Drinking and weight loss

PibblesRun
PibblesRun Posts: 236 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Im curious...some say drinking makes you gain weight regardless of dieting. My logical though is, is it fits into your daily calories you cant possibly gain just from the drink alone right? I dont drink often, but im curious if you can gain from drinking even if it fits in your calories.

Replies

  • jerryvo
    jerryvo Posts: 66 Member
    As long as it fits in your calorie limit drink up. On Fridays my dinner usually consist of a lean protein and 2 vodka cranberry as my side dishes. It is empty calories so you have to eat nutritiously most of the time but the occasional libation will not hurt you.
  • Maggiedoll84
    Maggiedoll84 Posts: 7 Member
    The "don't drink if you want to lose weight" logic is that alcohol is mostly empty calories, lowers inhibitions (making you more likely to act on that impulse to eat more than you should) and is a CNS depressant, so it may lower your metabolism somewhat, at least temporarily. (And of course, if you're an alcoholic, you probably wont' be able to control how much you drink or what you eat after you've had too much to drink.)

    That said, I've personally found that red wine massively decreases sugar cravings, which has been really helpful in losing weight.

    People keep pointing out that weight loss is all about calories and how much you eat, but it's a technical truth that leaves an awful lot out. Studies lately have shown that willpower is finite, you can't just keep drawing on more and more. The idea of will alone is nice, but it doesn't work that way, and it doesn't help if you break down. If you eat all your calories in Twinkies, you'll be malnourished even with sufficient calories, and if you eat all your calories in broccoli, you'll probably go nuts. The goal of most diets is to come up with a system that doesn't leave you starving, they just make it sound more mysterious so that you don't just work it out yourself. You have to eat the things that are the most filling, satisfying, and keep you going the longest, without eating things that you hate or totally depriving yourself of the things that you love.

    So, can you stick to your diet even if you've had a drink or two, and is it satisfying enough to be worth the calories? Or are you more likely to stick to a diet if you use those calories on something else?

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