So I lost 1 pound this week even after drinking last weekend

Phill2488
Phill2488 Posts: 97 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Last Friday and Saturday night I went out and drank quote a bit of beer (Coors light) and then on Monday-Friday I went to the gym by doing cardio and weightlifting, and this week it says I lost 1 pound.

Is this a good thing or Is it just a fluctuation of my weight? I figure that after 2 nights of heavy drinking last week and then being able to lose 1 pound the week after is good

Replies

  • BigT555
    BigT555 Posts: 2,067 Member
    1 lb could be water weight, but alcohol doesnt stop weight loss unless it causes you to go over your calorie limit. i've drank nearly every weekend since starting to lose weight, hasnt impeded my progress until recently (nd thats just because i've been going overboard)
  • Phill2488
    Phill2488 Posts: 97 Member
    Interesting. Might do it again this weekend to see what happens
  • OllyJ_79
    OllyJ_79 Posts: 126 Member
    Don't believe the hype you might see about alcohol stopping fat loss etc. Its true that the liver does process alcohol in preference, but a 500ml beer of 4% only contains 20g of alcohol roughly, so it is not going to take long to process. As long as it fits into your calorie limit its no different to any other energy source from a weight loss perspective.
  • Phill2488
    Phill2488 Posts: 97 Member
    Don't believe the hype you might see about alcohol stopping fat loss etc. Its true that the liver does process alcohol in preference, but a 500ml beer of 4% only contains 20g of alcohol roughly, so it is not going to take long to process. As long as it fits into your calorie limit its no different to any other energy source from a weight loss perspective.

    But I was drinking quite a bit last friday and saturday night. I thought for a fact that I went way over my calorie limit those 2 nights. Maybe I didn't take in as many calories as I thought, or going to the gym the following monday-friday made up for it
  • OllyJ_79
    OllyJ_79 Posts: 126 Member
    You might have gone over those two days, a beer usually has anywhere from 180 - 220 per drink depending on strength and size..but when you look over your weekly average, you're deficit is probably still intact. Day to day isn't too important.
  • dedflwrs
    dedflwrs Posts: 251 Member
    I don't know... I work at the county fair every year and this year it was from last Wednesday to Sunday. While I did spend about 40 hours for the five days on my feet I didn't do anything else because I was exhausted and all I ate was fried dough, cotton candy, grilled cheese sandwiches at the fair in addition to some other horrific stuff when I got home because I was too tired to care. Two different days I had one margarita each. I would go to sleep early and wake up late. At the end of the fair I got on the scale with some trepidation and... I had lost .2 lbs. Which doesn't sound like much but I'm a pretty slim girl.

    So I've decided to stop trying to figure out what's what. Did go back to healthy eating and exercising because I was feeling like crap.
  • Phill2488
    Phill2488 Posts: 97 Member
    Well on Mon-Thurs and Sunday I only eat about 1200 calories.
  • skinnyinnotime
    skinnyinnotime Posts: 4,078 Member
    I find that alcohol calories just don't have the same impact on me as food calories...as stupid as this sounds, for me it is true. If I ate the same amount of cals that I drink I put on weight.
  • Phill2488
    Phill2488 Posts: 97 Member
    If this means I can still lose weight without giving up my friday and saturday nights out I'll be very happy. I know that if I quite the booze I'll probably lose weight faster, but I'd rather lose weight slowly and still enjoy myself
  • BigT555
    BigT555 Posts: 2,067 Member
    with a 1200 weekday intake, your deficit is big enough to cover the drinking you do on the weekends. i would up the weekday calories and switch to a lower cal drink (hard liquor and low cal mix) though otherwise you wont be getting adequate nutrients. a 25 year old male generally shouldnt eat less than 2000/day on a regular basis unless youre a really small guy
  • Phill2488
    Phill2488 Posts: 97 Member
    with a 1200 weekday intake, your deficit is big enough to cover the drinking you do on the weekends. i would up the weekday calories and switch to a lower cal drink (hard liquor and low cal mix) though otherwise you wont be getting adequate nutrients. a 25 year old male generally shouldnt eat less than 2000/day on a regular basis unless youre a really small guy

    I tried doing that, but I got terrible hangovers with it. When I drink beer I get no hangovers and I'm happy with 1200 calories a day. I never feel hungry after that
  • jackiemonx
    jackiemonx Posts: 343 Member
    if it was coors light ud be fine. it got less 100cal bottle i thinki tried to drink last time i lost weight cos hardly any cals in it but its sooo disgusting! lol
  • BigT555
    BigT555 Posts: 2,067 Member
    with a 1200 weekday intake, your deficit is big enough to cover the drinking you do on the weekends. i would up the weekday calories and switch to a lower cal drink (hard liquor and low cal mix) though otherwise you wont be getting adequate nutrients. a 25 year old male generally shouldnt eat less than 2000/day on a regular basis unless youre a really small guy

    I tried doing that, but I got terrible hangovers with it. When I drink beer I get no hangovers and I'm happy with 1200 calories a day. I never feel hungry after that
    i feel you man, the switch was hard for me too, liquor hangovers are hell, beer hangovers are non-existent. its ultimately up to you but you'll feel eating that little catch up to you eventually
  • RHachicho
    RHachicho Posts: 1,115 Member
    Weight loss after alcohol is actually a fairly common phenomena. Basically when you lose fat your fat cells often fill up with water to replace that. Alcohol acts as a diuretic flushing the retained water out of your system. Some people retain even more. I once myself lost 3lb the day after sharing a good bottle of red wine and a hearty restaurant meal with my dad.

    People who have a tendency to retain water often lose weight in spurts this isn't because they lose the fat all at once this is because your body decides right .. enough is enough and forces your fat cells to stop pretending to be full. Alcohol simply forces this process a little early.

    The bad news is if the alcohol did cause you to go into a surplus you actually gained a little fat that night. The good news is that according to the scales you are still totally ahead of the game.
  • ajnb88
    ajnb88 Posts: 339 Member
    Remember that weight loss isn't limited to single days - eating healthy for a month and having a night of excess isn't going to derail everything - if that were the case, people would literally flip between obese and bone-thin every week.

    I've had a day in the past where I was convinced by a colleague at work to have a kebab for lunch - it was huge, greasy, and terribly, deliciously, bad - yet the next day I had lost a pound since my last check anyway.
  • Hell_Flower
    Hell_Flower Posts: 348 Member
    Weight loss after alcohol is actually a fairly common phenomena. Basically when you lose fat your fat cells often fill up with water to replace that. Alcohol acts as a diuretic flushing the retained water out of your system. Some people retain even more. I once myself lost 3lb the day after sharing a good bottle of red wine and a hearty restaurant meal with my dad.

    People who have a tendency to retain water often lose weight in spurts this isn't because they lose the fat all at once this is because your body decides right .. enough is enough and forces your fat cells to stop pretending to be full. Alcohol simply forces this process a little early.

    The bad news is if the alcohol did cause you to go into a surplus you actually gained a little fat that night. The good news is that according to the scales you are still totally ahead of the game.

    Happy dance because it's CHAMPAGNE FRIDAAAAY!

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