5000 calories a week on wine!

amyepdx

[/quote] Cutting down on calories isn't just about getting thinner, it's about getting healthier too. The wine is problematic because of the calories, but it's also problematic for many other reasons. I really hope you listen to one of the people on this thread urging you to see a doctor, but I'm not sure you're ready yet.[/quote]

Words to live by - thank you!! And thanks for sharing your story.

Courtscan2

A bottle of wine is 6-9 standard units, depending on the alcohol percentage. What experts recommend that?? Here in Australia, where we LOVE a good drinking session, 1unit for women and 2 units for men is the maximum recommended level. An entire bottle and more is clear binge drinking. And I say this as someone who loves wine, and can happily do a bottle to myself, but I only drink once a week as I know it's excessive. It's a calculated choice to over indulge. Every day....dude. I would have a good long think about your relationship with alcohol.

lgfrie

It's pretty damn hard to lose weight while drinking alcohol regularly. It's pretty damn hard to cut back on drinking too, and I highly, severely doubt that substituting various non-alcoholic beverages for wine, such as flavored water, will cut it. You may as well pull the band aid off if you want to lose the weight and just put the kibosh on the drinking for your next 14 pounds.

My wife and I were drinkers. The quantity you're talking about is pretty much where we were at. We tried to diet and it failed miserably, due 100 % due to the drinking. It was the drinking, period, end of story. It's why we gained the weight, and then why we couldn't lose the weight. And it was the source of many other issues in our life, although we refused to recognize that at the time, but now it's so obvious to me.

As soon as we binned all our remaining bottles and stopped buying new ones, we were in a position to do it right, and have lost a combined 134 pounds over the past year. She has not had one single drink since the day we started dieting; I have maybe one drink twice a month when I'm out socially.

Anyway, time for the bottom line:

YOU WILL NOT LOSE WEIGHT IF YOU CONTINUE DRINKING REGULARLY.

Internalize that, process it, let it seep in, really grok it at a fundamental, molecular level, and then deal with it as you see fit. You have to make a choice. It's A or B. One or the other. It's very binary. Health and weight loss, or regular/daily wine drinking. Not both.

Additional note on the health aspect of all this, putting the weight loss aside:

Nobody wakes up and says to themselves, "Gee, I'd like to become an alcoholic." And nobody becomes an alcoholic in one day. It sneaks up on you. There's a long, long, loooooong period of semi-denial in which one goes through a "I can just give this up anytime..." or "I'm not like one of those street people with a brown paper bag of vodka" phase. Those brown bag street people didn't start there either. It probably took them 20+ years to get to that point. Everyone starts with a bottle of wine over dinner or in the evening. It's truly insidious. The best thing you can do is cut this habit's head off with a samurai sword and be done with it. All you have to do to get on with your life, lose the weight, and start getting healthy is ... not drink. It ain't that hard. You just do it.

lgfrie

Mandy72CM wrote: »

Can I also add that god forbid anyone asking about losing weight. Would you tell them to see a doctor if they were eating too much? Would you ask them to seek help if they were many stones/pounds overweight? Would you tell them they have an addictive person personality ? No you wouldn’t! But because Iv mentioned wine it gives you the right? I wish I said I ate 5000 calories of doughnuts as I would hav probably had more support!

I've personally seen at least a few hundred people told to go talk to a doctor for disordered eating habits on MFP. Far more people than were told to go talk to a doctor for drinking alcohol. Addictive behavior, no matter what the addiction or overindulgence, is sometimes at a level in which bringing in a professional is advantageous.

Eating 5,000 calories per week of donuts, wine, or any other unhealthy, non-nutritious substance is definitely in the ballpark for discussion with a medical professional of some sort. That's 74 pounds per year gained on empty calories, totally putting aside the alcohol issue. That is "intervention" level. Those who have given you that advice in this thread have had your best interests in mind.

Mandy72CM

I appreciate everyone’s concern but I have stopped drinking in the past or cut down without any withdrawal symptoms as I don’t have a dependency. So going back to my original post about how many calories I’m drinking is shocking and because of that I will be drinking a lot less and to start me off I’m going to do the 30 day experiment.

cupcakesandproteinshakes

Mandy72CM wrote: »

I appreciate everyone’s concern but I have stopped drinking in the past or cut down without any withdrawal symptoms as I don’t have a dependency. So going back to my original post about how many calories I’m drinking is shocking and because of that I will be drinking a lot less and to start me off I’m going to do the 30 day experiment.

That’s excellent. Can you let us know how you get on. I feel this thread maybe helpful for others in similar position. I managed to cut right back from a similar level as you. I didn’t have withdrawal symptoms. But it was hard as wine was relaxation for me.

Strudders67

Mandy72CM wrote: »

I appreciate everyone’s concern but I have stopped drinking in the past or cut down without any withdrawal symptoms as I don’t have a dependency. So going back to my original post about how many calories I’m drinking is shocking and because of that I will be drinking a lot less and to start me off I’m going to do the 30 day experiment.

Sounds like a good plan. In case you missed it in all the concern about your health, see my comment above re non-alcoholic wine and the calorie comparison for the two. Opening a wine-like bottle and pouring it in to a wine-like glass is part of the pleasure. You just may need to try a few different ones, to find one you like.

Mandy72CM

Strudders67 wrote: »

Mandy72CM wrote: »

I appreciate everyone’s concern but I have stopped drinking in the past or cut down without any withdrawal symptoms as I don’t have a dependency. So going back to my original post about how many calories I’m drinking is shocking and because of that I will be drinking a lot less and to start me off I’m going to do the 30 day experiment.

Sounds like a good plan. In case you missed it in all the concern about your health, see my comment above re non-alcoholic wine and the calorie comparison for the two. Opening a wine-like bottle and pouring it in to a wine-like glass is part of the pleasure. You just may need to try a few different ones, to find one you like.

