How bad could a glass of wine be??

OnionGirl7

I've wiped my slate clean as seeing my past weight history on here was bringing me down. I was doing really well, lost 11lbs over a couple of weeks, then suddenly 5lbs on overnight, couple of days later another 2lb on, it was depressing and made me want to give up. MFP members advised and I checked everything over, even resorted to changing the battery in my scales. I still weighed the same so it wasn't that. I was weighing around 95% of my food, I was exercising daily and I was getting very disheartened.

Sunday in a fit of whatever, I wiped the slate clean and put everything back to zero, weighed myself this morning despite me telling myself not to as it wasn't my weigh in day and hey presto a loss of a stunning 3lbs (i've not recorded it!). I've told myself off as the max I want to loose a day is 1/4lb (not that i'm suppose to weigh myself daily but...). And I've found my problem.. I was "treating" myself to a glass of wine in the evening a sort off well done for doing well today (I was counting those calories) and I haven't done that in a few days.. So I've concluded that there must be something in wine that make's my body hold onto anything and everything. It's the only thing that I've done differently. I don't consider myself a heavy drinker but It was obviously affecting me more than I guessed.

Does this happen to anyone else?

Nimiko

I thought my glass of wine was the culprit of my weight gain but wasn't willing to give up my main pleasure! :drinker: I ended up cutting back on the amount of salt I consume....and slowly noticed the scale going down. Everyone's body is different though. Maybe try cutting back to a glass every couple of days.....but definitely take a second look at the salt content of your foods.

lajuice7

Likewise, I'm not willing to forego my only vice.

I fit it into my calories if I have a drink or swim more if I want more to drink! lol

Chief_Rocka

It's not the wine, it's the calories.

dmurphy1975

I have noticed the same thing after having a couple glasses of wine on weekends. Make sure to drink more water when you are consuming wine and you should still see progress.

allnaday

i love my glass of wine too but i can tell when i haven't had it for a couple of days. i still enjoy it often.:drinker:

Capt_Apollo

i need to cut back on my alcohol, but a glass of red wine a night can be beneficial. it provides your body with antioxidents and helps increase your good cholesterol, improve your digestive tract.

i wish i had a picture of my 85 year old grandfather. he is from Spain, lives there, and has a glass or two of red wine a day, along with a nap every afternoon. he is the picture of perfect health, and looks younger than his oldest child, my father, who is 60.

neverstray

When you drink alcohol, your body processes the alcohol before anything else because it's poison, and your body sees it as a danger and wants to get rid of it as quickly as possible. Processing food comes second. Therefore, while processing the alcohol, your body stores everything else as fat until the alcohol is processed. In general, that's how it works. I don't know what one glass does or what "one glass" means, but that's the general idea. So, yes, it can make a huge difference.

doggiesnot

I've noticed that I get dehydrated when I drink wine, so I drink a glass of water in between each glass! And I try to limit myself to two (ok, maybe three) but only once or twice a week.

therealangd

Unless you are drinking 17000 calories of wine a night, then your 5lb gain over night did not come from the wine.

It's water weight fluctuations. Your weight can fluctuate daily based on many variables. Salt. Stress. Lack of Sleep. Bowel movements. Amount of carbs in your diet. Time of the month. And in your case it looks like that amount is up to 5lbs.

This is why it is suggested you weigh weekly instead of daily. Because people tend to get demotivated and do drastic things when they do not know all the "rules"

DrMAvDPhD

3-5 pound fluctuations are normal if weighing everyday, wine or not. IMO, wine is about the best "alcohol" you can have calorie wise, especially red wine because of antioxidants, so it isn't the end of the world to have a few glasses a week. However, what you should be concerned with, is using alcohol (or food for that matter) as a reward system. That is not a good way to maintain weight loss.

Jxnsmma

I am very alcohol sensitive and bloat with even one glass of wine. I dont need it bad enough to put up with its effects...

Capt_Apollo

When you drink alcohol, your body processes the alcohol before anything else because it's poison, and your body sees it as a danger and wants to get rid of it as quickly as possible. Processing food comes second. Therefore, while processing the alcohol, your body stores everything else as fat until the alcohol is processed. In general, that's how it works. I don't know what one glass does or what "one glass" means, but that's the general idea. So, yes, it can make a huge difference.

there is absolutely nothing true about this statement. your body doesn't switch gears like that, and digestion takes an long time.

alcohol is absorbed directly from the stomach, and requires no digestion at all.

JustJennie1

Wine is totally the reason for my weight gain. I fell into the "lets have a bottle" trap which turned into "Wow. That went down fast. Lets have another!" in the summer time when my husband and I were sitting out on the back patio talking and relaxing. I've (for the most part) cut wine/alcohol out of my diet and I don't wake up feeling crappy and bloated and the scale isn't as mean as it used to be LOL.

