Anyone else have massive leap on scales after drinking?

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!

mrs_kalee_thompson

I gained 7.6 pounds from drinking this weekend. I am so disappointed and ashamed. All my hard work for the last 2 weekd GONE because of drinking Saturday night and Sunday during the day. UGH!! :sad:

Thomaslol

Very interesting thread.

BossRighteous

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"

The same website also says:

"Although frequent light/moderate drinkers were the leanest, infrequent heavy drinkers were the most overweight. The results illustrate the importance of light/moderate frequent drinking. For example, consuming a drink every day for a week is associated with healthful weight but drinking seven drinks one day per week is associated with obesity."

On this page
http://www2.potsdam.edu/alcohol/InTheNews/MedicalReports/Other/1112124376.html#.U6C9B_ldWSo

In that sense I also doubt that potato chips or ice-cream lead to consistent weight gain in an average sample group if you are only having ~150cals per day of either.

Anecdotaly, I weight the least the morning after 4-5 beers because of dehydration. I also avoid midnight snacks those nights because of the existing calorie hit so I am leaving my body in all kinds of hurt the next morning.

ciaraos27

Ha! If that is true that means I would be better off having a tipple a day than saving a few for a Friday or special occasion?! Well, I'm going to abstain this week-end as other half's birthday is now out of the way. See what I weight same time in a week. Two colleagues are doing the 5:2 and not cut their drinking at all and have steadily lost weight with no blips. I tried the 5:2 before and just obsessed about food more so than usual. :ohwell:

ciaraos27

Ok all, I went out last night after a vicious gym session. Had 5 pints of soda water with fresh lime watching the footie. Except I barely got to watch the footie as my 'friends' kept trying to make me drink. Then when they realised it wouldn't happen l kept telling me 'how well i was doing' and trying to make me break my non drinking at a later date. Or asking if I was in a mood with them. Or trying to slip a vodka in my drink anyway. Honestly, if the other half had left a beer in the fridge when I got home I would have drank it after all that.

Tonight the is a big game I want to watch but I now just want to watch it on my own at home :grumble:

I know the only way I can get them to accept me trying to stick to my goals is to stick to them but DAMN it's hard!!!!

2PieceNow

Ok all, I went out last night after a vicious gym session. Had 5 pints of soda water with fresh lime watching the footie. Except I barely got to watch the footie as my 'friends' kept trying to make me drink. Then when they realised it wouldn't happen l kept telling me 'how well i was doing' and trying to make me break my non drinking at a later date. Or asking if I was in a mood with them. Or trying to slip a vodka in my drink anyway. Honestly, if the other half had left a beer in the fridge when I got home I would have drank it after all that.

Tonight the is a big game I want to watch but I now just want to watch it on my own at home :grumble:

I know the only way I can get them to accept me trying to stick to my goals is to stick to them but DAMN it's hard!!!!

I know EXACTLY how you feel, when I told my friends I wasn't drinking they asked if I was an alcoholic!! Geez!! Of course as the night went on seeing them drunk I couldn't decide if I never wanted to drink again or down a bottle!! Good luck we are in the same boat or bottle!!! LOL

ciaraos27

I hear ya 2PieceNow!!! One of my colleagues said unfortunately we live in a culture where if you don't drink. you are either asked if you are an alcoholic or if you are pregnant. I know I bored all my friends bu explaining the why every single time. Still...just having will power for a whole night and not caving is quite satisfying. Fitting my nice clothes again will be even more so...

dopeysmelly

After a few days of drinking way more than usual (but less than I used to) at a work conference, I hopped on the Tanita scales this morning, to find my weight the same, but almost miraculously, by body fat was 10% lower than on Sunday morning!!.. LOL. Yeah, right. If that doesn't scream dehydration/water balance, then nothing does. My weight will probably bounce around a bit over the next couple of days, and then go back to normal.

brower47

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.

It won't stop you from burning fat the next day. What it will do is halt the use of other macro nutrients for energy until the calories from the alcohol is used. So unless you're drinking 2000 calories of alcohol (strictly from alcohol, not counting mixers and some of the non alcohol calories from beer/wine) then you will burn fat the next day. It's actually pretty complicated since there's a metabolic difference between moderate drinkers and alcoholics. The below is interesting in this respect.

"...the body has no way to store alcohol and that very little of it can pass through and be excreted. Thus, nearly all the alcohol a person consumes must be metabolized, a job relegated to the liver."
http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh27-3/220-231.htm

earthboundmisfit

I always gain weight after drinking alcohol, and my face gets puffy. I'm on the water wagon now. Don't need the empty calories.