How bad could a glass of wine be??

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OnionGirl7
OnionGirl7 Posts: 33
in Food and Nutrition
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?
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Replies

  • Nimiko
    Nimiko Posts: 52
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    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
    lajuice7 Posts: 58 Member
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    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
    Chief_Rocka Posts: 4,710 Member
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    It's not the wine, it's the calories.
  • dmurphy1975
    dmurphy1975 Posts: 45 Member
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    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
    allnaday Posts: 54 Member
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    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
    Capt_Apollo Posts: 9,026 Member
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    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
    neverstray Posts: 3,845 Member
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    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
    doggiesnot Posts: 334 Member
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    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
    therealangd Posts: 1,861 Member
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    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
    DrMAvDPhD Posts: 2,097 Member
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    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
    Jxnsmma Posts: 919 Member
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    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
    Capt_Apollo Posts: 9,026 Member
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    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
    JustJennie1 Posts: 3,843 Member
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    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
    junejadesky Posts: 524 Member
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    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
    opus649 Posts: 633 Member
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    Red wine has tryptophenylphosphoric acid which studies have shown causes muscle to spontaneously transmogrify into fat.
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,238 Member
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    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
    perfectingpatti Posts: 1,037 Member
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    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
    opus649 Posts: 633 Member
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    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
    perfectingpatti Posts: 1,037 Member
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    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
    ahamm002 Posts: 1,690 Member
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    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.

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