Giving up alcohol for weight loss...

Jovijovi86

Is anyone else on here thinking of "going sober" for weightloss? Or anyone who has who can share the benefits?
After a long day I really look forward to a glass of wine but I keep thinking about all those pointless calories and wondering if it's worth it!

Lietchi

I didn't precisely 'go sober' for weight loss, I already didn't drink a lot before. But logging calories has made me a LOT more conscious of the calorie counts.

The result is that I only drink alcohol when I really want it.
For me that means no more wine at family/restaurant dinners (since I don't actually like wine that much), but I will gladly have a single glass of champagne with the appetizers, and perhaps an Irish coffee as dessert.
On regular days, when thinking about having an alcoholic drink (one I like) in the evening, I think about the calories and somehow I always end up choosing an evening snack instead of a drink, since it's more satisfying.

If you're having a glass every day, you might try cutting down to make it more of a special occasion? Like limiting yourself to Friday evening as a way to end the work week?
You don't have to, of course, but it's something you could try without going completely sober (moderation instead of elimination).

callsitlikeiseeit

its up to you as to whether or not its worth it. we all pick and choose what we are willing to 'sacrifice'. my coffee creamer? non negotiable. 150 empty calories a day that is set in stone. ive lost over 189 pounds drinking that same coffee creamer every single day.

So, is your glass of wine your 'coffee creamer'? or, is it something you can limit yourself to once a week or on special occasions? If so, it is an easy way to cut calories. If not, you simply log it at the beginning of the day and work the rest of the day around it.

88olds

I weighed 285 lbs. Sleep apnea, HBP, debilitating back pain, and a seemingly permanent cough. My meager attempts to control my eating always came undone when drinking. Plus drinking was a near daily event. And it wasn’t just the empty calories but the entire attitude that went with it.

I only quit drinking because I concluded there was no other way. Unlike a lot of people I weighed myself regularly as I gained. Finally the scale said 285 lbs but what I saw was that 300 lbs was in easy reach. I bit the bullet and quit drinking. After a couple of uncomfortable weeks I had adapted to a new routine. No one was more surprised than I was.

Over the next 18 months I lost about 65lbs on what seemed like autopilot. All kinds of things became easy. My back didn’t hurt, BP went down. I eventually got rid of my CPAP. Then I joined a gym. I was still overweight around 215-220 but put weight loss on the back burner and pumped iron. It was terrific.

Fast forward to years later. Hoping to restart my weight loss effort I joined Weight Watchers. Not plugging for WW. which is really just calorie counting but that’s where I learned tracking. And in the meantime I had started drinking a glass of wine or 2 about twice per week.

My experience drinking wine on WW gets me wondering this- Do you count calories and keep a food diary? You mentioned a “glass” of wine? How big? I ask because tracking had me measuring how much wine I was drinking. The first thing I noticed was the ridiculous size of a lot of wine glasses. They make money on the over pour.

The other thing I noticed was that even staying within my WW points number, weeks when I didn’t drink alcohol seemed to make for better weight loss than when I did drink. Hope something here helps you. Good luck.

Jovijovi86

Wow @88olds that's a really amazing achievement, to have improved your overall health like that!

Absolutely agree, starting tracking made me realise just how often I've been having a drink and just how many calories are in it - large glass! (Sometimes more than one!)
Thanks for all the advice and tips.
I made the decision yesterday to drop alcohol completely for a few weeks to "re-set", then look to re-introduce it at special occasions like @Lietchi suggests!
although my weightloss has been fairly steady when calorie counting I do feel like it will be easier without!

sollyn23l2

I went sober, albeit not for weight loss. I have to say, after a year, I don't regret it. It definitely does help with weight control though. A lot in my experience.

goal06082021

My feeling is that wine (craft beer, for me) will still be there when you reach GW, so better to learn how to live with it and fit it into your budget now. Maybe you are the sort of person who will be able to stop tracking your food someday - I don't think I am, I have 10+ years of data that say I gain weight when I stop tracking, so I'm planning to keep using this site once I'm in maintenance. I know a given craft beer is probably about 250 calories, give or take, so if I want to drink beer I know how much space I need to carve out of my calorie budget to do so.

If you struggle with alcohol in general, of course, you should probably talk to a professional about that, and it may serve you better long-term to stop using it altogether, but that's highly individual.