alcohol and your weight loss?

SHHitsKaty

I drink probably 3-4 times a week and it's usually pretty heavily (football season is starting), I will say that maybe I cut back a LITTLE bit when I was really losing but for the most part, I still gave myself some nights to cut loose and drink, I didn't log it, I'm well aware I went over my calories (I'm a beer drinker). I think with everything, everyone is different, for some people it may not effect the way they loose weight at all and others, it may be a reason why they aren't losing any.

For me, I was working out so hard and so regularly that I don't think that the times I did drink had much effect on my weight loss but I will say that I've pretty much plateaued and the only way I think I could lose anymore weight is by cutting the alcohol out. I'm a notorious drunk eater.

stacyjh1979

I am alcoholic so I don't drink at all but I am quite confident that alcohol was one of the biggest contributors to my weight gain. I looked it up recently and just one pint of vodka was something like 1300 calories. That's practically a day's worth of calories and when I drank I rarely stopped at a pint. As someone else mentioned it lowered my inhibitions in what I ate while I was drinking as well. So for me it's not an option both for the sake of my sobriety and my weight. If you can control your drinking and you stay within your calorie limits it should not keep you from losing weight however you could of course receive better nutrition from the same amount of calories from a food which is going to be more beneficial to your weightloss and over all health. Anything in moderation works for most people.

Pedalpush

I didn't start to experience regular losses until I stopped drinking. I used to drink - logging every drop (measuring and everything) - sometimes within my calorie goal, sometimes outside of it. But that's just my experience.

colors_fade

I drink. Pretty regularly. Almost every night, a beer or a glass of wine or two. This is acceptable to me if my calories for the day make it okay.

When I decided to go on this fitness journey, the thing I wanted to be able to do was change my lifestyle in a way that is *sustainable * for the REST OF MY LIFE.

I enjoy drinking, so no weight loss program would ever work for me if it required me to give up alcohol completely. That's just not realistic.

The more I have read, the more research I've done over the past year, the more I've learned that for weight loss to really work, and for the weight to stay off and be lasting, the changes a person makes - adding exercise, lowering caloric intake - have to be things you are going to do forever. This is why so many experts say that when it comes to exercise, do something you enjoy, so that you'll keep doing it.

I count calories, and my alcohol consumption is a part of that daily total. If I don't have the room at the end of the day, I don't drink. If I have left myself some calories, I have a drink.

Part of my goal is to learn moderation for when the cutting phase is over. This past week I went on a 4-day vacation. I didn't track anything I ate or drank. I simply tried to make better food choices (side-salad instead of fries, one beer instead of three). I hiked every day (something I would never normally have done on a vacation). I made sure I got my 10K steps, and I ate all the foods I enjoyed. But I made better choices about those foods, and chose smaller portions over larger ones.

When I weighed myself Monday, I had not gained a single pound. For me, on a vacation, that was a huge win. It showed that what I did worked. I ate normally - not excluding any food groups - but I practice moderation and made better choices.

Alcohol is something I will never give up unless there is a clear medical reason to do so. But through this weight loss adventure, I'm learning to adjust my consumption to levels that are healthy and sustainable for the long term.

You can lose weight drinking alcohol as long as your tracking calories in vs. out. So the math and science does work.

That said - we all know this - not all calories are the same. Your body would make better use of a protein calorie than those provided by alcohol.

I say do whatever is sustainable and gets you results.

JagerLewis

Drinking put most of my weight on me. Guess what my drink of choice was? Jagermeister, hence my user name. I now know that each shot is 100 calories. I would have probably a days worth of calories in just shots on a Friday and Saturday. So I don't drink near that much anymore. But I do still drink, and I log it. I love wine, but that's kinda high calorie, when I'm watching the calories more closely I'll have a diet and rum (about 60 calories). I still will have some jager (this past weekend while camping I did) but I normally make lower calorie choices when drinking. Or if I know I'll be drinking on any given day, I will eat really healthy and workout extra hard to balance out at the end of the night.
Enjoy! :drinker:

BootCampC

it can be done.. but its not an easy road.. being a drinker or trying not to be is the question .
i drink 1 , then 2 then 3 and then start snacking with number 4 ...because my will power is now down , i say ill be good tomorrow... and then do it again..
if i dont drink , i may have a small snack.. 200 calories or so then hit the bed
lets do a quick add

drinking for me = 600 cals in drinks and a 300 calorie snack for a total of 900 calories for the night
not drinking for a night= 200 calories of a healthy snack - 200 calories total

looks like the non drinking nights win

irisheyes321

Hi,

I am and allways was a miller girl and I would not think twice of having 5-10 bottles of miller on a good night out.It was only when I started on here that I realised how many cals are in one bottle naïve I know lol.

Since I started I have not have one but we are heading away soon so my plan is to swap my beer for a small vodka and water with a dash of lime.I am hoping that I will at least maintain my weight while I am away so all my hard work wont be gone out the window.

sculli123

I rarely drink except during football season. But when I do I just account for the calories by eating less carbs that day. My total calories stay within my goal regardless. I usually drink 3 or 4 light beers and that's it, so not a real issue for me.

keefmac

Most of my weight loss.has come through not drinking as much as I used to.

Another valid point was made earlier, when you're drunk your will-power is a lot lower and snacking doesn't seem to be a big issue. Plus you get the munchies when drunk..

tabicatinthehat

The worst part about alcohol is the crap I eat at 3am when I drink. And shots. Shots are the devil.