Now, however, when I do decide that I want to have a drink I make sure that I compensate with my work outs so I can afford those empty calories because believe me those numbers add up!

junejadesky

Reading your post my first thought was sodium. If you are fluctuating that much then sodium is prob the culprit. Keep that down and you will have some big realizations about how much it can affect your body. AND wine is very low in sodium...

On the other hand, your liver is going to burn off the alcohol before it processes anything else and that holds true for fat burning. You are going to burn off the booze before any fat.... but one glas wouldn't be that bad!

opus649

Red wine has tryptophenylphosphoric acid which studies have shown causes muscle to spontaneously transmogrify into fat.

rileysowner

I've wiped my slate clean as seeing my past weight history on here was bringing me down. I was doing really well, lost 11lbs over a couple of weeks, then suddenly 5lbs on overnight, couple of days later another 2lb on, it was depressing and made me want to give up. MFP members advised and I checked everything over, even resorted to changing the battery in my scales. I still weighed the same so it wasn't that. I was weighing around 95% of my food, I was exercising daily and I was getting very disheartened.

Sunday in a fit of whatever, I wiped the slate clean and put everything back to zero, weighed myself this morning despite me telling myself not to as it wasn't my weigh in day and hey presto a loss of a stunning 3lbs (i've not recorded it!). I've told myself off as the max I want to loose a day is 1/4lb (not that i'm suppose to weigh myself daily but...). And I've found my problem.. I was "treating" myself to a glass of wine in the evening a sort off well done for doing well today (I was counting those calories) and I haven't done that in a few days.. So I've concluded that there must be something in wine that make's my body hold onto anything and everything. It's the only thing that I've done differently. I don't consider myself a heavy drinker but It was obviously affecting me more than I guessed.

Does this happen to anyone else?

Not having followed your whole ordeal, unless you were eating a huge amount of food, the weight gain was very likely water weight. This, by the way is why daily weighting is not helpful for many people. For that matter, for some going to weighing once a month and taking measurements with a measuring tape every one or two weeks is much better from a sanity point of view since water weight can come on because of one meal, but take much longer to come off.

Having said that, it is possible something in the wine is causing you to retain water. I don't know how much water you drink in a day, but usually the way to help your body get rid of retained water is to drink more water. You also need to realize that if you have just started working out, or have changed your workout or its intensity your body will also retain water for sometimes up to 3 weeks. This is to help protect and repair your muscles which you have stressed with your workout. So it could be this weight loss, probably also water, was purely coincidental.

perfectingpatti

When you drink alcohol, your body processes the alcohol before anything else because it's poison, and your body sees it as a danger and wants to get rid of it as quickly as possible.

What the??? I'm poisoning myself nightly! Danger, danger!

opus649

When you drink alcohol, your body processes the alcohol before anything else because it's poison, and your body sees it as a danger and wants to get rid of it as quickly as possible.

What the??? I'm poisoning myself nightly! Danger, danger!

This is actually how I put weight on in the first place. I was drinking 2 gallons of isopropyl alcohol daily. Since cutting that back to 1 cup, the fat has just melted off.

perfectingpatti

This is actually how I put weight on in the first place. I was drinking 2 gallons of isopropyl alcohol daily. Since cutting that back to 1 cup, the fat has just melted off.

Good thinking. I'll cut back to one glass a night.

ahamm002

I've wiped my slate clean as seeing my past weight history on here was bringing me down. I was doing really well, lost 11lbs over a couple of weeks, then suddenly 5lbs on overnight, couple of days later another 2lb on, it was depressing and made me want to give up. MFP members advised and I checked everything over, even resorted to changing the battery in my scales. I still weighed the same so it wasn't that. I was weighing around 95% of my food, I was exercising daily and I was getting very disheartened.

Sunday in a fit of whatever, I wiped the slate clean and put everything back to zero, weighed myself this morning despite me telling myself not to as it wasn't my weigh in day and hey presto a loss of a stunning 3lbs (i've not recorded it!). I've told myself off as the max I want to loose a day is 1/4lb (not that i'm suppose to weigh myself daily but...). And I've found my problem.. I was "treating" myself to a glass of wine in the evening a sort off well done for doing well today (I was counting those calories) and I haven't done that in a few days.. So I've concluded that there must be something in wine that make's my body hold onto anything and everything. It's the only thing that I've done differently. I don't consider myself a heavy drinker but It was obviously affecting me more than I guessed.

Does this happen to anyone else?

