I drink so many calories!

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13

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  • kellygirl5538
    kellygirl5538 Posts: 597 Member
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    I am not a drinker but i can't see how you can loose weight with drinking too many caories...just go cold turkey and eat somethng healthy instead.
  • almcneal
    almcneal Posts: 200 Member
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    If you are not already doing so, make sure to log your drinks as well as your food. I modified my profile so my food tracking log has a line item for drinks, and that has helped. It is unfortunate, but a lot of drinks we need (milk, juice, etc), as well as ones we want (coffee, alcohol, etc) are high in calories. I know if has helped me stay under my calories to see/track the beverage calories also. It could also help deter you from making some of the drink choices that you are making these days, when you see just how bad they truly are. Good luck.
  • danne32339
    danne32339 Posts: 155 Member
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    Take it one day at a time. This week, try to have one day where you don't drink alcohol or Starbucks. next week, make it 2 days. And so on.

    This is great advice!

    You also might try eating before you drink anything and that way you will feel a little more full.
    Good luck. Feel free to add me to your friend list,
    Doni
  • slowturtle1
    slowturtle1 Posts: 284 Member
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    You can drink your calories and lose weight too. Believe me, every weekend I enjoy my beers and shots of jagermeister. I often get asked how I lose weight when I still drink. It can be done.

    As for coffee-stay away from the lattes and all that other fu fu stuff. Coffee with milk or half and half (which I drink). I don't use any sweetener but if you do, go out and buy some stevia packets.

    Fruit juices- Try to eliminate altogether. Just added wasted sugar that jacks up your insulin levels. Try to avoid and drink water or water with lemon juice. If you must have the juice, then water it down. Half juice half water.

    Alcohol- Vodka is good choice for hard liquor. You can try vodka water or vodka and club soda. I don't know if you like beer but I drink Becks Light- Only 64 calories which leaves room for Jagermeister :)

    Avoid the snacking. Eat dinner either before you drink or while you are drinking. Protein works best. I you are having a high carb meal while drinking, you will not feel satisfied and would be inclined to snack later.

    I also estimate what my dinner and drinks will be so I know how many drinks I am allowed without going over my calorie count.
    Days I drink I often try to have a good workout to burn extra calories.
    Also, drink water in between drinks to keep you full, hydrated to reduce or avoid the hangover and to help keep you from snacking.

    The beauty of this site is to encourage you to change your lifestyle...not dramatically but to make wiser more informed decisions. You don't have to give up things you enjoy, but you have to just be conscious of their effects on your overall health. Checking your daily and weekly consumption, especially heading towards the weekend is very helpful in knowing how hard you can "have fun".

    Just my two cents, hope this helps.

    Well stated and good advice! This is how I manage my drinking calories as well (except I haven't had Beck's Light and I don't do Jager anymore). Gin and soda or Vodka soda with lime=yum! You can do it! Just take baby steps!
  • davebellini
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    I'm new to this. Been at it for 5 months hard. I stopped all alcohol, switched to de-caf coffee and use Splenda instead of sugar. So far I've lost 59lbs. I also drink between 4 - 8 liters of H20 each day. Oh yeah, I know it's a lot of water and yes, you will visit rest rooms often. But......it's working for me. Suggest you try a month of guzzling water eliminating sugar and cutting back on salt.
  • sliceofsarah
    sliceofsarah Posts: 141 Member
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    Here are my tips for how I've switched to consume no calories via drinks on a typical day:

    Buy a water bottle that works for you. Seriously, for me the kind of water bottle makes all the difference to me for consuming more water. The 2 water bottle features that are most crucial for my style are A) a straw (I think research has been done that people will consume more liquid when they can drink it through a straw), B) it takes very little effort to drink from (meaning no cap to unscrew or any other little troubles that could convince me the sip isn't worth the trouble). I also like it when my water bottle is leak proof so I can throw it in my bag and take it everywhere. Therefore, I am 100% in love with Camelbak water bottles. May not be the right one for you, but seriously think of investing in a great bottle if you haven't already.

    Cut out any kind of drinks you think are holding you back and that you have trouble doing in moderation. For me this was Diet Coke. I was straight up addicted. I didn't think it at the time, but I was. So I went cold turkey for a while until the addiction/bad cravings went away. Now I only get it very infrequently when I am out and it doesn't taste nearly as good as it did before.

    Learn to love black coffee. Or if you can't go that far, try drip coffee with unsweetened almond milk (or coconut milk, etc). You can cut out a lot of calories if you switch from lattes to drip and you will save money - especially if you make it at home and pack it in a thermos! You can even buy really good organic/fair trade coffee for less than your lattes (that's assuming you drink lattes every day, if it's less infrequent fancy coffee may not seem cheaper, but will get you a lot more drinks for the money).

