even half, but it's a start; it'll put a big dent in what you need to make up for. For an hours dancing MFP says I'd burn 500 calories. It won't be as high for you because I'm a lot heavier but it's still worth logging. For arguments sake let's take a guess and say you'd burn 450, you've only got 500 left to make up for.
So you've minimised calorie intake, and you've already burnt half of it off; what's next?
Damage limitation, that's what.
Damage limitation means giving in to your urges for excess when it comes to drink, but resisting them when it comes to food. It's probably a good idea to eat something straight after a binge session, it will certainly ease your hangover the next day, but that doesn't mean you have to go crazy.
A Subway, for example, is not a bad idea. But do you really need a footlong?
A greasy takeaway pizza always goes down well after a session - but did you really need that extra slice?
Wouldn't the Big Mac meal have filled the hole just as well without making it large fries and large coke?
Your drunk self will want to eat and eat. Be strong!
Stick with this mentality into the next day. When you're hungover you'll have the urge to eat and drink all day. This is your body telling you it needs nutrients, so sure, you need to eat, but a hangover is not an excuse to eat crap all day. Just try to eat as normally as you can. And don't be tempted to head for the pepsi; you may think the sugar will help wake you up but really a few glasses of water are all you need to ease a hangover from hell (most hangover symptoms stem from dehydration alone).
If you're not careful, the calories that you drank can quickly become insignificant compared to the oens you will eat if you binge on junk food.
As for burning off the other 450 or so calories, the important thing is not to try to do it all in one go. if you spread it through the week, it's only 65 calories a day.
Now, one more thing: But be careful because this is an advanced drinking strategy, not for the rookies!
Timing of your drinks can be important. Your body will, on average, dissipate 1 unit of alcohol per hour (1 vodka is 1 unit). This means that if you start your pre-drinking in the afternoon/early evenings, it's a waste because by the time you get to the bar/club later on, the alcohol from your first few drinks is already well out of your system. Why bother pre-drinking them, and taking the calories on board, if you won't feel the effect for your night out? If you start drinking 2 vodkas an hour at 6, and you're hitting the club by 11, there are 5 vodkas that you've already processed. So, why did you bother drinking them? If you have your vodkas in a shorter space of time, you can almost certainly get just as drunk on fewer drinks. This may mean you can cut down from 19 to a more sensible 15 perhaps?
Now, this is advice you need to be VERY careful with. What I'm NOT saying is for you to go out and drink loads of vodka in a really short space of time. You have to experiment with this strategy carefully, and find your own limits. Personally I find that if I sink 8 cans of beer in the 2 hours before I go out, that's the optimum pre-drinking session for me. That's the equivalent of around 16 vodkas in 2 hours. Your tolerance may well be lower so just take it steady until you figure out what's best for you, yeah?
DISCLAIMER: Everything I just said is really, really bad advice. DO NOT FOLLOW ANY OF IT. Just drink less, yeah? A lot less!
Thank you for this haha. At the end of the day, I do binge drink on the odd occasion and no amount of people telling me how terrible it is is going to stop it - it's just the nature of the culture I live in. I know it's not good for me, I know some people think the idea is completely abhorrent, but a drunken night out is a drunken night out. It happens infrequently now that I've graduated, so my liver is getting the best break of it's life currently. Pretty much everything you've said is good advice in my opinion, considering what my question was. As far as I'm concerned you've answered it for me
I don't have a huge problem with eating junk food when I'm drunk/hungover - I can't stand the sight of it when I'm drinking for some reason!! I think my main issue would be the starving myself to be able to factor in a lot of alcohol. So I won't do that, I'll take your advice and dance like a crazy person instead to burn off any excess calories I may have consumed :P Thank you (also, I may try to drink less on the night if I so choose :P ) 0 -
I just drink on weekends Friday night, and saturday ..I try to log it and plan for it ..however, after drinking beers on beach all day, I have a tendency to go eat some crazy amounts of food...but I say you gotta live sometimes..