It sounds like you're getting very obsessed with fluctuations in your water weight. Nobody actually loses 11 pounds of fat in two weeks, nor does anyone gain 5 pounds of fat in 1 night.

fxdl2k2

Wine dehydrates me, causing water retention. When I drink wine, I drink water in a 2-to-1 ratio. Helps quite a bit for me.

lrichardson2360

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It sounds like you're getting very obsessed with fluctuations in your water weight. Nobody actually loses 11 pounds of fat in two weeks, nor does anyone gain 5 pounds of fat in 1 night.
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THIS!!!!

asitis

I am an outright LUSH when it comes to wine! I gave up chocolate, I gave up potato chips, I gave up nearly every food that was a comfort to me. I could not, will not give up the wine! Dark red wine.
Don't get me wrong, I treat myself occasionally to a greasy burger, or a slice of cheese pizza, and don't feel the least bit guilty about it.
My calories per day fluctuates between 1200 -2000, the other day, I overate, and my calorie count was over 3000! The next day, I got back on the MFP wagon, and mostly stick to what is working for me.
To be honest, I drink more than the occasional glass of winre per day. I find on the days that I don't drink wine, my weight stagnates for a day or two.
I guess what I'm trying to tell you is, IMO, I don't think the wine is what is holding you back. Maybe try varying your calories every day.
I also take raspberry ketones every day, and barely exercise. My weight loss is slow and steady.
Stick to your plan, whatever works for you, Don't give up!
Good luck to you,
Viva la wine!

felblossom

Don't let the numbers discourage you! This is the first time in years that I have a scale at home, so I've been "playing around" with it and it's interesting to see that my weight can fluctuate a LOT just over the course of a day. I try to weigh myself at the same time every day, and it still goes up one day, down the next, perhaps the same the day after that and then it goes on and on like a rollercoaster. That being said, the numbers keep getting lower, and the ups are further and further away from my starting weight.

I find that the trouble with alcohol is that it contains more calories than perhaps you think. A glass will easily fit into the daily amount of calories, even if the body will focus on burning it off and put food in second place. If you log it and it fits, however, I don't see how a glass now and again will do much harm in the long run, same as any other treat. Just keep it in moderation

sjohnny

i love my glass of wine too but i can tell when i haven't had it for a couple of days. i still enjoy it often.:drinker:

I can tell when I haven't had it too. I get the shakes real bad and start getting all stabby and mean.

meg7399

One particular item wine or otherwise cannot cause more weight gain or not. Calories are calories and as long as you are eating less then your body expells it is going to cause weight loss. How fast or slow is completely up to the person and yes everyone fluctuates on the daily!

weloveourboys

Exact same revelation here. I LOVE my wine. I mean, LOVE. I always believed in the calories in calories out theory, and I still do, but when it comes to alcohol, I do wonder. Even though I still make sure I eat within my intake limits, on the weeks I drink a glass a day, I definitely gain weight, vs. the weeks I don't (I've experimented). For example, I've gained 2 pounds in the last two weeks, despite increasing my exercise duration and intensity. The only change that I've made other than exercise is to add the 1-2 glasses of wine a night in the last two weeks. The weeks I don't drink, my weight goes down. So starting yesterday, I've decided to forego that nightly pleasure. I'm tellling you, for me, that is a tough one. I am not an alcoholic by any means, but I really enjoy that glass of wine in the evenings after I come home from work.

ETA: I still will enjoy it, but will limit it to 1-2 days a week. What I also wanted to disclose is that I am in serious training for a race so alcohol is best avoided anyhow. I wouldn't give it up if it wasn't for the fact that alcohol does hinder my athletic performance. So for me it's not just about my weight, though weight loss is always welcome (I'm a long distance runner - weight loss is always welcome as it increases my speed even if everything else remains constant).

tyrantduck

i love my vices as well, and if i know i want them, i'll put them into my food log ahead of time then make absolutely sure so exercise off that amount plus another couple hundred calories and to up my water intake. works for me and i love both wine and salty food!

magj0y

water weight can cause fluctuations like this.
The more water you drink, the less water weight you will have. The more dehydrated you are, the more you will retain.
sodium will also cause dehydration and water retention.

Alcohol dehydrates you. Drink extra water.

nturner612

oh how i love my drink at the end of a busy hectinc day. on average i think a glass of wine is on average 130 calories give or take. 2 shots of vodka has 128 with a splash of diet cranberry juice bringing my total to 133. i find that i cannot have just one glass of wine, but my vodka drink hits the spot. i almost killed my diet this weekedn when i bought a 4pack of thsoe little wine bottles....looked em up and i said oh heck no! only had 1