Thanks I rather just leave it, saves money and gets me out the habit of sipping all night.

psychod787

lgfrie wrote: »

Mandy72CM wrote: »

Can I also add that god forbid anyone asking about losing weight. Would you tell them to see a doctor if they were eating too much? Would you ask them to seek help if they were many stones/pounds overweight? Would you tell them they have an addictive person personality ? No you wouldn’t! But because Iv mentioned wine it gives you the right? I wish I said I ate 5000 calories of doughnuts as I would hav probably had more support!

I've personally seen at least a few hundred people told to go talk to a doctor for disordered eating habits on MFP. Far more people than were told to go talk to a doctor for drinking alcohol. Addictive behavior, no matter what the addiction or overindulgence, is sometimes at a level in which bringing in a professional is advantageous.

Eating 5,000 calories per week of donuts, wine, or any other unhealthy, non-nutritious substance is definitely in the ballpark for discussion with a medical professional of some sort. That's 74 pounds per year gained on empty calories, totally putting aside the alcohol issue. That is "intervention" level. Those who have given you that advice in this thread have had your best interests in mind.

you can lead a horse to water bubba......

Mandy72CM

psychod787 wrote: »

lgfrie wrote: »

Mandy72CM wrote: »

Can I also add that god forbid anyone asking about losing weight. Would you tell them to see a doctor if they were eating too much? Would you ask them to seek help if they were many stones/pounds overweight? Would you tell them they have an addictive person personality ? No you wouldn’t! But because Iv mentioned wine it gives you the right? I wish I said I ate 5000 calories of doughnuts as I would hav probably had more support!

I've personally seen at least a few hundred people told to go talk to a doctor for disordered eating habits on MFP. Far more people than were told to go talk to a doctor for drinking alcohol. Addictive behavior, no matter what the addiction or overindulgence, is sometimes at a level in which bringing in a professional is advantageous.

Eating 5,000 calories per week of donuts, wine, or any other unhealthy, non-nutritious substance is definitely in the ballpark for discussion with a medical professional of some sort. That's 74 pounds per year gained on empty calories, totally putting aside the alcohol issue. That is "intervention" level. Those who have given you that advice in this thread have had your best interests in mind.

you can lead a horse to water bubba......

so if I was going to gain all that weight every year why am I 125 pounds? If I reduced that by 74?pounds I’d be the size of a child! I want to lose 14lbs not 78! Iv been drinkin this way for a long time and I’m at my heaviest now so I don’t think your maths work out in reality! When people say they have had a 5000 blow out a week you don’t tell them to see a doctor do you? Really?

Mandy72CM

I’m going to leave MFP beacuse of most of your ugly, self preserving comments. Some of you thought you had the right to judge and belittle me bra cause I mentioned wine. You would never do that to someone that that was over weight or obese who had a moment of enlightenment where they realised where their calories were going. You told me to see a doctor etc I find this absolutely disgusting. You pretend you have my best interest at heart but you don’t because most of you are judgemental. It’s ugly and down right nasty. Please think about your actions and I know I can never rely on these forums again due to the ugly attitudes. As I said I hope no one is at their lowest and relying on you when they have went over the their weekly calorie intake. Please don’t tell them they have an addictive personality or need to see a doctor. Maybe you should have a good look at yourself and think what you write in future. Not everyone but most of you are bully’s that have responded. Please don’t respond and justify yourselves. You know who you are.

psychod787

Actually, human body weight regulation is a very complicated topic. It has actually been a source of fascination. SOOOOO... here we go. Human body weight is almost simple as calories in and calories out, but not quite. As we gain weight our tdee goes up and appetite generally goes down. Its all according if someone is at a set range for their environment. So, lets say you eat 5000 calories one day, your appetite may not be as high a few days later. Generally not the next day in humans. That activity is seen more in rats. So, you might eat 5000 today and balance it mostly out over a few days. The body is pretty good at balancing calories in most folks, but not perfect. So lets say your tdee is 2000, your appetite goes down by only 2900 calories over the course of the week. That's only a 100 calorie surplus for the week. Repeat that over a month and that is 400 calories a month. That's 1-2lbs gained in year, which is almost the average weight gain for a woman from the age of 20 to 40 in the USA. The same happens when most people under eat. There will be a hyper compensation effect the next day or a few days later, this one has not been studied as well as the former. So, as fat cells get larger they produce more of a hormone called Leptin. If the fat cells get smaller, they produce less of it. Leptin is sensed in the hypothalamus and controls our energy expenditure and appetite So, as one loses weight, tdee decreases until a new equilibrium is reached. So, lets say by giving up wine and drinking a non calorie containing beverage, you eat less calories spontaneously. For most people, liquids calories are not as well compensated for by the brain. You might eat less, but the body will come to a new equilibrium with the diet and lifestyle you have. Thus, a new set range is reached. I don't know you, but in my experience in working with a high chemically addiction rate, folks who get defensive about their habits, they might have a problem. Yes, I would advice a person who just decided they wanted to eat an extra 5000 calories a week for "fun", to get some help.

QuilterInVA

Time for AA.

veganbettie

No one was mean to you, people are trying to help, this kind of drinking behavior is worrisome that's all, and most of us know someone or them themselves have had issues with alcohol. Furthermore, it's nothing to be ashamed of, it can happen (and does) to anyone, alcohol is a very addictive substance. If you don't think you have a problem, wonderful, but if you ever get to the point where you want to stop drinking, and this goes for anyone, amazing, there are a lot of helpful resources out there.

It's also very worrisome and telling that you're so defensive about this, I truly hope you're okay, and good luck, weight and calories aren't the most important thing in the world.