Also, if you have social anxiety drinking through it is probably not the best prescription. I have anxiety issues and went to see a professional and they put on buspar which is non narcotic..you might want to consider the same.0 -
OK, I think you're mostly all over reacting to a reasonable question. I don't think she meant the extreme that she wasn't going to eat a thing and have ALL the calories in vodka. Chill out, please.
I'm from the UK too - Don't know if it's a cultural thing?
Anyway. I tend to save a few calories for gin and slimline. If it's a night out, I don't want to be cutting back my food and then expecting to drink, because I end up drunk early on, and it's not fun. Also a sure way to have a hangover. My advice is save a few, but not too many calories, make sensible drink choices (singles - cheaper, and you can last longer), and make sure you don't go 1,000's of calories over.
If it's an odd one-off, just ENJOY YOURSELF!
Haha, I could never not eat a thing to compensate for the vodka - I like my food too much :P I would still definitely have a reasonable amount of food before drinking, perhaps less than usual, but I would never not eat and just consume vodka for the day :P
I've been eating at a fairly significant deficit this week (nothing drastic though :P ) so I'm sure any alcohol I do drink will hopefully have already been taken care of
Buying singles is good advice - I usually just buy a double because I'm so used to it being cheaper in the grand scheme of things, but I'll stick to singles this weekend!0 -
you might find this interesting..:
http://www.leangains.com/2010/07/truth-about-alcohol-fat-loss-and-muscle.html0 -
I drink only vodka and I mix it with water and those neofit no calorie flavor things. They have 0 calories 0 carbs 0 sodium and don't contain aspartame that fake sugar that's horrible for you. Tastes good and it takes me about 15 shots to get buzzin good so I save 1500-1700 calories for alcohol. I'm recommended 2400 calories because i'm on a bulk so I have the extra calories to consume. 2 nights of hard drinking won't kill you, just drink vodka, a lot of other flavored alcohols contain HUGE amounts of carbs.0
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I just drink on weekends Friday night, and saturday ..I try to log it and plan for it ..however, after drinking beers on beach all day, I have a tendency to go eat some crazy amounts of food...but I say you gotta live sometimes..
Also, if you have social anxiety drinking through it is probably not the best prescription. I have anxiety issues and went to see a professional and they put on buspar which is non narcotic..you might want to consider the same.
I haven't had much luck with the professionals where my anxiety issues are concerned unfortunately. I know drinking isn't the answer, I just find it easier to be around loud, drunk people if I'm drinking myself. A sober night out in the city I live in is quite a scary thought haha!
I've decided to log my alcohol in advance, and only take out enough money for the alcohol I've logged. Hopefully that will keep me on track, and help me drink in moderation! 0 -
you might find this interesting..:
http://www.leangains.com/2010/07/truth-about-alcohol-fat-loss-and-muscle.html
I actually started reading that earlier as I saw it posted somewhere else, but didn't get round to finishing it! I was finding it pretty interesting, so thanks for the link - I'll get back to reading it!!0 -
There's only 64 calories in vodka? Wow, I'm gonna have a little fun this weekend. Thanks!0
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I drink only vodka and I mix it with water and those neofit no calorie flavor things. They have 0 calories 0 carbs 0 sodium and don't contain aspartame that fake sugar that's horrible for you. Tastes good and it takes me about 15 shots to get buzzin good so I save 1500-1700 calories for alcohol. I'm recommended 2400 calories because i'm on a bulk so I have the extra calories to consume. 2 nights of hard drinking won't kill you, just drink vodka, a lot of other flavored alcohols contain HUGE amounts of carbs.
A lot of people have mentioned those 0 calorie flavour things, so I think I'll look into them! Thankfully, I'm not a huge fan of flavoured alcohol, alcopops etc... so I generally just stick to my vodka the whole night anyway Definitely going to try adding different low calorie mixers though 0 -
I just drink on weekends Friday night, and saturday ..I try to log it and plan for it ..however, after drinking beers on beach all day, I have a tendency to go eat some crazy amounts of food...but I say you gotta live sometimes..
Also, if you have social anxiety drinking through it is probably not the best prescription. I have anxiety issues and went to see a professional and they put on buspar which is non narcotic..you might want to consider the same.
