BEER

Do your taste buds a favour and drink regular beer, not light beer.
You'll most likely end up drinking less beers (hence, less calories) and getting more sauced.

When I started my lifestyle change (NOT diet) I never fully cut out alcohol.
Granted, I'm in my prime drinking years, but it never hindered my weight loss.

Everything in moderation!

I count it in my diary.
Guinness is your weight loss friend. That and booze.

Not part of your question but i will mention it. Have not done the math but first hint says to me 1500 is too few on days when you bike. Plus, working out & drinking both depletes you of several essential vitamins and minerals so be sure to take a multi-vite and a multi-mineral. Trust me, i had something happen to me a while back and have been to every dr imaginable and noone knows whats the cause of my symptoms. Part of me thinks it may some kind of adrenal fatigue or something from drinking + exercising like i was 20 again. I would drink all day Sat then run 4-5 miles to "sweat it out" and that may have bit me. Okay, off the lecture...

From experience, you really need to cut down to two days per week, preferably one for most weeks. I went from a 6 pack (of beer not abs lol) 6-7 x/wk to 3x, then 2x. I started at 220 and got down to 165 but had to do some extreme cardio and limit beer to 1 night. Extremely difficult to go less than 1 day/wk so i like to run some 5Ks on Sat. It keeps me from drinking on Fri nights. I could undo all my accomplishments in 3 days of drinking so dont get caught in the cycle I was in for a while. I still lost alot of weight but i only got so far down in the waist which boiled down to the beer + age, i am 42.

The first time I tried to lose weight all I did was count calories. I aimed for between 2000 and 2300 calories a day and I allowed myself up to 2 beers a day. Granted I was in my 20s but I had no problem losing weight.

The problem I see with what you are doing is that on the days you are drinking half of your calories come from beer. That can't be healthy. I think you should cut back a little bit on the beer and up your calories some and make sure you eat plenty of vegetables and some protein.

If I'm not going overboard with the calories, a few Amstel Lights some weeks aren't a problem. I really like Amstel Light, it's satisfying and has a clean taste. Over the holidays, I was drinking wine and sherry. Many more calories.

DO NOT JUDGE ME.... Got it???:drinker:

But, back in college - I did like to go out and have a few beers (shocker). I also did WW, so I wanted to keep my calories low, yet get the enjoyment of a buzz while drinking...

My BF then, now husband, created me a spreadsheet (such an engineer!) that we named "Beer Bang for your Buck" - meaning, a balance of calories to % alcohol, so that I could maximize my calories.

I don't know how to attach the full sheet, but here is the top performers in the Beer Bang for your Buck. The beers listed is only a select few that a website had posted back in, my guess, 2007.

The format is really bad in this forum, but the list is in order of Score from highest to lowest for the top 10% of beers.

Brand/Brewer (Country) % Alcohol Calories/12 oz % Alcohol/ Calories per 12 oz Relative Score
Utica Club Pilsener Lager Beer West End (USA) 4.82 95.85 0.0503 100%
Milwaukee's Best Light 4.5 98 0.0459 91%
Rheingold Extra Light Beer Rheingold (USA) 4.32 95.85 0.0451 90%
Anheuser Busch Natural Light 4.2 95 0.0442 88%
Miller Lite 4.2 96 0.0438 87%
Aspen Edge 4.1 94 0.0436 87%
Budweiser Select 4.3 99 0.0434 86%
Michelob Ultra 4.1 95 0.0432 86%
Nordik Wolf Light Imported Beer A.B. Pripps Bryggerier (Sweden) 4.7 110.05 0.0427 85%
Thos Cooper & Sons Naturally Brewed Real Ale Cooper & Sons (Australia) 6.77 159.75 0.0424 84%
Keystone Ice 5.9 143 0.0413 82%
Coors Light 4.2 102 0.0412 82%
Milwaukee's Best Ice 5.9 144 0.0410 81%
Keystone Premium 4.4 108 0.0407 81%
Keystone Light 4.2 104 0.0404 80%
Leinenkugel Light 4.19 105 0.0399 79%
Amstel Light Bier Amstel Brouwerij B.V. (Holland) 3.96 99.4 0.0398 79%
Stroh's Light 4.4 113 0.0389 77%
Yuengling Light 3.8 98 0.0388 77%
Harfenrefrer Private Stock Malt Llquor Narragansett (USA) 6.87 177.5 0.0387 77%

Advise from a bar owner and someone who has drank my share of beer in my day, I have alot of male friends, and when they quit drinking beer on a regular basis, meaning several a day, or get off beer all together, they loose wt. and I mean wt!!!

a lite beer has approximately 96 calories.

7-10 lite beers 1x per week = 672 - 960 calories
7-10 lite beers 2x per week = 1344 - 1920 calories
7-10 lite beers 3x per week = 2016 - 2880 calories

Theoretically there are 3500 calories in a pound.

Therefore; I could argue that if you just give up drinking beer and make no other changes to your life, you could lose up to 3.3 pounds per month. [(2880 x 4)/3500 = 3.30]

Keep that in mind when you are out drinking. It will help you slow your pace.

I also agree with the suggestion that you have a glass of water between each drink.

Good luck.

P.S. I totally am not giving up drinking either. I'm just trying to keep it to 1 day per week max.

How bad is the beer drinking?

Pretty bad. But I hate beer as it is full of empty cals, very little alcohol and makes me bloated and gassy. I prefer spirits.

If you want to drop some weight and lose the beer gut, switch to drinking spirits, either on the rocks or with low calorie/diet mixers.

Cut out the beer and you will be less bloated around the tummy in matter of days.