Alcohol and weight gain
suediebee
Posts: 17 Member
Anytime I drink any amount of alcohol I weigh more the next day. I have to skip a meal to break even, does this happen to anyone else? I like to drink once in a while but it wipes out all the good work I do.
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It happens to me on the weekends because I used to use a lot of juice mix with my drinks like Orange juice,once I switched to low calorie mixers for my drinks I stop gaining0
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One day showing a difference on the scale doesn't mean that you've gained fat. Some people report weighing less after drinking alcohol (especially if they drink a lot of it!), but I'm like you - if I have a couple drinks, the scale will be a bit higher. The weight is always gone within a day or two. As long as you're maintaining your calorie balance, it shouldn't be influencing your loss. Adjusting your food intake to provide some extra calories for drinking is ok, but if you're adjusting it just to get a lower weight this is going to be really hard for you! It takes an overage of about 3,500 calories OVER your daily needs to gain 1 lb of fat - hopefully that will help put it in perspective.
I would suggest looking at your weekly weight average, rather than worrying about the scale going down every time you weigh in. I've lost over 100 lbs and the scale has never gone down every single day - it tends to jump around. Fridays are usually my lowest weight, Sundays my highest, and it trickles down over the week as long as I stick to my deficit.0 -
Even with 2 glasses of wine I feel bloated next day0
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You weigh more probably because of your body holding on to a lot of water since alcohol dries you out, but it should go back to normal after a day or two.0
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Yes, alcohol shuts down fat burning up to 48 hours afterwards.0
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I have a 330ml beer at least every other day when I get home (had a pint at lunchtime today too). I log the calories and as long as I'm in my deficit I continue to lose weight. So no, I don't have that problem thankfully - and actually the gassy beer fills me up and I don't feel hungry for a while after.0
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Lucky Hamlet - me very jealous - can't lose weight and drink through the week - boo hoo0
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saladcrunchy wrote: »Lucky Hamlet - me very jealous - can't lose weight and drink through the week - boo hoo
You can if you don't exceed your calorie goals!0 -
tincanonastring wrote: »saladcrunchy wrote: »Lucky Hamlet - me very jealous - can't lose weight and drink through the week - boo hoo
You can if you don't exceed your calorie goals!
Well I wish but you know the weirdest thing is that I stuck to my cal count, work out and so on and hit a wall where the weight wouldn't budge or at least, not without great difficulty; I think I would have to drop the cals a heck of a lot more in order to drink a glass of wine with an evening meal every day and that would make a diet so miserable I couldn't sustain it. I think alcohol messes with blood sugar, as well as fat metabolism and inhibits the absorption of nutrients, it is also inflammatory darn it, maybe if I were younger. I shall never the less continue to experiment and as soon as I hit my target weight, I shall resume.
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http://www.builtlean.com/2012/11/26/alcohol-weight-loss/
I found this pretty interesting, and it seems to make sense. I cannot drink at all when I'm trying to lose weight, only while maintaining. Thankfully I don't drink often, but if I did I'd be in trouble.
This kind of explains my feeling that everything I eat while drinking sticks to me.0 -
macgurlnet wrote: »
The article I posted, with references at the bottom touchscreen on this as well. States that while drinking our body wants to use the alcohol for energy, to expend it quickly, and everything else we are eating therefore has a better chance of being stored as fat.
Which sucks :-(0 -
Leslierussell4134 wrote: »macgurlnet wrote: »
The article I posted, with references at the bottom touchscreen on this as well. States that while drinking our body wants to use the alcohol for energy, to expend it quickly, and everything else we are eating therefore has a better chance of being stored as fat.
Which sucks :-(
Your body won't store energy as fat if you're in a calorie deficit.0 -
Leslierussell4134 wrote: »http://www.builtlean.com/2012/11/26/alcohol-weight-loss/
I found this pretty interesting, and it seems to make sense. I cannot drink at all when I'm trying to lose weight, only while maintaining. Thankfully I don't drink often, but if I did I'd be in trouble.
This kind of explains my feeling that everything I eat while drinking sticks to me.
That's an excellent article Lesley and I've read similar. It doesn't seem to affect everyone in the same way; some can carry on drinking and losing but not all and not me.
