A 22 yr old's worst enemy...ALCOHOL

Moderation is the key. I was heavy social drinker before December. I cut out alcohol entirely. I had my first drinking event this weekend during a friends bachelor party. Took two days after before I felt better and went to the gym.

i find that i can drink a few glasses of scotch (which is really strong but doesn't have a ton of calories) and it doesn't affect me too badly. beer is the real enemy to many people's weight loss goals. for one, it requires a lot of beer to get someone drunk. you drink 1 scotch and you are already buzzed. plus, scotch is so overpowering in its taste and smell that once you are done with 1 or 2 glasses you can't think of drinking any more. maybe try drinking 2 glasses of red wine (which is good for your heart). at least then despite getting alcohol calories you are promoting heart health (more than 2 glasses and you start losing the health benefits).

overall alcohol is bad for you, period. some alcohol is better for you than others. you can always make up for it by drinking irregularly (not every weekend and not more than once a week) or restricting your caloric intake for the day you plan to have a few drinks. just don't overdo it. don't drink like 15 shots or 15 beers or something like that. that could destroy several days' worth of dieting.

Good grief I must be the only odd ball here lol. Im almost 27 but never got into the drinking scene since I became a mother before I turned 21 so I never went to the bar or club or anywhere. My husband and I did drink out in the orchard when I was 18 till I got pregnant at 20 but I guess after that, it got out of my system lol

I used to be SUCH AN ALCOHOLIC in college lol and the year after.

I am not a beer drinker but LOVE wine at dinner and vodka/tequila/rum drinks at bars. I mix with diet coke or sugar free red bull or club soda.

I am not big on cocktails as they are too sweet for me. I would say alcohol never made me gain a lot of weight, nor did weight fall of when i cut down. it's more tied to my diet. When i eat crap and drink, that's when i gain weight.

I cut down A LOT. I used to split a bottle of wine at dinner with my bf...basically 4-5x a week. Not to mention other drinking when going out on the weekend. Now, I have a glass of wine at dinner maybe 1-2x a week. (wow what happened to me?) haha

If I go out for a special occasion like a friend's bday, I still drink but hte next day hangover/dehydration throws out my workout schedule out the window. I never get hungover in traditional sense but i'm lethargic the whole day - like no energy to do anything but walk at most.

I'm 23 and just graduated from college last May. Since then I have dropped almost 20 pounds. The first 10 pounds were actually quite easy, they were just alcohol and junk food weight. When I was in college I was going out a lot (especially senior year) and the temptation to eat junk food/fast food during or after drinking was so high. So for me it was a combination of bad food and alcohol.

When I graduated I made the decision to change my lifestyle and started to eat healthier and cut out a lot of my alcohol consumption. I still have wine or a cocktail every now and then but I rarely drink beer these days. I've also found since losing weight and drinking less I have a much lower tolerance. I went out for a friend's birthday last weekend and over the course of several hours had 2 drinks, a Diet Coke and Rum and a Gin Gimlet. Just a year ago no way those 2 drinks would have had any impact on me, but now they were enough for the night (and even gave me a bit of a hangover the next day). So not only is it now a lot cheaper for me to go out, but I'm pretty happy with my weight and body now. Definitely worth giving up the heavy drinking. When I do go out now I make sure to plan ahead for the extra calories and really tell myself that I can't have fast food afterward.

I started with MFP on December 31, 2010 and made a decision that I was going to try to stop killing myself in the new year. Lets just say that I was drinking more nights a week than I was not. Starting January 1, 2011 I cut out drinking Sunday - Thursday and allowed myself to have a few on Friday and Saturday, I held to my calorie goals every day but Saturday (my cheat day) and continued my normal exercise routine 6 days a week.

The impact of ridding myself of alcohol during the week was pretty significant for me in a couple of ways 1) certainly helped not taking in those calories, and 2) My workouts were so much better because I was not sluggish and potentially hung over.

The weight has flown off of me and this is the best shape I have been in since Highschool. The moral of the story… for me drinking in moderation works for me.

I wouldn't ever want to give up my beer. About three years ago I started down the dark path of beer geekery... and I've no intention of coming back. A life without Black Oak Brewing's "10 Bitter Years" or a lovely Belgian trippel is not a life I want to lead.

That said... I've gone from having a beer on four to six nights of the week to having a beer on two to three nights of the week (usually weekends). I try to split beers with my partner whenever I can, so that I'm not drinking the whole thing, but still get the satisfaction of that delicious brew. I also rarely drink enough to get drunk anymore, but that's partly because I'm 25, not 22... And, as much as possible, I try to factor in the calories that I'm going to be drinking into my daily calorie quota. If I know I'm going to drink on the weekend, I will try to be extra careful during the week, and then make sure I work out hard as well!

I work for a beer distributor. It's almost required that I become a beer geek. I've found, though, that I'd rather have one malty-hoppy-delicious beer instead of 4 of the crap light beers. Which is good, because the calories are about equal (1:4). Today, for instance, I know I have a work "meeting" this evening, where I will be expected to drink AND it will interrupt my usual gym time. It's been on my calorie count for a week and I'm hitting the gym at lunch instead.

Mind you I'm a bit older than 22...I certainly had to cut back my alcohol consumption and it made all the difference in the world. I try now to drink less often. But also what you drink has an effect. I learned to love wine not that it's low cal (it's around 500cals a bottle) but alot of mixed drinks have a ton of sugar. The problem with beer is even if its lower cal, one tends to drink many to get desired effect! Shots of alcohol tend to be between 65 and 80 cals...that's pretty rough estimate but you get the picture...but then you mix them with more calories.

Lucky for me I have also learned to like scotch...or whiskey. The thing with Scotch is not that it's any lower calorie than other alcohols it's that you don't mix it and you don't drink a bunch of it. Three drinks of scotch with a dollop of water in the run of a night can make you feel pretty good. If you're only watering it down you're not adding calories and you don't drink it fast = roughly 210 calories for the night.

I realize not everyone can like scotch or wine...but this is my own finding hope it helps someone.

Speaking from someone with experience in this department, I've been addicted to everything in the book. Alcohol is one of them. I would drink every night. You have to think that along with drinking, come munching, because when you drink, food tastes and sounds all that much better. If you drink a lot, i am almost certain that you will see a significant difference. It is so bad for you anyways!!! I'm not saying give it up compeletely, but once in a while, is okay.