Anyone else have massive leap on scales after drinking?

ciaraos27

Hi,

I signed up with a PT 4 weeks ago to sort out my exercise and diet. So far it's has been working really well. He even incorporated alcohol in me. I've been steadily losing 2/3 ibs a week.

However, I had birthday drinks and a protein meal yesterday and some drinks for work on Tuesday but matched my workout accordingly.

I know you don't burn fat the next day after drinking alcohol but this morning my scales showed I'd gained half a stone! Anyone else have this happen to them? Is the wagon the only way? Could it be because my diet is low processed carb, high protein and fat?

Thanks, Ciara

TheStephil

It's just water retention and it will go away. Just be patient.

I know you don't burn fat the next day after drinking alcohol

What?! I don't think that's true. Screams broscience to me.

becs3578

I normally do too.. a friend of mind had a good theory. When I drink alcohal I also drink a ton of water to counter act any hangoverss (dehydration) so it is most probably water weight... Just like has already been mentioned.

You will be fine

BarbieAS

It's just water retention and it will go away. Just be patient.

I know you don't burn fat the next day after drinking alcohol

What?! I don't think that's true. Screams broscience to me.

Yes, water retention, certainly. Alcohol can play all sorts of games with the balance of water in your body. No biggie.

It's true that, while your body has alcohol in it, it will burn all of the alcohol before returning to burning the food you've consumed and/or your fat stores for energy, but that's only until the alcohol has been processed out of your body. It would take an awful lot of booze for that to take an entire day.

Unknown

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Tla0126

Yes - and for me, beer is the worst!

1Cor1510

I lose the next day, probably due to dehydration. My lowest weight always shows up on Saturday mornings LOL! Your body doesn't process the food in your body till the alcohol is processed out, so it shouldn't take a whole day for that to happen. You probably are retaining water, if you stayed under your calorie goal, you did not gain weight.

shirerose

Yes - and for me, beer is the worst!

ohhhhh god i love beer. and i can't drink it. i just... get fat. i wish i had never developed a taste for it. i pine for the days when i thought beer was gross!

laurie04427

Yeah I drank 5 12 oz beers and the next day the scale showed 6 pound gain. Took a week for the scale to go back to normal.

rieann84

I always way less after a night of drinking,


I imagine its because I'm dehydrated. In any case, I'd refrain from trying to figure out any scale fluctuations til any alcohol is out of your system a while. It's not fair to try and make sense of it after drinking.

2PieceNow

I have had a huge weight loss but I notice on the weeks i drink (and it can be thursday- sunday a couple glasses of wine) I can gain 3 lbs even though I continue to exercise! I think some of us process sugar better then others! I know some people on here say a calorie is a calorie but I would argue with them. I know if I cut out sugar I lose weight plain and simple!!!

sarahrosheen

when you drink alcohol, you are essentially poisoning your body. your body has to focus on removing the toxins and so doesn't have time to process your fat stores. stop drinking alcohol !

_KitKat_

It's just water retention and it will go away. Just be patient.

I know you don't burn fat the next day after drinking alcohol

What?! I don't think that's true. Screams broscience to me.

↑↑↑ That and the cure to world hunger

It is just water retention, I rarely drink but the few weekends I have, I lose a larger chunk of weight the following Tuesday. So my broscience thought is ......Beer/liquor diets all the way!

_KitKat_

when you drink alcohol, you are essentially poisoning your body. your body has to focus on removing the toxins and so doesn't have time to process your fat stores. stop drinking alcohol !

Process your fat stores :noway:

Fat is energy, if your body needs more energy than you consumed...it will take it, drunk or not. Now a lot of alcohol is high carb and calorie, so your body may not need to tap into its energy storage (fat).

Bodies are greedy and believe it or not can multitask, plus a healthy liver handles the alcohol so the rest of the body can do its thing.

Is this Broscience Friday !?!!

It is Friday the 13th....damn

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MinnieInMaine

I mostly see a decrease the next day too. Then again, I make sure I drink a TON of water and if I'm drinking I'm usually dancing or walking around a lot. It's rare for me to just sit around and get drunk anymore.

Is this Broscience Friday !?!!

It is Friday the 13th....damn

And the moon is full. Double screwed

_KitKat_

I mostly see a decrease the next day too. Then again, I make sure I drink a TON of water and if I'm drinking I'm usually dancing or walking around a lot. It's rare for me to just sit around and get drunk anymore.

Is this Broscience Friday !?!!

It is Friday the 13th....damn

And the moon is full. Double screwed

Very scary

sfbaumgarten

I usually have a massive drop because of dehydration.

I_Will_End_You

I know you don't burn fat the next day after drinking alcohol

False. Once you're sober, your body is finished metabolizing alcohol. It doesn't effect your metabolism the next day in that respect. Unless you're like me and drink so much that you're still drunk the next morning. It can effect your metabolism the next day only if you're less active from being hungover.

You're probably just retaining water.

Fsunami

Yes - and for me, beer is the worst!

ohhhhh god i love beer. and i can't drink it. i just... get fat. i wish i had never developed a taste for it. i pine for the days when i thought beer was gross!