When I decided to seriously go for fitness and weight loss, I knew it would have to be something that wasn't too unpleasant and thought that calorie counting was the best way, and it was a surprise to find that alcohol complicated the whole regime. In the end, I cut back a bit at a time until the weight started shifting again and that meant no alcohol at all through the week and a maximum of 2 bottles of wine over a week end. Thankfully I didn't have to cut it out all together.0 -
saladcrunchy wrote: »tincanonastring wrote: »saladcrunchy wrote: »Lucky Hamlet - me very jealous - can't lose weight and drink through the week - boo hoo
You can if you don't exceed your calorie goals!
Well I wish but you know the weirdest thing is that I stuck to my cal count, work out and so on and hit a wall where the weight wouldn't budge or at least, not without great difficulty; I think I would have to drop the cals a heck of a lot more in order to drink a glass of wine with an evening meal every day and that would make a diet so miserable I couldn't sustain it. I think alcohol messes with blood sugar, as well as fat metabolism and inhibits the absorption of nutrients, it is also inflammatory darn it, maybe if I were younger. I shall never the less continue to experiment and as soon as I hit my target weight, I shall resume.
Ugh, that stinks about the wall. How tight is your logging? Are you using verified database entries (that you've checked - I don't mean MFP "verified."), weighing your food, etc.? If you've lost a bunch of weight without adjusting your calorie goal to reflect the lower TDEE, it might be time to do that. Bottom line, though, if you're in a consistent calorie deficit, there's no way you won't lose weight, whether or not you're drinking every night. Good luck!0 -
I am so so glad someone brought this topic up. I love my wine and feel like being 26, wine and craft beer is so much a part of socializing. Sometimes I love my wine too much though and am working on learning moderation. I did read yesterday that half a bottle of red can help with weight loss, lol. Not sure about that though0
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[/quote] Ugh, that stinks about the wall. How tight is your logging? Are you using verified database entries (that you've checked - I don't mean MFP "verified."), weighing your food, etc.? If you've lost a bunch of weight without adjusting your calorie goal to reflect the lower TDEE, it might be time to do that. Bottom line, though, if you're in a consistent calorie deficit, there's no way you won't lose weight, whether or not you're drinking every night. Good luck![/quote]
OOO, something I never heard of: TDEE?
yep I think my cal counting was pretty tight and alcohol definitely messed with the weight loss. You are probably right and that in the long term, the weight would keep shifting given that I was OCD about including the alcohol calories but it dramatically slowed things down. I don't mind too much because I'm not dependent upon it but really enjoy it so it was an extra feeling of depravity that threatened to derail my diet. I'm OK with W/E treats but it is an issue for some folk and I suspect moreso, the older you are.
thanks for the encouragement tho you magnificent bearded person you
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Yep, as you age, your energy needs decrease, so your calorie limit would have to adjust.
TDEE = Total Daily Energy Expenditure. TDEE is the total number of calories your body burns in a given day. It includes your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate - how much your body would burn if you just laid in bed), your NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis - any activities not related to purposeful exercise and eating), and the thermic effect of the food you eat (I think there's a fancy acronym for that, too, but I can't remember off the top of my head right now).
I'm probably missing some minor factors that go into calculating TDEE. It's nearly impossible to precisely calculate for any given day, but as long as you get a general sense of your average TDEE and eat below that amount consistenly, you will lose weight, regardless of what you're eating or drinking.
Anyway, I asked about the logging because that's the first thing I would consider if someone says they hit a wall. Inaccurate logging used to cause me so much strife.0 -
tincanonastring wrote: »
Anyway, I asked about the logging because that's the first thing I would consider if someone says they hit a wall. Inaccurate logging used to cause me so much strife.
A wise presumption and yes, it's true, if you expend more than you put in, then the laws of cause and effect will kick in but I can assure you, it slowed things down significantly and was really unpleasant. The body doesn't recognise alcohol as a nutrient and so it gives priority to getting rid of it. Blood sugar goes all over the place and if you are in calorie deficit, I think the body experiences alcohol as a kind of crisis. Well, I can only tell you what happened, I'm not an expert and thanks for the explanation of the acronym, you splendid bearded person.
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tincanonastring wrote: »Leslierussell4134 wrote: »macgurlnet wrote: »
The article I posted, with references at the bottom touchscreen on this as well. States that while drinking our body wants to use the alcohol for energy, to expend it quickly, and everything else we are eating therefore has a better chance of being stored as fat.
