Not losing because of alcohol?

A couple of Scotch and Waters shouldn't make that much of a difference unless you're getting $#!Tfaced every night. It certainly wouldn't hurt to cut that back anyways, but you need to exercise to lose weight along with a diet. And if you are 230lbs you need more than 1400 cal/day. Not sure about your age or height, but if you did at least 20 minutes of exercise 3x/week you could easily eat between 1800-2000 cal/day and still lose weight.

Easy way to find out. Stop drinking for a few weeks and keep an eye on the scales. That should sort it out...

^^This is the best answer to almost all questions on the forum. (not the "stop drinking...." part, the change one thing and give it a couple of weeks part.)

Sorry for the double post.

My self I have cut it down to only Saturdays where I consume many Coors Lights, sometimes up around 20 beers...its something I love, and dont care if anyone judges me about it. I have lost a total of 85 lbs now, 13 since joining here. I exercise and eat what I want, just calorie count. So it is possible, im sure it dont help, but it can be done. good luck!

How much exercise are you doing? You say you're not doing much but if you're doing strength training it's possible that you not losing scale weight because muscle weighs more than fat.

Also, have you considered drinking less? Just sayin

Exactly. Also, there's nothing wrong with drinking every night IIFYM.

How much exercise are you doing? You say you're not doing much but if you're doing strength training it's possible that you not losing scale weight because muscle weighs more than fat.

Also, have you considered drinking less? Just sayin

I nearly responded to that post in a less than polite way until I realised who the poster was. Lol. Even when trolling you still get people backing you up. Priceless lol.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.]