Not losing because of alcohol?

Stacyanne324

I totally believe that. If I look back to the times in my life where I easily lost weight or wasn't at all overweight those were the times that I wasn't drinking (back before college and then my three pregnancies). Every time I went back to it my weight goes up. Besides the empty calories it also weakens my willpower and makes me hungry so I wind up snacking late at night. None of that is good for my diet.

I've recently done a lot of soul searching and came to the conclusion that I was drinking more than I should. I wasn't sure if I wanted to quit forever but I knew I needed to stop the path I was on if I wanted to be healthy and lose this weight. So, I read Allen Carr's The Easy Way to stop drinking and it was amazing. Totally changed my view on drinking. Since reading it about three weeks ago I've had three days where I slipped and drank. Those days I drank more than I should have an was so mad at myself both during and after. It just isn't worth it.

This week my husband and I started Insanity and are doing it at night after the kids go to bed. Nothing kills your desire for a drink like knowing you have that to look forward to in a couple hours. It has helped immensely. I may have a beer if we go out to lunch every now and then or a glass of wine wine with a fancy or special dinner but other than that I'm replacing it with something better for me: exercise.

flechero

Don't blame the alcohol... for that mattter, blaming anything specific is a dangerous thing- as you can use it as an excuse or crutch. 99.99% of the time, it's a lapse in discipline or an error in logging.

When I was at 230 lbs, 1500 cals/day wasn't enough- maybe you need to up the cals a little bit.

Back on topic- Alcohol hasn't hindered me a bit. I had a few days where I did drink more than I should have and saw no slow down in losses. In general, a few beers/drinks/glasses of wine during the week-logged and within your cal allotment, are just fine.


The better question is: are you able to drop the "several drinks a night" habit without issue?

NocturnalGirl

If you are in a calorie deficit you will lose weight. It is not the alcohol itself. Are you weighing your foods? Counting everything?

ChrissME

Don't blame the alcohol... for that mattter, blaming anything specific is a dangerous thing- as you can use it as an excuse or crutch. 99.99% of the time, it's a lapse in discipline or an error in logging.

When I was at 230 lbs, 1500 cals/day wasn't enough- maybe you need to up the cals a little bit.

Back on topic- Alcohol hasn't hindered me a bit. I had a few days where I did drink more than I should have and saw no slow down in losses. In general, a few beers/drinks/glasses of wine during the week-logged and within your cal allotment, are just fine.


The better question is: are you able to drop the "several drinks a night" habit without issue?

There have been some real eye-opening comments on my original post. As always, varying degrees of agreement, but I find everyone's willingness to help uplifting. Ok, now for the reality check. I am a 57 year old female who is 5'6" and 230 pounds. I probably DO drink more than 200 calories a day, but now I am afraid to measure to see how much I am really consuming. I only had one very watery drink last night and I couldn't sleep at all! I'm cutting way down until I can can cut it out completely.
Thanks for all of your comments. I think I'll need your support! :flowerforyou:

neverstray

I am NOT going to get in this arugment again, but I will simply say, you are right about alcohol getting in the way of fat loss. Yes. Absolutely.

Also, I have a personal theory that people that cut calories to drink alcohol are basically kind of dumb because alcohol is not nutrition. It is nutritions opposite, and don't start comparing that to cookies and ice cream. It's different. Alcohol is literally poison to your body and your body prioritizes getting rid of it over getting rid of other things. People think it's BS, but I believe it because I lived it. I can tell you that stopping drinking really got things moving. Big time.

That is not to say you have to stop drinking. I'm just saying, there is an effect. If you're drinking every night, I would say that it's definitely getting in the way.

Why not try not drinking for a couple weeks and see if it helps. I already know it will, but I'm just saying make it an experiment. Than, rather than ask people, you can tell them.

mercymarque

I would like to see ur diary to really see. You should be able to have up to three drinks a week without the scale being affected... as long as it's within ur calories limits. For u to weight 230.... 1200 calories doesn't seem like enough.. I'm 175 5'5 and I get 1340. Go into to settings and let mfp do the rest based on ur height and weight. I don't think ur eating enough. If u set it up correctly.. without exericising jus staying in ur calories without going over and not too far below u should still lose. Good luck.

damiengarber

It seems totally up to the individual. The periods of my life where I've had the best success in losing weight are those where I was limiting my alcohol intake. For me, even with exercise and proper diet, if I'm drinking along the way I have an incredibly hard time losing the weight. If alcohol seems to be the X-Factor for you then it probably is. I've heard lots of comments about how alcohol does not affect weight loss; bottom line = it might be for you. It definitely is a barrier for me.

skcardiog

Put your rear in gear and start doing some cardio 5 x a week, exercise hard, give it your all, you get out what you put into your effort. Me ? I would rather have a nice steak then the dead calories with booze. Just sayin.