    My favorite things to drink are black coffee, seltzer water (lemon-lime, yum!), unsweetened tazo passion iced tea (I make it at home), and plain ol' water. And none of those have any calories! I highly recommend trying these things. They probably won't taste as delicious as sugary beverages at first, but I really love drinking them all now and they taste great to me without any guilt.
  • emtron500
    emtron500 Posts: 102 Member
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    I'm a compulsive drinker. I need to be drinking something literally at all times. Here's what I usually stick to:

    Every day caffeine fix: Black coffee, black espresso, black tea, green tea
    Occasional caffeine fix: 5-6 oz cappuccino, small Starbucks Refresher drink

    Every day cold/refreshing drink: water, sparkling water, sparkling water with lemon or lime juice
    Occasional cold/refreshing drink: Diet cola, Vitamin Water Zero

    Every day post-workout: water, Powerade Zero
    Occasional post-workout: Coconut water

    Every day alcohol (well, not literally every day): Red wine, absinthe with water
    Occasional alcohol: Beer, white wine, gin and sugar-free tonic, rum and diet coke

    I only have alcohol at night if I have calories left over and I'm not hungry. And I always alternate alcoholic drinks with water.
  • Robin_Bin
    Robin_Bin Posts: 1,046 Member
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    There are many alternatives to plain water. I've collected a bunch of them along with different ways to drink water at http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Robin_Bin/view/water-265761
    One other reason for headaches is caffeine withdrawal. It doesn't take long for your body to adjust, but "cold-turkey" may not be the best way to go. Maybe one less caffeinated drink per day until you're where you want to be? And for whichever caffeinated drinks you still have, pick the healthier versions?
    Good luck!
  • Heather23NZ
    Heather23NZ Posts: 19 Member
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    Its really hard to break habits isn't it? I used to drink about 4 coffees a day with 2 large sugars. I now have 1 morning coffee and am currently trying to cut down to one sugar. I have to consiously drink water because I never feel like a glass of water. I would advise not cutting your coffee or alchohol out altogether but modifying the amount you drink. Maybe try alternating days, so one day you are allowed 1 coffee and 1 alcoholic drink and the next day don't have either.
  • mistyladidah
    mistyladidah Posts: 210 Member
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    Here's what I did... I'm not into cold turkey stuff... just making better choices every day I can.

    For water: I have a big jar that holds 32 oz. I keep it full on my counter and drink from it every time I think of it. Some days I fill it 3 times! Find your preferred temperature... I like mine room temp.

    For juice, I get 100% juice, no added sugars, and make a spritzer with seltzer water, and add 5-6 ice cubes. My fridge makes cube that are approx. 1 oz, so there's more water, kind of! The other bubble adders have sugar and calories, check the label! Or I eat a juicy piece of fruit while drinking my water.

    For coffee, switch to tea. I use Good Earth vanilla chai, with a splash of milk and a bit of honey, it's lightly spicy, and the milk sets me up for food really nicely. Or brew your own coffee, and don't add a ton of stuff.

    For booze, first I switched from booze and soda to booze and spritzer. Then I switched to wine, and when I was down to a glass or two a night, I stopped. That took me well over a month this last time. The booze definitely makes me more hungry for worse stuff too.

    It's been 2 weeks since I stopped and I'm down about 3 pounds, probably mostly extra water. I'm in a group on here called "You booze, you snooze" that has been awesome when it comes to finding others trying to lower their liquid calories, you might like it. Hope that helps!
  • WaterBunnie
    WaterBunnie Posts: 1,370 Member
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    Filter coffee with a little milk drastically cuts down the calories if you want coffee. I switched to decaf a few years ago after realising it was exacerbating the anxiety attacks I was suffering at the time. Completely cutting out caffeine from a very high consumption would leave you feeling very rough though. Cut down or replace every other cup with decaf would be my advice but you do need to cut out the latte and sugar to give yourself more to eat.
  • amrita0286
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    Like everyone else has said, start off with small changes so you don't quit at this!
    I would say, for every starbucks or alcohol or diet coke that you don't drink replace it with a glass of water.