Heinekin Light. 99 cals

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23crizzle

Together last Friday, me and a friend went through a whole bottle of vodka together. The next day I ate Mexican food. Two days later I jumped on the scale and was up 2 pounds. I was good the rest of the week. I weighed today and was down 3.4. The two pounds I gained from my vodka/mexi binge was likely water retention. I don't drink often but I drink a lot when I do. I won't let the water retention stop me. I just shouldn't get on the scale two days later!

runny111

I see a gain if I drink more than a couple, but it goes away after a couple of days. Here my guess: your liver need the water to help process the alcohol.

kelly_e_montana

I honestly usually temporarily lose 3-5 pounds after drinking.

_KitKat_

when you drink alcohol, you are essentially poisoning your body. your body has to focus on removing the toxins and so doesn't have time to process your fat stores. stop drinking alcohol !

Process your fat stores :noway:

Fat is energy, if your body needs more energy than you consumed...it will take it, drunk or not. Now a lot of alcohol is high carb and calorie, so your body may not need to tap into its energy storage (fat).

Bodies are greedy and believe it or not can multitask, plus a healthy liver handles the alcohol so the rest of the body can do its thing.

Is this Broscience Friday !?!!

It is Friday the 13th....damn

I'm not sure from reading your post if you agree or disagree that alcohol does have an effect on fat loss.

And to anyone in this thread that wants to give an opinion of what alcohol does to the body, do yourself a favor and read the link and watch the video. You will learn something.


Alan Aragon - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBd4TqcBNgs


http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/nutrition/nutrient-intake-nutrient-storage-and-nutrient-oxidation.html

Alcohol
And, finally, as noted above, there is absolutely no store of alcohol in the body. None whatsoever. Effectively, alcohol is seen as a sort of metabolic ‘toxin’ or ‘poison’ to the body. And this means that alcohol oxidation is 100% perfect, that is, the body will effectively do everything in its power to get rid of the alcohol increasing alcohol oxidation to maximum (which means decreasing the oxidation of other nutrients consumed with that alcohol) so that the alcohol can be gotten rid of.

I’m going to ask readers not to read anything into the above paragraph, don’t infer or try to draw conclusions about how alcohol might or mightn’t fit into the diet in terms of anything. As it turns out, alcohol is an oddity among nutrients with seemingly contradictory effects on things. I’m going to address that in detail in a forthcoming article and, for now, just take the above as some much needed background information

My opinion was that the only effect on fat/or energy that a beer would have is the carbs and calories. The liver handles alcohol and can process a serving in about 2 hours (may be off, but i think thats right) so I do not see where having a drink if it fits your goal will effect weight gain/loss.

Will read link now....my main point was against the fear mongering and the statement about not using fat stores the next day, a normal night of drinking will be out of your body the next day. Prior to reading the link you posted, I always thought alcohol begins to metabolize immediately.

toconeledoux

Most of the running events I participate in are sponsored by restaurants and bars - technically I run for beer and hot wings now. I agree about developing the taste for beer - life was better when it turned my stomach.

_KitKat_

I need to know if this is true....

http://www2.potsdam.edu/alcohol/AlcoholCaloriesAndWeight.html#.U5tQAeByf5A


"Alcohol contains calories, but drinking alcohol doesn't lead to weight gain, according to extensive medical research, and some studies report a small reduction in weight for women who drink.1

The reason that alcohol doesn't necessarily increase weight is unclear, but research suggests that alcohol energy is not efficiently used.2 Alcohol also appears to increase metabolic rate significantly, thus causing more calories to be burned rather than stored in the body as fat.3 Other research has found that the consumption of sugar decreases as the consumption of alcohol increases.4

Whatever the reasons, the consumption of alcohol is not associated with weight gain and is sometimes associated with weight loss in women. The medical evidence of this is based on a large number of studies of thousands of people around the world. Some of these studies are very large; one involved nearly 80,000 and another included 140,000 subjects.5"

Cortelli

In addition to MrM27's link to the Aragon youtube discussion, here's an article he wrote about alcohol and its effects on both weight and bodybuilding: http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sex_news_sports_funny/a_muscleheads_guide_to_alcohol_1

ForwardOsmosis

Yea, I had a reunion with old high school buddies, we drank for 3 or 4 days, when I got on the scales, I had gained about 3 lbs. On my fitness plan, I exercise and limit my alcohol to 2 beer equivalent a day. I've lost about 5 lbs in 11 days, but the key, in my mind, is regular exercise in addition to meeting your calorie goal.

ciaraos27

Thanks for all the replies! Really helpful. There are people on a plan with me that are on the 5:2 plan and seen to me losing weight. i think everyone is different so maybe I am more sensitive to sugar than others or need to up my exercise more. Obviously few drinks can put off exercise the next day. I think loads of water and green tea to make up for the booze so that could easily be the weight gain too.

spara0038

Sounds like it might be water retention to me. Give it a couple of days, make sure you're getting enough water, protein, and fiber, and everything should work out.

Remember, it takes 3500 calories above surplus to add a lb of fat.. I recently gained 1.4lbs between Saturday and Sunday this last weekend, but it's all due to water weight. For it to have been fat, I would have had to have downed 6700 calories on Saturday- which clearly I didn't do!

For more consistent weight loss, try to be consistent throughout the week AND weekend. Some cheat meals are ok, but I usually find my measurements (both tape measure and scales) go haywire after indulging. I used to have 1-2 drinks almost every weeknight plus indulging on the weekends, but since I've cut back and made everything more uniform, it's been more consistent and predictable.

And to actually answer your original question: I actually find that I LOSE weight on the scales after a night of drinking, but that's because I'm dehydrated. It's amazing what water weight will do- I've lost 2-3 lbs overnight through water weight swings before!