Booze calories

wallerinaprincess

I like to have drinks on the weekends, usually a Friday night. I get really bad hangovers, and the only thing to cure it seems to be really greasy food. I have heard a lot of people who have this problem also. And, if I have too many I tend to even have a binge before bed that night, eating whatever is in sight. I know the majority of replies will say "just don't drink", but I am more looking for other options! I usually have drinks on Friday, then eat pizza for almost every meal on Saturdays, and since I feel awful, of course I don't work out that day either. Is once a week ok for this? Anyone have similar issue? And are there less-calorie options for cheat day? Also, has anyone had significant weight loss by losing the booze altogether?

singcoz528

To answer ur last question, My dad lost 20pounds in 5 months JUST by cutting out his nightly drinks. He had 2-3 drinks a night. He is also a construction worker tho so he gets a lot of exercise.

toots99

I am the same exact way! I work nights at a (pizza restaurant) and so at about 11:00 on weekend nights we go tto the bar down the street to blow off steam. One beer leads to two or three and then leads to nachos then leads to feeling crappy the next day because of beer and nachos which then leads to sleeping in till I have to go back to work, and picking up a burger on the way! Last night I went out and had two drinks. I got home and knew I had a bit of junk food in the house and I was hungry! I forced myself, told myself out loud, "no, you will not eat nachos, you will eat a bowl of Trader Joe's High Fiber O's if you're hungry. If you don't want those then you're not truly hungry!" :laugh:

lulabellewoowoo

What kind of drinks do you like? Could you cut down the amount? Maybe drink a glass of water in between each drink? Or I have started having wine spritzers (flavored seltzer water and wine). Like champagne but with less calories (like about 50-60 calories per glass, depending on the wine). Just some ideas

mavsfan2009

I have drinks on the weekends as well, but I cut it down enough to where I rarely have hangovers. Of course, I graduated college and settled down a little bit, which helped as well. Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do about REALLY cutting down calories with drinks besides cutting down the number of drinks all together. Don't drink beer, unless it is a lite beer. Drink mixed drinks with diet soda, tonic water, or water. As for the greasy food, I don't know how to help you out there....when I'm hungover the only thing that helps is a shower and sleep.

AnneElise

No, It isn't okay to do that once a week. Just put in the actual calories that you drank/ate and see what it does to you!

NOW that being side I like to have a couple drinks sometimes too. What I do is I pre-log them and don't let myself have any more that what I put in. I work out twice as hard that day to make up for it and I eat very healthy. If you go 500 over your goal you are maintaining for a day. If you are having really bad hangovers you are probably drinking too much. The next day drink SO MUCH WATER... and don't let yourself have pizza for every meal. You need to be able to control your eating that next day. I usually have toast in the morning with peanut butter and a banana. But I don't drink enough to have bad hangovers either.

pmurphrey

I work in a bar/restaurant and I can tell you that yes I have seen significant weight loss with people who stopped drinking completly. I have also seen weight loss in people who cut back or change what they drink, for example: mixing with diet sodas versus regular soda, I lost 10 lbs 3 years ago from switching to diet drinks. Some cocktails have a lot more calories than others STAY AWAY from creamy drinks or ask them to sub milk for the half and half or heavy cream.... tons of calories in that. As far as hangover food, eggs work for me for breakfast or lunch but anything greasy usually makes me feel worse. Just remember that you don't want to suffer all week long by "being good" only to start from scratch come Sunday. Hope this was a little helpful.

ali258

Switch to light beer, half wine/half diet sprite or seltzer, or diet coke and hard liquor. You can drink a glass of water or diet soda between each alcoholic drink to cut the calories in half. Drink 8oz of water per alcoholic drink before bed and that should help avoid the hangovers (since they're just dehydration from the alcohol). You don't have to cut out alcohol just because you're watching your calories, but if you at least limit your alcohol some, you'll cut out a lot of calories from the alcohol and the food you eat the next day to make yourself feel better.

kaytbognar

Unfortunately, there's no way to make the calories in boozeand pizza go away, but in regards to your hangovers, I've always found that if you can have a glass of water for every boozy drink you can stave off the worst of it. Also, think about what kind of drinks you're having: sweet cocktails and "girly" drinks will have more sugar, therefore more calories, and they'll probably make your hangover worse. I always stick with straight shots of rye or jagermeister and a beer chaser or REALLY spicy ceasars so I have to drink them slow.