I'm about to quit for the most part, but not really for weight-loss reasons. Drug interactions SUCK.

tabicatinthehat

I rarely drink except during football season. But when I do I just account for the calories by eating less carbs that day. My total calories stay within my goal regardless. I usually drink 3 or 4 light beers and that's it, so not a real issue for me.

Oh yeah, football. Well damn, this is gonna be a tough one.

enzosmama

I really don't drink that much anymore. Years ago when I was married my xH and I used to go through a bottle of wine a night, every night. About four years ago I wanted to lose weight in preparation of getting pregnant and cut most of my alcohol intake out then. Every now and again my GF and I will go out to a bar and have a few drinks, or I will have a drink at home, but it's not regularly. I just don't like wasting my calories on liquids :-)

sculli123

Oh yeah, football. Well damn, this is gonna be a tough one.

I just drink one per quarter and have either lunch or dinner with it depending on if it's a night or day game. I love it, we have a large group that all watch the game every week together at this bar I go to .

Jetta_C

For me, I need to give it up when I do a "reset" and try to deliberately clean up my diet. Later I can put it back in within moderation but it has a way of creeping up over time...

kbunting999

Most of the time, I can stay under my calorie limit even with beer (although my nutrition totally tanks). But, It definitely makes me retain water. I usually drink on Friday nights, so my weight will look high on Saturday and even Sunday sometimes, but be back down to normal or below by Monday.

Two things I've learned about myself. 1) If I drink so much that I get a hangover, it is very hard to stay under calories the next day (tip: one Whataburger tacquito is 450 calories!) and 2) If I drink multiple days in a row, the "water" weight will last 4 or 5 days, which really feels like a set back. So, I've tried to stop doing that.

LoneWolfRunner

According to MFP calculations, I drink about 500 calories worth of whiskey a day. Doesn't affect my weight or my running. But I drink it neat.... no soda, juice or other contaminants.

SandyBVTN

Today is 17 days without a drink. I usually drink on the weekends (beer and vodka sodas) Although I am doubtful that I can put down booze all together cold turkey, but I am going to try and consume less, and drink less often.

I have stuck to my work out and diet for (today is day 28) and I have lost 10.5 pounds since my Saturday morning weigh in. I am sure since I have stopped drinking alcohol for the past 2.5 weeks that this has contributed a little bit to my weight loss. not only is alcohol empty calories, I make horrible eating decisions when I drink (eating pizza at 1 am, or eating a bunch of chips) For the most part I can control food decisions if I have a few beers, but if I am drunk I will eat whatever.


Frankly, I am sure alcohol is most likely the main contributor to my weight today, wether it be the alcohol its self, or the decisions I have made that come a long with it.

I am really going to try as hard as I can to refrain from drinking, or take 2 weeks off after the last time I drink. It is Labor day weekend so I am most likely to have some drinks. I just need to have better control.

My story is very similar. I'm feeling pretty awesome actually, having cut waaaay back on my booze intake lately. I had a fun night and several drinks while camping with friends two weeks ago, but otherwise haven't touched it. I also believe that alcohol (and the choices I made while/after drinking - not exercising the next day for example) contributed a great deal to my weight gain to begin with.

I am starting to think about alcohol like I think about cake. I love it, it's delicious and wonderful, but I'm only going to have some when it's a special occasion and really worth it. For me, a Saturday night glass of good wine with my hubs who I've barely seen all week - worth it. Drinking just because it's Tuesday, not worth it. I'm going to a wedding next weekend and I'll definitely have cocktails, probably all three days, but I'll log them and make sure they are fairly low sugar/low cal drinks. I am sure I'll go over my calories but I'll walk a lot that weekend and will up my exercise from now until then, and for the week after.

In the past when I have done a more "crash diet" type of thing, I drank quite a bit still and ate less during the day to make up for the calorie difference. It left me feeling weak and like crap, and of course the "diet" didn't last long.

lemurcat12

I am alcoholic so I don't drink at all but I am quite confident that alcohol was one of the biggest contributors to my weight gain. I looked it up recently and just one pint of vodka was something like 1300 calories.

That's not surprising, but for me it was the opposite. I lost 60 lbs back when I was drinking to excess regularly and maintained my weight pretty easily despite the fact that I had to be consuming ridiculous numbers of calories in wine. I was really active at the time, and must have been eating less than I realized (and I was eating pretty healthy otherwise, although saying that is rather like "other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln"). I crashed and burned enough to stop exercising before I stopped drinking, but I mostly put on weight (lots) after I stopped, I think because I started misusing food as a partial replacement but also because I just felt hungrier and because it took me awhile before I wasn't scared that restricting food would end up being a pressure that would make sobriety harder.

Unfortunately, even after I moved beyond that I didn't care enough to try and get back into my healthier habits for a while, for various other life reasons.

Anyway, just my experience, probably not relevant to the OP at all.

modickson

I can completely sympathize with EVERYTHING that you are saying. I have been in a slump for quite some time due to dringing and bad food choices. I am going to start tracking everything, working out more and decreasing my alcolhol intake. Your post was encouraging. Thank you. Good for you on your weight loss. That is amazing

Rlavigne93

I drink some wine with dinner sometimes, but I had to give up drinking socially because it got hard to keep track. No one seems to mind, but I did end up being the default DD for every weekend.