Less alcohol

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Mandy72CM
Mandy72CM Posts: 59 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I want to change and I’m ready now to do it. The issue I have is not food it’s alcohol calories. I drink a bottle of wine after work every night and more at the weekend. It’s not good it’s not healthy and all the effort I put into exercising is ruined due to the calories in wine. I’m starting off not drinking Monday to Thursday with the aim of drinking less at the weekend. So it’s my first week and I need to be realistic with myself as this is achievable.

Replies

  • cupcakesandproteinshakes
    cupcakesandproteinshakes Posts: 1,092 Member
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    lgfrie wrote: »
    I all but quit drinking (roughly the same amount as you) to start my diet in June 2019. It can be done. You have to really want it, though. You have to decide that your health and fitness is going to be more important than your next buzz. If you're ready for that, it's definitely doable.

    I would never go back to my drinking days. I occasionally have a Bourbon or two but it's the exception. Alcohol is not part of my life now and I much prefer it that way.

    It's nearly impossible for a serious drinker to lose weight and keep it off, for multiple reasons. A bottle of wine has around 650 calories, for one thing. That's over a pound per week of fat added (or not lost) to cover that drinking habit. That's aside from all the other bad health impacts of alcohol, and the binging that goes with lowered inhibitions, which will suffocate any diet effort. Ain't worth it.

    No fat person ever got thin while drinking a bottle of wine every night.

    I managed to lose 3 stone while drinking almost a bottle of wine a night. I’m not advocating drinking this much though, it’s obviously not great health wise.

    It is possible to lose weight and still drink quite a bit though. It’s all down to bring in a calorie deficit.

    I have since become an occasional drinker and managed to lose more weight. I just decided to moderate my drinking for health reasons and more weight loss followed.
  • Derekok
    Derekok Posts: 6 Member
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    What has it been like for you .. i drink once a week Friday nights ... A bottle
  • Mandy72CM
    Mandy72CM Posts: 59 Member
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    I have not a lot to lose therefore every calories does count. A bottle of wine takes up a lot of my calories and would only leave me with 900 calories for food.
  • briscogun
    briscogun Posts: 1,135 Member
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    A bottle would put me down and out!

    I was drinking every night before my current weight loss journey, mostly beer and bourbons each night. But if I wanted to lose the weight, I knew I had to lose the booze, so I just stopped. I still have a beer once a week, and before the shut down I would go out with my wife once a week and have a couple of adult beverages, but I allowed for them in my calorie goal each time so I wouldn’t wreck my progress. “I can have a sandwich now or 2 drinks later.” It’s just about choices.

    I just don’t feel that alcohol helps me reach my goals so I choose to forgo it (most of the time). But there’s no reason to NOT have some if you enjoy it. As long as it fits in your goals it’s up to you.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
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    Mandy72CM wrote: »
    I want to change and I’m ready now to do it. The issue I have is not food it’s alcohol calories. I drink a bottle of wine after work every night and more at the weekend. It’s not good it’s not healthy and all the effort I put into exercising is ruined due to the calories in wine. I’m starting off not drinking Monday to Thursday with the aim of drinking less at the weekend. So it’s my first week and I need to be realistic with myself as this is achievable.

    Going from nightly drinking to a path of moderation can require different strategies for different people. Some people can scale back gradually while other find it much harder to go that route. The other strategy is to quit completely for long enough to break the habit and then reintroduce it and hope it doesn't lead to a complete relapse.

    I would check out this thread:

