Alcohol

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Ratherfly
Ratherfly Posts: 4 Member
I am new here, and relatively new to low carb. I began eating low carb about a month ago after chatting with a neighbor about a plan she had great success with. While I am not following her plan, I am paying attention to my carbohydrate intake and losing weight while not feeling hunger or cravings.

My question has to do with alcohol, as you may have guessed from the title of this thread. I did page through about 10 pages of topics looking to see if I could find one with the label, with no luck. No doubt this topic has been addressed previously.

With hard liquor having zero carbs is it okay to imbibe and stay in ketosis? Doesn't seem to have hindered my weight loss so far, but perhaps I would have better results if I abstained?

TIA!

Replies

  • FIT_Goat
    FIT_Goat Posts: 4,224 Member
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    It does come up once in a while. Here's a few of the last threads that came up.

    first-week-back-vodka
    so-about-wine
    alcohol
    liquor-and-side-effects
    wine-whine

    That said, some do fine with it and other don't. Some members think they do fine with it, until they cut it out and realize they lose much easier without it. It is very individual and sometimes it's based on what's most important to you. If you can still lose, albeit slower, while drinking, is that a trade-off you're willing to make? For some people, it is. For other people, getting to the goal as fast as possible is all that matters.

    Personally, I rarely drink. But, that's only because I have no tolerance anymore.
  • mamichula1173
    mamichula1173 Posts: 25 Member
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    I used to drink a ton of beer. I've since stopped that completely. I will drink dry wine, vodka and soda, or rum with diet juice. I tend to savor the drink now as opposed to downing it as fast as possible. It takes much less to get tipsy now so I do have to be careful.
    I'm still losing weight but I'm probably slowing it down when I drink. I'm okay with that because I don't feel left out when in social circles.
  • Ratherfly
    Ratherfly Posts: 4 Member
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    Thank you for the links FIT_Goat, I'll check them out. I'm kind of on Team mamichula11, I don't drink a lot but I do enjoy a rum & diet coke or glass of red wine on occasion. Oh.. and I savor every drop as well.
  • glossbones
    glossbones Posts: 1,064 Member
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    My husband mixed a Grape Zevia with fresh lemon juice and added a heavy pour of Tito's vodka. It was HEAVENLY. Also a "sometimes food."
  • Ratherfly
    Ratherfly Posts: 4 Member
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    But why? If there are no carbs in liquor, why should it effect a low carb plan?
  • ksstewart222
    ksstewart222 Posts: 4 Member
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    it's not just the carbs. Alcohol is an easy source of energy for your body. It tends to switch off the fat burning of ketosis to burn the alcohol for energy, and takes a while to get back on track into fat burning mode. Lower carb options are better, but still usually slow weight loss to a degree for many people.
  • Carol_
    Carol_ Posts: 469 Member
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    Question: If I was to decide to try low-carb, what percentage of carbs do I set on my MFP settings for food?
  • DissLocated
    DissLocated Posts: 43 Member
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    I find, so long as I don't go crazy, a few glasses of dry white wine a week don't have too much of an impact on my weight loss. I experimented with some ketostix and discovered I stay in ketosis even after drinking the night before. I agree with Fitgoat's view, it's possible I may lose weight quicker if I didn't drink at all but it's the trade off I'm willing to make.
  • dessiepenn
    dessiepenn Posts: 167 Member
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    Alcohol is a love hate relationship. I can have around 5 oz of dry wine (3.5 carbs) a few nights a week and be good. But Last night I had about 8oz. That pushed my limit. I'm very tried today and I can tell my body got kicked out of ketosis even though my macros were all at my goal %.
  • KarlaYP
    KarlaYP Posts: 4,439 Member
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    @Carol_ , try one of the keto calculators, found online, it can help you figure your macro percentages, based on how low carb you want to go. Low carb is a varying range that comes down to personal choice.
  • Twibbly
    Twibbly Posts: 1,065 Member
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    Carol_ wrote: »
    Question: If I was to decide to try low-carb, what percentage of carbs do I set on my MFP settings for food?

    Low carb is generally 100g or less, keto is even less. Google "ankerl keto" and use their calculator (on phone, can't link). Look at the launch pad here for lots of resources on starting.
  • Dragonwolf
    Dragonwolf Posts: 5,600 Member
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    Ratherfly wrote: »
    But why? If there are no carbs in liquor, why should it effect a low carb plan?

    Alcohol is a high priority substance to the body and requires metabolizing before anything else. This means that the body isn't spending time burning other fuels, like body fat or nutritional food, which is why it can hinder weight loss.

    If you're still losing at a speed that suits you and you're not abusing it, then there's no reason you can't.

    I had a couple of chocolate martinis last night (dark chocolate liquor, cream, a little chocolate syrup). They were divine. :)
  • Kitnthecat
    Kitnthecat Posts: 2,060 Member
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    I find that one drink is enough now. I do vodka and soda occasionally, but now my daughter's homemade chokecherry wine is ready. 2 ounces is enough for me to get a buzz, so that's all I will drink, maybe 3 times per week.
  • tlflag1620
    tlflag1620 Posts: 1,358 Member
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    Right now I'm pregnant so booze is off the menu for a few more weeks, but I found that alcohol slowed my progress. I'd stick with bourbon and limit it to one or two drinks once a week and that seemed to be okay, but more than that, or beer or wine at all, would stall me. Once I hit my goal weight I could indulge a bit more often, but when I start trying to lose the baby weight, I plan to have no more than one or two drinks per week, and to stick with good quality bourbon, at least until I hit maintenance. That said, I'm not keto, nor have I ever been, so I don't know how it would effect that. I just know what it did in terms of my losing weight.
  • auntstephie321
    auntstephie321 Posts: 3,586 Member
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    Dragonwolf wrote: »
    Ratherfly wrote: »
    But why? If there are no carbs in liquor, why should it effect a low carb plan?

    Alcohol is a high priority substance to the body and requires metabolizing before anything else. This means that the body isn't spending time burning other fuels, like body fat or nutritional food, which is why it can hinder weight loss.

    If you're still losing at a speed that suits you and you're not abusing it, then there's no reason you can't.

    I had a couple of chocolate martinis last night (dark chocolate liquor, cream, a little chocolate syrup). They were divine. :)

    Omg chocolate martinis are my favorite, how do you make them, I assumed
    they would be to carby
  • Ashar33
    Ashar33 Posts: 17 Member
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    I had a 6 oz glass of Pinot Grigio last weekend and still had 1/2 pound loss the next morning. My sister drinks vodka and she has lost 38 pounds.
  • Artemis68
    Artemis68 Posts: 67 Member
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    In my younger days I would lose weight while being able to drink a fair amount; however, I the drinks I have now are usually with friends sitting around where before it was drinks while dancing at a club. It definitely slows my progress now and have been cutting down the drinks a bit. I also feel terrible the next day... like worse than a regular hangover. Not liking that much.

    My go to low carb beverage: Tequila and Fresca... so good!!!
  • Artemis68
    Artemis68 Posts: 67 Member
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    In my younger days I would lose weight while being able to drink a fair amount; however, I the drinks I have now are usually with friends sitting around where before it was drinks while dancing at a club. It definitely slows my progress now and have been cutting down the drinks a bit. I also feel terrible the next day... like worse than a regular hangover. Not liking that much.

    My go to low carb beverage: Tequila and Fresca... so good!!!