I haven't had much luck with the professionals where my anxiety issues are concerned unfortunately. I know drinking isn't the answer, I just find it easier to be around loud, drunk people if I'm drinking myself. A sober night out in the city I live in is quite a scary thought haha!
I've decided to log my alcohol in advance, and only take out enough money for the alcohol I've logged. Hopefully that will keep me on track, and help me drink in moderation!
on the nights you do drink you should try and go low carb.....0 -
There's only 64 calories in vodka? Wow, I'm gonna have a little fun this weekend. Thanks!
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vodka water with lemon is my drink of choice...0
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I know I'll be going to a friend's house on Saturday and having some drinks. It is the food part that comes along with it! I might have 2-3 drinks (we'll be there for 6+ hours). I'll try and make some lighter snacks to bring.
I'll also get in exercise and use my calories wisely before going to their house.0 -
on the nights you do drink you should try and go low carb.....
My diet is low carb at the moment anyway, so it shouldn't be a problem keeping it low on the days I drink 0 -
For me it was a case of having to avoid situations where everyone was drinking, at least for a while. A few glasses of wine fits into my day fairly easily, but once you've had that it's so easy to keep going, and before you know it it's six glasses and the tequila...plus being around drunk people when you're trying to be good isn't much fun. Definitely a culture thing, some of my old student friends don't have any social life that doesn't involve drinking to excess! Now I'm down a fair amount of weight I've relaxed a bit. Incidentally, when I was a student I was the thinnest I have ever been. I would have probably 10-11 drinks, three nights a week, and weighed 102 lbs!0
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This question is new and doesn't come up every single weekend on this forum.0
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It depends on what she considers her 'night out'
I've had 'nights out' start at lunch time, and end at 4am or later so 19 drinks over that period works out as just over 1 per hour, hardly alot. since your body would of burnt off a few in the whole duration. Especially if you start off in someones house, then its alot more.
Just prelog the estimated calories and have some sort of deficient before during and after, then it will be fine and dandy. And since her measurements are 25ml and americans seem to have about 40ml, its not as many drinks being relative to you. Although where i live is closer to that wiith 35ml a standard measurement.
Go enjoy yourself0 -
For me it was a case of having to avoid situations where everyone was drinking, at least for a while. A few glasses of wine fits into my day fairly easily, but once you've had that it's so easy to keep going, and before you know it it's six glasses and the tequila...plus being around drunk people when you're trying to be good isn't much fun. Definitely a culture thing, some of my old student friends don't have any social life that doesn't involve drinking to excess! Now I'm down a fair amount of weight I've relaxed a bit. Incidentally, when I was a student I was the thinnest I have ever been. I would have probably 10-11 drinks, three nights a week, and weighed 102 lbs!
That's a bit like me! I wasn't as slim as you were, but during my 2nd and 3rd year of Uni (when I was drinking the most) I was at my slimmest! I'm not going to specify how much I was drinking in those days, as the '19 drinks' thing seemed to shock some people enough!!
I lived and breathed the student life here - every single one of us was caught up in the social drinking scene, it was just the Uni way of life for us! Our nights out would be centred around drinking games, karaoke, parties etc, so it was hard not to drink to excess!
I graduated a year ago, and, like you, I found that I just had to try avoiding situations that would involve a lot of drinking. Now I want to try to get my night-time social life back, so that's why I came on here asking for advice Thank you to all the people who have answered my initial question 0 -
This question is new and doesn't come up every single weekend on this forum.
I did a search and couldn't quite find what I was looking for. I wanted to make my question more personal to me in order to get advice that was specific to my own lifestyle. If you have a problem with my post, then there's no need to read it? Ignore it, wave it off as yet another person asking the exact same thing as someone else, and move on...0 -
I've known since Tuesday that I'm going out tonight, have a few beers and the biggest fattest onion rings and fried pickles I can get.
So, I've tried to be better this week, and I am going to do an extra walk today. I'm not gonna beat myself about it-it just adds to my stress to deny myself a treat.
My problem with alcohol isn't the alcohol-it's the bag of bbq potato chips that I have with my three glasses of wine.0
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