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10790403/less-alcohol-april-2020-one-day-at-a-time/p1
  • hounton
    hounton Posts: 9 Member
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    I'm in the same boat as you. The podcast Taking a Break with Rachel Hart really helped me. Go back to the very first episode and start listening. I am amazed at how much more I can eat when I cut out the booze. I'm not going to cut it out forever, but for the losing part of the journey I need to cut way down and it's working. I'm down 22.5 pounds.
  • missysippy930
    missysippy930 Posts: 2,577 Member
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    I honestly can’t remember the last time I had any adult beverages. Probably Thanksgiving 2018 a glass of wine. It’s never been a priority for me and I prefer chewing my calories. It’s kind of a blessing, as I seriously don’t need the added calories. A lot of discipline where beverages are concerned. Wish it extended to food for me.
  • ChickenKillerPuppy
    ChickenKillerPuppy Posts: 297 Member
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    I was drinking about a bottle of wine a night after work before MFP as well, but I cut down on my drinking a lot when I started MFP, not so much on principle (a little on principle), bur rather because booze, especially wine, just takes up SO many calories. During this shelter-in-place I allow myself to drink basically twice a week, and I always count the calories, which allows me to get a buzz, but really keeps me in check because I have been very regimented with calories. All-in-all I feel it's a good thing. You can do this! If you force yourself to count the calories if you want to drink, it just eats up so many that the choice becomes easier. Plus I sleep better, feel better the next day, etc. etc.
  • lgfrie
    lgfrie Posts: 1,449 Member
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    cupcakesandproteinshakes wrote: »
    lgfrie wrote: »
    I all but quit drinking (roughly the same amount as you) to start my diet in June 2019. It can be done. You have to really want it, though. You have to decide that your health and fitness is going to be more important than your next buzz. If you're ready for that, it's definitely doable.

    I would never go back to my drinking days. I occasionally have a Bourbon or two but it's the exception. Alcohol is not part of my life now and I much prefer it that way.

    It's nearly impossible for a serious drinker to lose weight and keep it off, for multiple reasons. A bottle of wine has around 650 calories, for one thing. That's over a pound per week of fat added (or not lost) to cover that drinking habit. That's aside from all the other bad health impacts of alcohol, and the binging that goes with lowered inhibitions, which will suffocate any diet effort. Ain't worth it.

    No fat person ever got thin while drinking a bottle of wine every night.

    I managed to lose 3 stone while drinking almost a bottle of wine a night. I’m not advocating drinking this much though, it’s obviously not great health wise.

    It is possible to lose weight and still drink quite a bit though. It’s all down to bring in a calorie deficit.

    I have since become an occasional drinker and managed to lose more weight. I just decided to moderate my drinking for health reasons and more weight loss followed.

    Not sure why you're getting the Disagrees for losing weight and moderating your drinking LOL

    I agree, drinking and dieting can in theory work together on a pure calorie-counting basis, and it's been known to be done (as in your case), but they're not natural bedfellows. Losing weight is already plenty challenging without piling complications on top of it. Both the calories in the drinks and the inhibition-lowering property of alcohol that leads to binging just make things harder for most people.

    I don't think I'll ever become a teatotaler and I haven't joined any Temperance Societies, but I do think at least at the beginning of a diet, first couple months, until new eating habits have taken root, drinking is best avoided, or at least mostly avoided.

    It took me a few weeks to get used to not drinking when we started dieting. Mainly, the issue was boredom during and after dinner. We were never daytime drinkers but usually killed a bottle of wine or two over dinner and had a pleasant buzz going into the evening. All of a sudden there was this dinner to dinner+2 hours time slot that was like "Well, now what?" LOL Eventually we adapted to evening sobriety, but it is kinda boring tbh, relatively speaking. I try to look at it just as I look at the calorie deficit aspect of dieting - sacrifices must be made to get to where one wants to be, health wise. If it was easy and involved giving nothing up at all, everyone on Earth would have a BMI of 22.5.
  • Mandy72CM
    Mandy72CM Posts: 59 Member
    edited April 2020
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    Well I’ve not had any alcohol withdrawal symptoms as I like a drink I don’t need one. It’s been quite easy. It’s the weekend so I’m having a few glasses of wine but as of Monday I’m off it until Friday. I don’t want to be tee total I’m just aware that there are a lot of calories in wine. So far no weight lost but it’s been less than a week. 😃
  • Maxxitt
    Maxxitt Posts: 1,281 Member
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    Mandy72CM wrote: »
    Well I’ve not had any alcohol withdrawal symptoms as I like a drink I don’t need one. It’s been quite easy. It’s the weekend so I’m having a few glasses of wine but as of Monday I’m off it until Friday. I don’t want to be tee total I’m just aware that there are a lot of calories in wine. So far no weight lost but it’s been less than a week. 😃

    Thanks for posting back to let us know how you got on!

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