    I had problems giving up my french vanilla at one of my fav coffee places but I did it, I started off with reducing the size IF I was going to get it. I usually had mediums, but then I switched to small and then to extra small. Now I might have it every 2 weeks and I don't feel deprived. I'm drinking more water. So try to change your habits slowly so you stick to them.
    But alcohol maybe save it for the weekends like everyone else has said, it's just empty calories with no nutritional value. You could eat something rather than drink all of it away. :)
  • SandyAnnP
    SandyAnnP Posts: 251 Member
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    There is some real good advice on here. :)
    I challenged myself to do " dry JULY" here where I had no alcohol for a month ( I usually have some wine most nights) and I lost quite a bit of weight. Since then I have been having wine, still keeping under my allotted calories, doing my exercise daily and my weight has NOT budged. I obviously need to cut down/ or cut out the alcohol or just have it on weekends. I have found that alcohol makes me feel bloated and retain fluid. Drinking water is a habit that you really need to get into. I drink coffee at home with just some skim milk added, used to have 2 teaspoons of sugar but gradually cut that out years ago and can't stand sweetener in coffee now. Fruit juices are loaded with sugar, better to have a cut up orange or piece of fruit. I sometimes drink Diet Pepsi and diet ginger beer is good too.
    As someone said, maybe allow yourself one drink after dinner when you are feeling full from your meal, and then maybe you will be happy to have just one drink as a treat, and log it in your diary.
    If you have a BIG drink of water first, you will find you will probably drink your vodka drink more slowly too. Good Luck, it is hard but you know you CAN do it.
    This is a lifestyle change, not a diet- Life and treats, are there to be enjoyed but you just have to limit what you have on a day to day basis, knowing that you can still have them just not so often.
  • onyxgirl17
    onyxgirl17 Posts: 1,721 Member
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    At one point I'm sure I drank at least half my calories between starbucks, monster, coffee, etc. You gotta make changes one step at a time.

    I got rid of one drink at a time and replaced it with water (and headache medicine).

    With monster, I had to go cold turkey, I haven't touched one since June 2011.

    Now I drink about 200 out of my 1200-1400 calorie allowance. I probably used to drink an average of 800 calories on a 2000 calorie allowance.
  • PaleoRDH
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    yes that can be very hard............ my last year of college I'd hit Starbucks 3 to 4 times a day, I didn't eat any food, or very little, and I still gained 20 pounds that year. Very fattening! I'd get the "non-fat" (ya right) iced white chocolate mochas. And now they make the trenta! I have to stay away from them now or I'd be big as a house. Now, like you, my issue is booze. Even though I drink only a few times a month, 3 strawberry martinis will put me over 1,000 calories all by themselves. Sigh. Why couldn't I be naturally thin, some lucky b*stards out there never have to worry about this stuff. (Smile!)
  • fairestthings
    fairestthings Posts: 335 Member
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    I think you already know what you need to do. You need to cut it out. Whether you substitute it with a lower calorie option or remove it all together, you need to get rid of the c*ap. Time to buckle down. You can do it one step at a time, one day at a time. And for god's sake drink water. Over time you get used to it. Just drink it. Eventually you won't loathe it.
    I agree with this poster^ right to the point. If these drinks mean more to you than your weight loss or fitness goals. You may not be ready to start the journey. But the disire is there, so maybe someday down the line when you are willing to get serious you can make great progress :)

    All of this! ^

    I was this way with smoking for many months before i finally WANTED to quit, so I did. Cold turkey.
  • SassyCalyGirl
    SassyCalyGirl Posts: 1,932 Member
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    MODERATION!!

    you can't cut EVERYTHING you like out or it will never be sustainable.
  • 0somuchbetter0
    0somuchbetter0 Posts: 1,335 Member
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    I'm afraid I don't have any advice...I just want to say that I'm SO glad I never learned to like sodas, sweet coffee beverages, etc. I drink coffee black and bitter, water, and about once a month, wine. That's it. I used to drink wine a lot more often but ever since I started on my weight loss, I decided that getting fit was more important than drinking wine. I have small kids and sodas are absolutely FORBIDDEN in our house, as well as Gatorade and all this other sweet crappy drinks. They have one 100% juice box per day on their lunches, and otherwise they drink milk and water. I know that when they get older they'll drink whatever they want, but I'm hoping that now that I have control over what they drink, they'll never develop pointless soda or Starbucks habits.
  • Erihppas
    Erihppas Posts: 121 Member
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    You don't have to completely limit yourself. Try going for one bad drink a day... then 3 times a week only. Make sure you add into you MFP calorie count so you can stay on top of your daily limit. I like coffee, but can get away with not adding too much to it but some non-dairy creamer and some splenda.
  • gel91
    gel91 Posts: 309
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    Thanks for all the replys! Thats brilliant stuff. God, I love this site some times!

    It's Monday morning, and I've had one cup of white tea with sweetener & one glass of water! (it's a start!)

    I'm gonna try skip the starbucks today and hold off those vodkas & diet cokes untill after my dinner tonight!

    If I feel crappy at work, I'll try for a sugar free red bull, and if I find myself at starbucks, tea it is.

    I'm totally gonna do this. I have too. I'm so close to breaking the 11stone mark, i've been hovering for ages at 12st 1, this is why I think!