alcohol and your weight loss?

I still drink when I want to weather Im within my calories or not. I have worked hard to get where I am now so if I want to splurge and have 3 redbull vodkas I'm gonna do it and I'm gonna log it! I do try and workout a little more if I know Im going to be drinking just so I can have a few extra calories back. :drinker:

I have a glass of wine or... four most Fridays and it hasn't held me back as far as weight loss. I do plan ahead for it and log though, if it meant going way over for the day I'd skip it that week. Honest logging is key, there's no reason to completely cut it out if its just a question of weight loss and no other health issues.

I drank away 75 pounds in 18 months (I am up a little right now due to a surgery 4 days ago and the associated swelling/saline solution IVs, etc.)...I just watched my total calorie intake, including the booze.

Of course, I lost weight faster when I did not imbibe in adult beverages...but how boring is that???

Today is 17 days without a drink. I usually drink on the weekends (beer and vodka sodas) Although I am doubtful that I can put down booze all together cold turkey, but I am going to try and consume less, and drink less often.

I have stuck to my work out and diet for (today is day 28) and I have lost 10.5 pounds since my Saturday morning weigh in. I am sure since I have stopped drinking alcohol for the past 2.5 weeks that this has contributed a little bit to my weight loss. not only is alcohol empty calories, I make horrible eating decisions when I drink (eating pizza at 1 am, or eating a bunch of chips) For the most part I can control food decisions if I have a few beers, but if I am drunk I will eat whatever.


Frankly, I am sure alcohol is most likely the main contributor to my weight today, wether it be the alcohol its self, or the decisions I have made that come a long with it.

I am really going to try as hard as I can to refrain from drinking, or take 2 weeks off after the last time I drink. It is Labor day weekend so I am most likely to have some drinks. I just need to have better control.

IMHO, 2 things are key:
1) Moderation - binge drinking adds WAY too many calories, but moderate drinking (2 - 3) at a time can be factored into your daily calorie limit.
2) The effect alcohol has on your appetite - it kills mine, so I don't eat when I have a drink or two, but if it causes you to eat everything in sight, then that is trouble.
As with everything else, it depends on each person and how it affects you.

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I still drink, just in moderation.

I was thinking how many mfp members regularly consume alcohol, what sort and what effect it has in your losses.
I drink keeping within my calorie/exercise earned.
I've only just started this so have lots of things going around my head. I did follow ww but struggled.
Thanks in advance of any replies.????

I drank pretty much nightly during my loss and so long as I was staying in my calories it wasn't a big deal. I've had no issue maintaining with regular alcohol consumption either. I find where it effects me most is when I try to get below about 18% BF...for whatever reason I can't drop below that with frequent alcohol consumption even if I'm hitting my calorie goals...but if I cut out the alcohol during the week, I cut below 18% pretty easily.

I don't drink much, but I DO drink. I log it (ha - THEM) and move on. And my weightloss hasn't slowed due to my imbibing.

I am alcoholic so I don't drink at all but I am quite confident that alcohol was one of the biggest contributors to my weight gain. I looked it up recently and just one pint of vodka was something like 1300 calories. That's practically a day's worth of calories and when I drank I rarely stopped at a pint. As someone else mentioned it lowered my inhibitions in what I ate while I was drinking as well. So for me it's not an option both for the sake of my sobriety and my weight. If you can control your drinking and you stay within your calorie limits it should not keep you from losing weight however you could of course receive better nutrition from the same amount of calories from a food which is going to be more beneficial to your weightloss and over all health. Anything in moderation works for most people.

I drink. Pretty regularly. Almost every night, a beer or a glass of wine or two. This is acceptable to me if my calories for the day make it okay.

When I decided to go on this fitness journey, the thing I wanted to be able to do was change my lifestyle in a way that is *sustainable * for the REST OF MY LIFE.

I enjoy drinking, so no weight loss program would ever work for me if it required me to give up alcohol completely. That's just not realistic.

The more I have read, the more research I've done over the past year, the more I've learned that for weight loss to really work, and for the weight to stay off and be lasting, the changes a person makes - adding exercise, lowering caloric intake - have to be things you are going to do forever. This is why so many experts say that when it comes to exercise, do something you enjoy, so that you'll keep doing it.

I count calories, and my alcohol consumption is a part of that daily total. If I don't have the room at the end of the day, I don't drink. If I have left myself some calories, I have a drink.

Part of my goal is to learn moderation for when the cutting phase is over. This past week I went on a 4-day vacation. I didn't track anything I ate or drank. I simply tried to make better food choices (side-salad instead of fries, one beer instead of three). I hiked every day (something I would never normally have done on a vacation). I made sure I got my 10K steps, and I ate all the foods I enjoyed. But I made better choices about those foods, and chose smaller portions over larger ones.

When I weighed myself Monday, I had not gained a single pound. For me, on a vacation, that was a huge win. It showed that what I did worked. I ate normally - not excluding any food groups - but I practice moderation and made better choices.

Alcohol is something I will never give up unless there is a clear medical reason to do so. But through this weight loss adventure, I'm learning to adjust my consumption to levels that are healthy and sustainable for the long term.

You can lose weight drinking alcohol as long as your tracking calories in vs. out. So the math and science does work.

That said - we all know this - not all calories are the same. Your body would make better use of a protein calorie than those provided by alcohol.

I say do whatever is sustainable and gets you results.

it can be done.. but its not an easy road.. being a drinker or trying not to be is the question .
i drink 1 , then 2 then 3 and then start snacking with number 4 ...because my will power is now down , i say ill be good tomorrow... and then do it again..
if i dont drink , i may have a small snack.. 200 calories or so then hit the bed
lets do a quick add

drinking for me = 600 cals in drinks and a 300 calorie snack for a total of 900 calories for the night
not drinking for a night= 200 calories of a healthy snack - 200 calories total

looks like the non drinking nights win

I rarely drink except during football season. But when I do I just account for the calories by eating less carbs that day. My total calories stay within my goal regardless. I usually drink 3 or 4 light beers and that's it, so not a real issue for me.

The worst part about alcohol is the crap I eat at 3am when I drink. And shots. Shots are the devil.

I'm about to quit for the most part, but not really for weight-loss reasons. Drug interactions SUCK.