In the next day AM, if I am feeling hungover, I'll have a couple extra-strength liquigel advils (the ones for migraines) lots of water, or a ceasar/bloody mary (though if I don't make them virgin, I usually wind up just drinking all day long!)

I've cut out booze almost completely in the last 5 weeks and have seen significant decrease in size (no scale, so I don't know about weight, but I've lost about an inch a week) andi n the past when I have tried to lose, it's ALWAYS been my drinking that held me back. If you're going out once a week, you can probably pull it off as a cheat day, but you may want to recalibrate the rest of your week's workout to compensate. If you're not mindful of it, however, there is a chance that it could be putting a dent in your progress.

khskr1

The thing to remember with alcohol is that it has 7 calories per gram. Fat has 9 per gram. Also, your liver has to work hard to break down the alcohol. So it cuts your fat breaking down ability by about 75% everytime your drink. I'm not sure how long your body stays in that lower ability, Just some things to take into account.

LittleSpy

I agree with the post above telling you to drink a glas sof water between drinks. Do it. Seriously.

Doing so will not only slow the pace of your drinking and cut your calories, it will really help your hangovers (which are actually mostly just dehydration).

Also (not what you want to hear), good old fashioned willpower works wonders. Tell yourself before you go how many drinks you're going to have. Allot for them with that day's meal plan. Because when you ask if it's okay to splurge one day (the day after), you're really super splurging 2 days (the day of and the day after). Alcohol has a LOT of calories. And if you're drinking so much that you're hungover, you're consuming *at least* 500 calories with your drinks (assuming you're that drunk & hungover on 4 or 5 drinks which most people aren't). So, you're probalby consuming even more than 500 calories with the alcohol alone.
Tonight I'm going to a bar with old friends and I'm going to have 2 beers. 2 light beers. I'm going to eat a healthy snack on the way and eat a healthy dinner when I get home, even if it's really late. And yes, I'll stick to this plan because I now care too much about my health not to.

wallerinaprincess

Thanks everyone! I will take all of this into consideration! I especially like the ideas of the wine -spritzers! I ask this today because its Friday, haha. I will test out these theories and post this weekend! My goal is to not even have drinks this weekend, but we will see. Thanks again!

JenniferHarron

Hi never lost weight by cutting out alcohol, its farely low in calories but I used to do the friday drink think, but now I treat myself to a couple of beers after a vigourous afternoon workout several times a week, stopped the hangovers anyway Jennifer

LittleSpy

Hi never lost weight by cutting out alcohol, its farely low in calories

Please explain to me how 70 calories/ounce (for the lower calorie alcohols like vodka and light rum) is "low in calories." A shot is 1.5 ounces. So, 1 shot of vodka = 95 calories. How many shots does it take to be hungover in the morning?

sweetgl

Hi never lost weight by cutting out alcohol, its farely low in calories

Please explain to me how 70 calories/ounce (for the lower calorie alcohols like vodka and light rum) is "low in calories." A shot is 1.5 ounces. So, 1 shot of vodka = 95 calories. How many shots does it take to be hungover in the morning?

ya alcohol def. is not low in calories. And back to the orginal post.... When you drink your blood sugar drops real low and your judgment isnt its correct state of mind. So A. you are hungry and B. you're not going to care if what you eat will make you a tub a lubby because you're drunk and you're not thinking striaght. I would recommend def just trying to cut down on what you drink. That alone will help you loss weight. If you must drink try a light beer or like rum with diet coke instead of regualr soda.

