Alcohol - your opinions

Hi there,

I am currently stuck in a dieting vicious circle.... Every weekend I am virtuous with logging and calorie consumption, and if I weigh on a Friday morning I can easily shift 1-2lbs without a problem. However, at the weekends I tend to be more lax with my logging, especially when it comes to alcohol and sure enough, I have usually put on 2lbs by Monday morning.

Not only is this annoying, I cant imagine its very healthy and I wanted to hear your thoughts on alcohol and how damaging it can be to a good diet? Some people I have spoken to say they don't worry about alcohol consumption and some say it's a diet killer - I just wanted to throw it out there and hear what people have to say really.

Thanks so much.

Screw opinions, lets talk about fact. Fact - alcohol has calories, if alcohol makes you go over your TDEE, you'll gain weight. It's also not the most nutritious way to go about things. But it is delicious. It's a toss up.

Thank you, and thenewbritt I completely agree with you - I find eating out hard as well but its something I enjoy. My other problem is that I much prefer wine to spirits which are typically lower calorie so that seems to affect things too.

1 dl cognac is 225 calories, while 1 dl dry white wine is 80 calories. The only reason why you might get less calories from cognac, is that you normally drink smaller amounts than of wine. But as you see, you can drink almost three times as much wine as cognac, before you get to the same amount of calories.

Love all the comments! For me, it's like what newbritt says - maybe the problem isn't so much the alcohol as the stuff I eat after the alcohol. I am PERFECT on days with no alcohol - and always go over if I drink - unless it is just one light beer or one glass of red wine. White wine is my enemy when I'm working on losing weight. Do I always remember that? Well....

I don't drink often, certainly not every weekend, but if I go to a concert or something like that, I will usually have a couple beers. Since I've been focusing on improving my fitness (I began on Jan. 4th 2013), I've discovered that some hard ciders are lower in calories and sugar than the fancy micro brews I typically drink. Woodchuck "Crisp" variety, for instance, is only 120 calories and 6 grams of sugar. I don't like domestic "Lite" beers, so they aren't for me.

Even when I drink, it will usually only be something like 2 or 3 over the course of an afternoon to evening outing. I am normally driving and I will not drink and drive, so I drink mostly water, especially for the last 2 or 3 hours of a night.

Also, most activities that I go out for involve a lot of movement...fast walking and vigorous dancing, jumping, etc... So, I generally burn off any extra calories I've taken in from a couple of ciders, during the same night out.

So far, I have always stuck to eating only healthy foods on these outings. The key for me is to keep a lot of good, nutritious munchies in my car, so there is always something handy to eat that is in keeping with my chosen healthy lifestyle. I can't stand White Castle. LOL

I still log *everything*, even if the beverages I drank put me over my goal for the day.
I think moderation is the key. I mean, moderation with alcohol is the key, even if you are not trying to lose weight and get fit, isn't it? Over drinking isn't a great choice for anybody.

I don't think alcohol is inherently evil, but it does contain calories that you need to factor in to your plan. I'm all about having a "cheat" meal on the weekends, but when you go overboard and turn it into two cheat days, your success is going to be impeded.

I don't drink much, because I like sweets more than alcohol, and would rather have a cookie than a drink. If you think about it that way, would you think it would be okay to eat 10 or 15 cookies (or more) in a weekend if you're trying to lose weight?

Moderation and planning in advance is the key here. Plan for a way to go out ONE weekend night and have 3 or 4 drinks. If you can't do it, then plan activities with friends that aren't centered around drinking.

Bump

Sounds like you weren't counting food calories as well?

I log it and make sure I don't go over in calories or sugar. If its going to send more over, I skip it.

Alcohol sucks. A glass of beer or wine on occasion is one thing, but the weekend binges are definitely one of the reasons I got so fat. Even though vodka is fairly low calorie, it did tons of damage that took me a long time to repair.

I've basically stopped drinking for this very reason. I only have the occasional gin and tonic now. Like literally I have drink about twice this year.

Things may change in the summer...