ElliInJapan

I also drink a glass of wine almost every evening and it hasn't affected my weight loss. I'm careful to measure how much I drink though and not to drink more than one glass (which is about 150 calories). I'd say keep drinking, if you really want to, but make sure to measure it. On the other hand, if you don't mind not drinking, that will save you a significant amount of calories to eat more. It's up to you, really, but I agree with other people that you should count your calories carefully.

[On a side note, and because I tend to get annoyed by many people's exaggerations that "alcohol is toxic" etc, I'd like to point out that a moderate consumption of wine (moderate being the key word here) has actually health benefits.]

gonna_do_it_56

hic:drinker:

Stacyanne324

I am NOT going to get in this arugment again, but I will simply say, you are right about alcohol getting in the way of fat loss. Yes. Absolutely.

Also, I have a personal theory that people that cut calories to drink alcohol are basically kind of dumb because alcohol is not nutrition. It is nutritions opposite, and don't start comparing that to cookies and ice cream. It's different. Alcohol is literally poison to your body and your body prioritizes getting rid of it over getting rid of other things. People think it's BS, but I believe it because I lived it. I can tell you that stopping drinking really got things moving. Big time.

That is not to say you have to stop drinking. I'm just saying, there is an effect. If you're drinking every night, I would say that it's definitely getting in the way.

Why not try not drinking for a couple weeks and see if it helps. I already know it will, but I'm just saying make it an experiment. Than, rather than ask people, you can tell them.

This. I was definitely one of those people for the longest time. When I lost the 18 pounds I lost last year on here I was logging, exercising, and drinking. I would eat very little so I could fit the drinks. No healthy at all. Sure it fit but dieting all day so I could have 500 calories of booze at night wasn't my brightest idea.

jesz124

Don't blame the alcohol... for that mattter, blaming anything specific is a dangerous thing- as you can use it as an excuse or crutch. 99.99% of the time, it's a lapse in discipline or an error in logging.

When I was at 230 lbs, 1500 cals/day wasn't enough- maybe you need to up the cals a little bit.

Back on topic- Alcohol hasn't hindered me a bit. I had a few days where I did drink more than I should have and saw no slow down in losses. In general, a few beers/drinks/glasses of wine during the week-logged and within your cal allotment, are just fine.


The better question is: are you able to drop the "several drinks a night" habit without issue?

There have been some real eye-opening comments on my original post. As always, varying degrees of agreement, but I find everyone's willingness to help uplifting. Ok, now for the reality check. I am a 57 year old female who is 5'6" and 230 pounds. I probably DO drink more than 200 calories a day, but now I am afraid to measure to see how much I am really consuming. I only had one very watery drink last night and I couldn't sleep at all! I'm cutting way down until I can can cut it out completely.
Thanks for all of your comments. I think I'll need your support! :flowerforyou:

I feel your pain, I went from drinking about half-3/4 bottle of wine every night to just a glass on a weekend night when I joined MFP. I won't lie and say it was easy and I didn't want to drink because I did, but the good points outweighed the feeling of having a drink. Pretty much everything improved, sleep, energy, diet, weight loss. Alcohol is a poison, too much will do you no good, and it will effect your losses.

krickeyuu

I am not dieting.

zoukeira

Just a side note - don't forget that the WHO regards anymore than 28 standard drinks (a standard drink of scotch is about 1oz normally) in a week to be excessive for women, here in NZ our alcohol safety boards suggest women drinking more than 21 standard drinks a week are damaging their bodies - permanently.

Not saying that you're drinking excessively, I can't see your diary, and I'm guessing because you said you only drank 200cal worth a day that you're probably only drinking 2oz a day. I just got on my high horse because my ex's not-quite-technically-excessive alcohol drinking really screwed his body up and now he's living with the consequences - he certainly wishes he'd known.