karleen

now i wont lie, before i had my son i was a bigggggg time partyier/drinker. love to drink. and i def drank to get ddddddrunk. [yea i know they say thats a sign of alcoholism, but i just never saw the point in wasting calories on a glass or two of something to not even feel the effect.] in the past 4 months i think iave had drinks with friends maybe 4 times and really dont have the desire to do aynthing more than onvce in a great while. but i do drink quite a bit on those nights, its a party atmosphere and i like it. and yes i def eat horribly the next day its weird! thats why i have really limited myself to one harrah a month basically. this month itll be new years eve for sure. then ill probably kick start right back into the next serious phase of working out. it hasnt really budged the scale for me because 1 time a month i dont think is gonnna cause that harm, you just cant fall off the horse and stay off for more than a day i think

karleen

ps, and im a tequilla kinda girl, straight shots or margaritas so theres PLENTY of sugar and calories loaded in there. i try to just move on and let myself have a good time once in a while.

fortiter00

Not sure how much weight I have lost from cutting back on the drinking, but when I do have a couple beers I do log it, and include it in my calorie count for the day. I have a friend who is diabetic, and rather than drink high carb american beers, he switched to mexican beers, which tend to be a little lower in carbs, or light beers. Although I am not sure how much weight was lost, with the change in drastically cutting back on the beer intake, from 2 a day, to maybe 2 a week, I have lost about 7 inches off my body in 3 weeks. All I can say is, unless you make the serious commitment to lose the weight and/or the inches and to do what is necessary, including cutting back on the drinks, you wont see a difference.

nevergiveup123

As a former long-time bartender and regular drinker myself - I noticed that someone mentioned drinking tonic water as a good option. Tonic water is actually really high in calories (sugar content-just like a soda). They make diet tonic but I've never found a bar that carried it. I usually have vodka with soda water and a twist at a bar. Or you can buy small bottles of diet tonic water and take a couple with you and just order the liquor of your choice in a regular glass and add your own mixer. You'll still have to pay full price for the drink but it's worth it in calorie savings to have what you like. I've never known a bar that minded if you bring your own mixer since they make their money from the alcohol. One other trick, if I'm bored with the taste of light beer and/or eyeing the appetizer menu, I'll order a side of tomato juice or V-8 and sip it (separately, not in the beer) along with my beer. You can add a little splash of hot sauce to rev up the flavor and give your taste buds something interesting to do. I find that this satiates me enough to not be as interested in food while also getting in a bonus serving or two of veggies. As for next day hangovers, my surefire recipe for not getting one is as others have mentioned, guzzle that water, and take 2 aspirin before you go to bed. In the morning, drink 16-32 ounces of water as shortly after getting up as possible. If you're really craving grease, try a hamburger from McDonald's or ham/pineapple pizza on thin crust. I usually cook up the lowest cal grease I can find as soon as I get up - an egg white omelet with 2% cheese and center cut bacon is generally greasy enough for me to get moving and the protein gets my metabolism going and tends to stave off later-day greasefests. I also pour my drinks at home into a jigger and find that if I'm eating light during the day a tall 3 oz. vodka/Diet 7-up or 2 will get a nice little buzz going without going overboard. If you practice drinking more consciously knowing precisely how much you're consuming and what those calories add up to, over time it's a lot easier when you go out. You know how much, how long, and what it feels like to get right to the tipsy having fun level without ending up consuming to the point of massive calories and a buzz that you'll barely remember and a huge hangover. I hope this helps! I really enjoyed reading everyone else's tips....gonna try wine spritzers this weekend!

PJilly

I like to have drinks too, and I used to pretty much do what you do and hope that somehow I'd get a better result, but the truth is it didn't work. I still love my glass of wine with dinner, and I log that into my food diary, which has worked really well for me. I used to tell myself it was OK to do that during the week and then have two or three glasses on the weekend, or one glass and a drink or two or three, but the damage it was doing just wasn't worth it. Now I just stick to my one 6-ounce glass of wine with dinner (yes, I measure it — and everything else), even on weekends. I thought I'd feel like I was missing out, but the results have been so worth it, it's not difficult at all!