Which sucks :-(
Your body won't store energy as fat if you're in a calorie deficit.
I don't know how many times I read about how eating a certain way, or certain foods, or at a certain time makes your body store energy as fat. What so many people fail to realize is this is ONLY if you have extra calories to store. If you are eating at a deficit there is no energy to store as fat.
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heychelsea88 wrote: »I am so so glad someone brought this topic up. I love my wine and feel like being 26, wine and craft beer is so much a part of socializing. Sometimes I love my wine too much though and am working on learning moderation. I did read yesterday that half a bottle of red can help with weight loss, lol. Not sure about that though
I know how you feel Chelsea, and you don't have to give up wine, just include it in your daily calories. You might need to cut back a bit in order to save calorie space for actual nutritious foods - I dropped from 550ml to 330ml of beer - but I got used to it, and now I don't feel like I'm on a diet at all.
As to the 'alcohol does this or that to your metabolism' argument, I don't think it matters that much in a calorie deficit. There are loads of arguments about carbs, fat, and fibre and how to 'optimize' your metabolism to favor burning fat, but in the end even if there is truth in any of the hypothesis, I think they'd only allow you to consume maybe 100 more calories a day? big deal - hardly worth the hassle. Just get on a 15-20% deficit and stick with it :-)0 -
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I my experience I can drink as long as it's within my calorie goal and as long as don't chow down on junk once I am tipsy. I am also less likely to work out the next day if I am hungover and more likely to have the "I don't cares". Which is why I have learned to keep the drinks to ONE day a week. (I do love my beers in the afternoon
) And yes, the day after I drink I can be up to 3lbs heavier, but it's nothing plenty of water and low sodium doesn't fix for the following day. The important thing is to remain at a deficit. 0 -
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Alcohol calories burn first so if your not logging alcohol that 600 calorie jog you took to burn that 600 calorie cheat meal really just burn't the 600 calories of liquor you drank the night before. In a deficit it really doesn't matter for weight loss but for muscle gain the alcohol is limiting the livers ability to use protein which supports muscle. Alcohol should dehydrate everyone my guess is all the stuff people drink with it OJ, water etc-is why there is a difference in peoples weight afterward or the 24 wings you ate but can't even remember ordering..lol..
Good news the alcohol calories are just the alcohol so a shot of Vodka is 65 alcohol calories not the 250 calories that it was mixed with to make your drink. Your liver can process about 1 shot an hour so If you drink 8 shots figure your liver can't process protein for a third of your day but your passed out so who cares dude... .. Cheers0 -
saladcrunchy wrote: »
The article repeatedly emphasizes moderation, and claims no problems with drinking 1-2 drink a couple times a week.
When the article says "Because your body sees these by-products as dangerous, it wants to use them as fuel. This means your body will significantly blunt fat-burning close to 75% after just one and a half drinks. And it will stop using carbs for energy. Therefore, although very little alcohol will be stored as fat (less than 5%), the fat and carbs you are eating have an increased risk of being stored as fat." it means the excess carbs and fats.
Then the article says "Finally, with heavy drinking, the breakdown of alcohol can occur for up to 48 hours after your last drink. This means less glucose is reaching your brain and working muscles, making you both more tired and quicker to fatigue if you do exercise. " I bolded for emphasis. The biggest problem is fatigue, not fat.
I see no proof anywhere in this article that having a few beers makes you store that day's food as fat.
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I see no proof anywhere in this article that having a few beers makes you store that day's food as fat.
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I think you are probably right but it does slow down weight loss for some folk; it definitely did for me; the reason may vary but it seems to mess with blood sugar. Perhaps it depends on who. All bodies are different and age changes how you process things.
I literally had to cut back bit by bit until the weight started to shift again. I don't fully understand why (in a physiological sense) it was just a fact that even though I was still on target with CICO and exercise, the weight loss stopped until I cut right back on alcohol. maybe there is a biologist that can explain it and I'm not the only one to experience this.
Thankfully, the weight started shifting again before I had to cut it out all together and I can drink two bottles of wine at the weekend and keep losing weight, more than that and it just won't budge unless I drop my cals to a point were the whole diet is so unpleasant that it is in danger of derailing. odd but true.
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