wine and weight lost

drnk wine and still lost weight a few years back - count it into your calories and make sure you drink water. don't drink a bottle a night though. that's never gonna be healthy.

I used to drink a glass to a bottle a night 5 x a week.
Now I dont.
I have wanted to lose weight for SO long, I realised that the calories being added from that had to go.
It wasnt until I was serious enough about losing weight that I could cut it out.
I occasionally drink it at the weekend (had plenty on sat night just gone), but I try and stick to vodka and soda if I fancy a drink now. I am totally counting calories so I dont miss it too much and on the 2 nights this month that I have had some (last week) - the calories are just totally not worth it.

There are two options:

1. I quit drinking except on some occasions. I'll have a margarita or vodka cranberry or glass of wine rarely. On those days, I fit it into my calories.

2. There is a recipe for low cal Sangria. It is about 90 calories per glass and is really good! If you'd like the recipe, feel free to message me and I can dig it out of my hard drive. Otherwise, search Sangria in the forums and there are some other tasty looking ones, though not sure how they are on calories.

I find drinking it in smaller portions helps. I try to think of the bottle as six portions - roughly 80-90 cals for red wine. Get rid of the huge glasses and use the smallest ones you can find. The smaller the glasses, the larger the glass of wine seems!

I have cut down from a much higher level to one or two glasses of wine a day which actually equates to about 180 calories. This is easy to add in to your daily allowance and makes sure you don't feel like you are missing out.

Sometimes I don't even bother and I don't miss it anymore.

Drink lots of water in between.

Hope that helps

I am struggling with the same thing at the moment. I crave a glass of wine when i get home from work and then that glass can easily turn into a bottle. I now dont drink through the week. there is no point. I have to keep reminding myself of the empty calories.

It is possible to lose weight whilst drinking but think of the other factors. The liver damage and the dehydration, the damage to your skin. Alcohol ages you, it disrupts sleep, rots teeth and it gets expensive after a while. Ok these are all the bad points but i have to keep reminding myself of them in order to cut down. The liver takes 3 days to detoxify its self so make sure you give yourself 3 or 4 days with nothing to keep your body functioning at its best.

I know I have absolutely no evidence for this but it is just personal findings.
I really feel that alcohol is more than just calories. I've had two nights of drinking this year so far.
Last year I'd drink a small amount 2-3 times a week.
Without alcohol, I do these things
Sleep better
Exercise for longer with more want,
Make better food choices
Positive mood
Less anxiety, stress.

With alcohol I do these things
Sleep longer but not better
Miss workouts and feel bad about it
Search for calories dense foods that leave me feeling sick
I worry about the smallest things
My weight fluctuates over 3-5 pounds during the days after a few drinks due to dehydration and bad food choices.

These things are commonly listed under alcohol side affects but when I weigh them up side by side I find it easier to make better choices and save the drinking days for special occasions.
This is in no way meant to be a preach or tell you what to do, but if you are considering not drinking it will make a world of difference to your goals. I know alcohol can be allotted into your calories for the day I was just trying to AY there are oth implications worth noting.
Good luck with it. I hope you get the results you're looking for
Ben
:-D

I am not anti drinking and I enjoy a glass of wine occasionally myself but you really need to alter a habit that has you drinking half a bottle or more a night. It's not just for weight reasons, although obviously that is a factor, but that level of alcohol consumption every day will eventually lead you to liver disease. I would urge anyone to check out the safe limits for alcohol consumption and stick to them because it's a disease that can creep up on you without you realising and the consequences are dire.

Without alcohol, I do these things
Sleep better
Exercise for longer with more want,
Make better food choices
Positive mood
Less anxiety, stress.

With alcohol I do these things
Sleep longer but not better
Miss workouts and feel bad about it
Search for calories dense foods that leave me feeling sick
I worry about the smallest things
My weight fluctuates over 3-5 pounds during the days after a few drinks due to dehydration and bad food choices.

THIS IS (WAS ACTUALLY!) ME.

So, so so so unbelievably true. Giving up alcohol in the week has got to have been the best thing Ive done. Not just due to the calories I am saving, but more because of the reasons above.
I have even started turning down social situations on week nights, ie a meal out, because a) I dont want to be tempted to "break" the no drinking rule and b) Im damned if Im missing my Thursday night workout classes!!!

I always struggled with limiting my alcohol intake, and would make sure I had enough calories left for a glass or two of wine. After one too many a boozy night, I realised that I really need to learn to cope without so much wine in my life. This year, I've pretty much given up the booze - since getting back from my holiday on the 6th Jan, I've had 3 drinks on 3 different nights. I can't believe the changes. I feel more alert, my skin is clearer, I'm sleeping better, I'm not struggling with my food choices, and my self control is stronger.

I suggest reducing your alcohol intake to the weekends, and see if you want to drop it completely. I also liked the suggestion of smaller wine glasses

To pick up on a previous point on this thread....alcohol is more than just calories.

Alcohol has been shown to slow down your metabolism and triggers your body to store more of the calories consumed as fat.
It affects your hormonal balance and makes you dehydrated and bloated.

This will in turn affect your sleep which just aggravates the problem with reduction in growth hormone production and increase in cortisole production.

End result: Belly fat.

Useful read on the subject of hormonal balance is Jillian Michaels Master your metabolism.

A bottle a night is most likely excessive and it sounds like you are aware of it. I also love my wine so during the week I have 1-2 white wine spritzers. Half the calories and still tastes good.

I have the same problem. Me loves a glass of wine, or half/whole bottle. Or bourbon or... you get the picture....

Before Christmas I was successfully losing 3lbs a week on average. I factored in 1 - 2 nights a week of drinking what I liked and for a time it worked. Always on the days that I drunk, I still worked out in the morning, slightly harder even than on the days that I didn't drink, just so I had a little bigger calorie margin.

Now I'm on around 3 drinking days a week and i'm not losing very much, currently 1lbs a week. Still losing yes, but not very fast.

I think as long as you factor it into your calorie allotment for the day and still workout as much as you can you'll be fine.

I read somewhere that calories from alcohol get burnt before calories from fat, so it isn't ideal, and personally I do notice the difference in weight loss when i'm not drinking.

I will be however cutting out alcohol completely for a time just to shift the last few pounds. I find I have to get rid of all the booze from home and ignore the wine aisle in the supermarket to avoid temptation and after a day or two of not drinking I don't even think about, until someone offers me a glass that is:)

If a bottle of wine is 500 cals and their are 3500 in 1 pound of fat...just by not having that bottle of wine for a week will help you shift that 1lbs....

Yeah, when I really want to crack down and lose I have to stop drinking. It takes me 3-4 days to get rid of the alcohol bloat and I tend to make poor food choices the day of and the day after drinking, and I usually miss one or two workouts lol. Then again, I was drinking more like a half a bottle bottle a week, not 3-4. So maybe you could try cutting back to just drinking on one day of the week at first?

I found recently that if I keep busy in the evening then I don't reach for the bottle nearly so easily. But sitting down with a book or the telly and out comes the vino.

And I believed too readily that red wine has benefits, one glass is good, so 3 glasses must be 3 times as good. Wrong!

But in the end it's all about moderation.

I still eat cream cakes, just rarely, I still drink wine but am conscious I need to make that more rare too.
So I'm going to keep busy.

Going to bake a cake tonight.... (Not for me though)