SHBoss1673

well, nobody's going to want to hear this, but alcohol is the number one, worst possible thing you can do to your body (with regards to food/drink). Not only because of the calories (I don't care whether you do shots or fruity drinks) but because of the toxic properties of alcohol and because alcohol actually disrupts your glucose metabolism and triggers fat storage. Not to mention all the inhibition related things that happen (late night snacks, hangover food...etc.)
And yes, drinking more than one or two every week is probably a very bad idea for weight loss. One or two drinks even 3 times a week probably won't do any (much) damage, but drinking to excess every week is brutal, not only on a diet, but on your brain, liver,and kidneys.
No judgments here, I drink sometimes (and by that I mean more than 1 or 2), but I try to keep it relegated to once a month or so, and I try to eat BEFORE I go out, and drink quite a bit of water while drinking (to reduce hangovers).
anyway, What I'm saying is, the less drinking you do, the better your health will probably get.

abr25

Eating crappy food when you feel like crap already is only going to make you feel worse. Drinking more water, and starting off a hung over morning with a healthy helping of eggwhites and some whole wheat toast, maybe a bananna to settle your stomach will do you far better than starting it off with greasy foods.

Same as when your sick or feeling yucky....crappy food will only make you feel worse. Just my 2 cents!

mavsfan2009

As a former long-time bartender and regular drinker myself - I noticed that someone mentioned drinking tonic water as a good option. Tonic water is actually really high in calories (sugar content-just like a soda). They make diet tonic but I've never found a bar that carried it. I usually have vodka with soda water and a twist at a bar. Or you can buy small bottles of diet tonic water and take a couple with you and just order the liquor of your choice in a regular glass and add your own mixer. You'll still have to pay full price for the drink but it's worth it in calorie savings to have what you like. I've never known a bar that minded if you bring your own mixer since they make their money from the alcohol. One other trick, if I'm bored with the taste of light beer and/or eyeing the appetizer menu, I'll order a side of tomato juice or V-8 and sip it (separately, not in the beer) along with my beer. You can add a little splash of hot sauce to rev up the flavor and give your taste buds something interesting to do. I find that this satiates me enough to not be as interested in food while also getting in a bonus serving or two of veggies. As for next day hangovers, my surefire recipe for not getting one is as others have mentioned, guzzle that water, and take 2 aspirin before you go to bed. In the morning, drink 16-32 ounces of water as shortly after getting up as possible. If you're really craving grease, try a hamburger from McDonald's or ham/pineapple pizza on thin crust. I usually cook up the lowest cal grease I can find as soon as I get up - an egg white omelet with 2% cheese and center cut bacon is generally greasy enough for me to get moving and the protein gets my metabolism going and tends to stave off later-day greasefests. I also pour my drinks at home into a jigger and find that if I'm eating light during the day a tall 3 oz. vodka/Diet 7-up or 2 will get a nice little buzz going without going overboard. If you practice drinking more consciously knowing precisely how much you're consuming and what those calories add up to, over time it's a lot easier when you go out. You know how much, how long, and what it feels like to get right to the tipsy having fun level without ending up consuming to the point of massive calories and a buzz that you'll barely remember and a huge hangover. I hope this helps! I really enjoyed reading everyone else's tips....gonna try wine spritzers this weekend!

You're right - it IS high in calories. I meant soda water (oops). I looked up tonic water and it said 10 calories per serving...but it was only a 1 oz. serving! My bad. They do make diet tonic water but like you said..I don't think they serve it at bars. SO as a correction to what I said earlier...SODA WATER! Thanks for bringing it to my attention

Since my last post, I've been thinking about this a lot. I'd be more worried about your overall general health than anything else. I see that you're 24, so right now it may not hurt too bad, but in a few years all of the drinking/partying will catch up to you. In college, I couldn't figure out how to make a weekend fun without overdrinking at least one of the nights, especially during football season (looking back, that was stupid), and the drinking led to staying up late, smoking, and being hung over. Now in my efforts to get back in shape I can still feel it....a year later. So just be careful and REALLY evaluate if getting crazy all the time now is worth it, because when push comes to shove...it's probably not.

kgrutch

i have not had any alcohol for 6 weeks but after the end of my 8 week boot camp challenge i am planning on having a few drinks of vodka and fresca which is becoming a very popular drink in this area. yum, cant wait.

