Can you get drunk and still lose weight?

emz_1993

Ever since I started drinking again about 6 months ago my fitness efforts have stalled a lot.. I was losing consistently until then and have been again for a few weeks now being sober.. My friend wants to go out tomorrow night and I am tempted to drink.. Have any of you kept drinking and still managed to lose weight? This friend of mine is obese and drinks every weekend and eats a lot of fast food... I might have a sober night but wanna see if it's doable...

randomtai

If you stay under your calorie goal. Realize that the body burns the alcohol macros first before anything else.

williammuney

Um yes

Just don't eat during the day and figure the drinks into your calorie count

Or do what I do and get tipsy and then run 10 miles the next day

rugratz2015

Drink lower calorie drinks, (shorts with diet mixers) and drink plain water in-between. If I can, I drink alco free Koppaberg - 136 cals per bottle of 500 ml, I'm a lightweight when I come to drinking so this suits as I feel I'm drinking. Eat properly before you go out so you will be well enough to exercise the next day. (mash potatoes and rice are good stomach liners for drinking). The more you drink the more likely you'll end up eating fast food after, which can ruin a weeks work ...

WinoGelato

Do you always drink to excess when you go out? Can you limit it to 1-2 drinks?

RoxieDawn

Started drinking again? Is this every night, because it sounds like you are planning a one time night tomorrow night and you could have a sober night or not? This sounds conflicting to me..

But if you are drinking again (and what ever this means) alcohol can be included in your daily calorie allotment, but since you have stalled I would say it is preventing you from progressing therefore there are issues with calories that out of balance due to the alcohol.

One night of drinking is not biggy.. many nights and going over your daily calories, this is a biggy! Be smart about how you drink and what it does and can do to your waistline. And not eating in order to drink as some else posted, not a good idea.

MonkeyMel21

I can usually fit in one or two (if I forgo dessert) with dinner on normal nights. But as far as going out and drinking, if I want to stay in my goal that takes all day planning, or even maintenance cals for just that day. Or just saying *kitten* it for one night and not logging. To answer your question, yes, technically you can still lose weight and drink but if you utilize your calories for alcohol over necessary macros fairly often, you will have a pretty hard time. But one night out every few weeks shouldn't derail you if you're on point the rest of the time.

williammuney

WinoGelato wrote: »

Do you always drink to excess when you go out? Can you limit it to 1-2 drinks?

Yes
No

sllm1

A few drinks typically leads to more drinks and more food and then you're not really sure how much you drank or ate - and then there's the water retention the next day.

Can you get drunk and lose weight? Yes. Does it make things much more difficult? Yes. Are you more likely to go overboard on calories? Yes.

I typically refrain or limit myself to a drink or two so that I don't slide off the deep end.

PaulaWallaDingDong

Getting drunk is fun once in a while, but if you're doing it enough that it's stalling your weight loss, that's probably too much. Like, lots too much.

CindyFooWho

Sure you can. Just like I can eat a big hunk of birthday cake and still lose weight. I just don't do it regularly. You shouldn't be "getting drunk" on a regular basis anyway. Not being a prude, because I LOOOOOVE to tie one on now and then. But if I were doing it regularly enough that it was hijacking my weight loss goals, I'd re-evaluate my drinking habits.

Now, that said..... here's a thought: If you know you want to get a little shitfaced tonight, just don't eat so much during the day. This will (1)-help your calorie count and (2)-help you get drunker, faster, on less booze.

Jruzer

Drink. That's fine.

Stop getting drunk. That's not good.

SoDamnHungry

As long as you stay within calorie goals. For many people, drinking and getting drunk a lot lead to excess calories and not working out a lot, so that's always a factor.

ninerbuff

Alcohol deters the fat burning process while it's in the body. Especially when you're asleep.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

gothchiq

Alcohol is super fattening. Try keeping that down to once or twice a month if yr serious about weight loss; otherwise it will go super slow or stall out.

kaylajane11

I love beer. And I love catching a good buzz every couple of weeks.

Typically I try to have a couple hundred calories leftover at the end of each day during the week to offset the weekend drinking calories a little bit.

If I haven't done that and still get my drink on, I know that I probably won't lose any weight that week, and I'm fine with that. But I'm close enough to maintenance that I'm in no rush to lose the last little bit.

As others have mentioned, it's often not the drinks themselves that can make you go over your deficit, it's the eating everything in sight when you're drunk. So be sure to be mindful of that.

