Alcohol and weight loss

Well first thing without doing some research off the top of my head 500 Kcal for a bottle of wine sounds pretty low so I would check that. A glass of the red I occasionally drink is around 170 Kcal making a bottle around 850 (thats a standard bottle). So I would double check to see if that entry is correct.

The next think is it's unlikely that you need to eating as little as 1200 to lose weight most women can eat far more and still have consistent weightloss. Normally fitting the odd drink into your daily goal is OK as that's what most people do but as it takes your calories taken up by food so low and I personally think you need to be reassessing because it's just as important to get enough nutrition as it is to lose weight

First thing is reassess and see if you are able to eat more calories. You have a relatively small amount of weight to lose so should be aiming for around .5 pound a week so if you put 2 pounds as your goal mfp would automatically give you 1200 calories. Also you should be eating a portion of your exercise calories back as well because that's how mfp work so the hour of cardio you should be eating those calories back. MFP already give you a deficit to lose weight.

I'll give you a link have a look at it as it's a great guide on the best way to approach this. Good luck

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1175494-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants?hl=guide+to+sexypants&page=1#posts-18361594

As long as you hit your macros, you can use the remaining calories for anything you like. I hope your 1200 calories is net after exercise with an hour of cardio a day. If not, you're being WAY more restrictive than you need to be to lose weight and keep it off.

Try to cut back on the nights . I drink wine myself but at most I drink 3 nights a week. I know its nice to have a glass at the end of the day but it is harder to keep your calories in control when you are drinking . If your goal is 1200 ( and that is a whole other issue as it is probably too low) I wouldnt be taking calories from this to drink wine but you have to count them as well . Maybe cut out 1 snack or work out a bit.

I've heard you can use the calories (in this case 200) of alcohol and divide them by 4 to exchange the alcohol for carbs. So how I log my alcohol is if it shows 200 calories, I then log in a line of "Carbs" 50. That will reduce your carb intake for the day by the amount of cals in the alcohol. I would not exchange this with fat or protein.
You can look at my diary from yesterday as an example, just don't judge me, I had 2 get togethers to attend and a glass of wine before bed :drinker:

On an average day I am consuming around 1200 calories with my food intake and doing an hour of cardio at the gym. However there are some nights.. probably a good few nights a week I just feel like unwinding with a glass of wine.. it usually ends up being two. On these days I reduce my food intake to 1000cals to compensate.. Should I be doing this?

No. The wine is likely not a problem, but having one third of you calories from wine on a regular basis very well could be a problem.

Unless you are very tiny, at your age, you can afford the wine calories. Just eat 1200 (or more) calories of balanced nutrient dense foods and drink the wine as your exercise calories.

I have a question regarding alcohol and weight loss. On an average day I am consuming around 1200 calories with my food intake and doing an hour of cardio at the gym. However there are some nights.. probably a good few nights a week I just feel like unwinding with a glass of wine.. it usually ends up being two. On these days I reduce my food intake to 1000cals to compensate.. Should I be doing this? I always feel satisfied hunger wise by the way I wouldn't go hungry just for a drink! According to myfitnesspal a bottle of Echo falls is 500cals (I don't know how accurate this is) and I've measured there are exactly 5 of the wine glasses I use in a bottle so I usually end up having around 200cals in alcohol. My question is will this damage my weight loss in the long run? What about if I did this every night? I know it has been said that alcohol is an absolute no go for anyone dieting but I'm just wondering what effect it's actually having..

Calories in, Calories out. If you are eating 1200 and burning roughly 600 at the gym (assuming a full hour of cardio?) You are net 600 calories for the day. 2 glasses of wine is roughly 200 calories, so you would be net 800 calories.

I assume you have already calculated your TDEE to find out that you need to only take in 1200 calories? If that is the case, you are actually low for the day.

To answer your post's subject line. Alcohol doesn't affect weight loss assuming you are still in a calorie deficit. It can however affect protein synthesis if you care about that portion of things.

Yeah according to the machines at the gym I usually burn around 600 cals a workout, however I know they aren't accurate and tend to overestimate. However I've just calculated my TDEE and it's 1680 so does this mean I should be netting 1344cals and am really undereating? All of this is so confusing!

Yes, you are probably under-eating. Even 1680 doesn't sound like enough. How tall are you?

Step 1 would be to actually eat your exercise calories.

To answer your post's subject line. Alcohol doesn't affect weight loss assuming you are still in a calorie deficit. It can however affect protein synthesis if you care about that portion of things.

What do you mean by "protein synthesis"? I was wondering the same thing as OP and just assumed that as long as I was staying below my goal calories for the day, it wouldn't matter. I'm curious to know how else the alcohol could be negatively affecting my diet. Thanks!

Well first thing without doing some research off the top of my head 500 Kcal for a bottle of wine sounds pretty low so I would check that. A glass of the red I occasionally drink is around 170 Kcal making a bottle around 850 (thats a standard bottle). So I would double check to see if that entry is correct.

The next think is it's unlikely that you need to eating as little as 1200 to lose weight most women can eat far more and still have consistent weightloss. Normally fitting the odd drink into your daily goal is OK as that's what most people do but as it takes your calories taken up by food so low and I personally think you need to be reassessing because it's just as important to get enough nutrition as it is to lose weight

First thing is reassess and see if you are able to eat more calories. You have a relatively small amount of weight to lose so should be aiming for around .5 pound a week so if you put 2 pounds as your goal mfp would automatically give you 1200 calories. Also you should be eating a portion of your exercise calories back as well because that's how mfp work so the hour of cardio you should be eating those calories back. MFP already give you a deficit to lose weight.

I'll give you a link have a look at it as it's a great guide on the best way to approach this. Good luck

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1175494-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants?hl=guide+to+sexypants&page=1#posts-18361594

Solid^^^

+1

OP, I've lost weight netting 1200 calories and drinking alcohol before. Would I recommend it? No. Eat more.