Mindful_Trent

Most hangovers are actually caused by dehydration. If you're not willing to give up alcohol on the weekends, try drinking lots of water before, during and after alcoholic drinks. (Maybe alternate between water and the alcoholic drinks). This should help decrease the severity of the after-effects.

amicklin

It seems that while it is true that alcohol slows the body's process of burning fat its no different from what happens when you eat too much sugar or too many carbs. Whatever is more prominent the body will use. So when you are drinking, it will use the alcohol and create acetate. I wouldn't get to hyped up about how it stops or slows fat absorption. Your fat absorption would slow when your body is processing carbs because well ... it is processing the carbs at that moment not the fat.... Our ratios vary thorughout the day which is normal, depending on what is available and what it has the most of.

- Below is one of the sites I checked out for information on this.

"Your bodies' response to alcohol is very similar to the way it deals with excess carbohydrate. Although carbohydrate can be converted directly into fat, one of the main effects of overfeeding with carbohydrate is that it simply replaces fat as a source of energy. That's why any type of diet, whether it's high-fat, high-protein, or high-carbohydrate, can lead to a gain in weight.

"http://www.ironmagazineforums.com/diet-nutrition/16088-alcohol-fat-burning.html

JenniferHarron

Well if your drinking enough to have a hangover that would be a high calorie intake, it would also mean you have an alcohol problem not a fitness problem

SHBoss1673

It seems that while it is true that alcohol slows the body's process of burning fat its no different from what happens when you eat too much sugar or too many carbs. Whatever is more prominent the body will use. So when you are drinking, it will use the alcohol and create acetate. I wouldn't get to hyped up about how it stops or slows fat absorption. Your fat absorption would slow when your body is processing carbs because well ... it is processing the carbs at that moment not the fat.... Our ratios vary thorughout the day which is normal, depending on what is available and what it has the most of.

- Below is one of the sites I checked out for information on this.

"Your bodies' response to alcohol is very similar to the way it deals with excess carbohydrate. Although carbohydrate can be converted directly into fat, one of the main effects of overfeeding with carbohydrate is that it simply replaces fat as a source of energy. That's why any type of diet, whether it's high-fat, high-protein, or high-carbohydrate, can lead to a gain in weight.

"http://www.ironmagazineforums.com/diet-nutrition/16088-alcohol-fat-burning.html

Actually, that post only gave half the story,
here is the article he took it from, you'll see that, in fact, alcohol does suppress the fat metabolism.
and is really bad.


http://www.thefactsaboutfitness.com/blog/alcohol-calories

havingitall

All I know is if I have a drink, the next day my weight is up. I can exercise my brain out and stay within my calories, including the drink, and my weight goes up fro a couple of days.

sdirks

like everyone else is saying--DRINK WATER! Drink water before you go out, while you're at the bar, and before you go to bed that night. "Hangovers" are partly due to dehydration.

The most diet-friendly drink is probably champaign or a mojito, so long as it's made fresh and not from a mixer. If you're a sweet tooth like me, try the Italian sipping liquor, "Limoncello."

Part of the draw of pizza is that it's easy! Try having some precooked chicken or brown rice in the fridge and just microwave them--doesn't get much easier! You'll still have that "heavy, full" feeling you get from pizza without all the fat.

I used to be a professional dancer in a Russian ballet company, so drinking was manditory. :drinker: My breakfast was hot tea with a toasted english muffin and a poached egg (like a sandwich). You can also spread fat free ranch dressing, chutney, hummus or pesto on the muffin if you're craving salt, or throw some cheese on there.

Good luck!