MrOtto2016

My Friday ritual consist of getting together with the gang and having a couple of pints. I normally drink Richards red which is about 221 cals per pint. I leave myself a 500 cal buffer because of this. Lately, I've switched to Bud light which has less cals, and I still only have two.. Just budget yourself and u will be good.

rsclause

Alcohol is very calorie dense just like a Big Mac so it only makes sense that weight loss is reduced or reversed. I drink daily, probably more than I should but can still lose weight if I do two things. 1) make good food choices. 2) Keep my exercise at a high level. By high level I mean stay active and run 25 miles a week. Now getting "drunk" I am not so sure about.

ryry_

I have consumed alcohol to the point of drunkenness and still lost weight. I just had to make sure my calories balanced out for the week and I was fine. Word of warning though the alcohol hits you a little quicker and harder in a calorie deficit especially if you are trying to curtail your intake before going out.

Be careful and don't drink and drive.

kaylajane11

gothchiq wrote: »

Alcohol is super fattening. Try keeping that down to once or twice a month if yr serious about weight loss; otherwise it will go super slow or stall out.

Nothing is "super fattening" unless it puts you in a calorie surplus. Calorie dense might be a better choice of words here, although there are lots of lower calorie drinks.

clonesjer

just personal experience, but if I have more than a single drink I stall on weight loss. Sometimes that's okay I guess if you're in maintenance mode, but it seems to me that a drunken night turns into like a wasted (no pun intended) week to get things moving again on losing.

ninerbuff

gothchiq wrote: »

Alcohol is super fattening. Try keeping that down to once or twice a month if yr serious about weight loss; otherwise it will go super slow or stall out.

Actually it's not. You don't covert alcohol to fat. What it does do is inhibit any other energy sources from being burned until it's metabolized out of the body. And dependent on how much someone drinks will determine that along with their metabolic rate.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

chocolate_owl

The short answer: yes, you can.

The long answer: yes, you can, but it may lead to overconsumption of food when you get the drunk munchies, overconsumption of food the next day if you have a hangover, overconsumption of calories if you're choosing sugary cocktails, or overconsumption of calories because you have too many drinks. Alcohol metabolization takes precedence, so you won't be burning fat while there's alcohol in your system. It can also affect your overall health, depending on how frequently this occurs.

I drink wine. I drink A LOT of wine. I still lose weight. But the occasions where I full-out binge drink are very rare now - I usually keep it to 1-2 glasses. If you go out with your friend, can you limit yourself to 2 and drink water in between? Or switch over to plain club soda after a couple of vodka sodas?

Raccoonii

There's no calories in some good old fashioned marijuana. Just as long as you control the munchies

Michael190lbs

ninerbuff wrote: »

gothchiq wrote: »

Alcohol is super fattening. Try keeping that down to once or twice a month if yr serious about weight loss; otherwise it will go super slow or stall out.

Actually it's not. You don't covert alcohol to fat. What it does do is inhibit any other energy sources from being burned until it's metabolized out of the body. And dependent on how much someone drinks will determine that along with their metabolic rate.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

This is Very very Correct..

donjtomasco

I guess the poster did not like the answers.....

I don't see how this post is 'really' about losing weight since the answer is simple math. Why not go with your friend to where there is not fast food and temptations to drink?

Michael190lbs

The just Math isn't the absolute tell all with alcohol because it disrupts the body is so many ways IE- The liver and kidneys are trying to remove it from your body their not capable of using the other macros to their full extent.

If your body is capable of using say 150 grams of protein in a 24 hour period and your capable of eating 150 grams of protein then you go drink 5-6 drinks over the course of 5-6 hours you have more than likely put your body in a situation where its now only capable of 75% of that protein absorption especially if your drinking before bed when your body is healing most.

Now with that being said these numbers are not exact I simply used them as an example 6 hours being 25% of a day but the truth is alcohol can play a huge role in muscle gain/loss not to mention nutrient absorption hormonal changes etc..

That being said I see a lot of old drunks out there so it might not change your length of life but certainly can change the way you move around in it.. My 2 cents

Witchdoctor58

If you are debating about whether you can stop, and you know it is interfering with your life, this is a strong sign that you may be an alcoholic. Sorry to be so blunt, but as a doctor I hear this story all the time. You need to so some heavy consideration of your relationship to alcohol, and decide what you are going to do about it.

Unknown

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randomtai

Witchdoctor58 wrote: »

If you are debating about whether you can stop, and you know it is interfering with your life, this is a strong sign that you may be an alcoholic. Sorry to be so blunt, but as a doctor I hear this story all the time. You need to so some heavy consideration of your relationship to alcohol, and decide what you are going to do about it.

That's a lot of assumption and projection from one post.

Howdoyoufeeltoday

Once in a while yes. But I like high calorie drinks so my weight is all over the place these days. You can make it fit or you can make the choice to say that weight loss is more important. I tried making that choice... but my amaretto sours wouldn't let me go!