No more wine time for this little drunk duck

Uuuugh I feel your pain. Chardonnay and I are such close friends my recycling bin perpetually glows a subtle shade of 'French Green'. I honestly don't think there's a chance we can drink like we want and lose weight. The only time I've been successful in dropping the kilos is when I did, per week, two days alcohol free and three days 'low' alcohol - 2 glasses max. I had two days of my normal intake (which for most people is coma-inducingly high) and it was slow going but I did manage 16 kilos in 6 months. I exercised 5 days as well. It stayed off for 6 months but 8 of those SOBs have since crept back on. Yes, it's because I love you, Chardonnay....and your cousins Riesling and Merlot. Lord knows I've tried to exercise my booze intake away or not even eat much and use all my cals on drinking but it just doesn't work for me. I don't gain, which is still a bonus I guess, but there's no shrinking belly blubber like there is when I suck it up and force myself to ditch(ish) the vino. The stupid thing is I've tried substituting vodka for wine to save calories but turns out I couldn't care less about vodka, I'd rather have wine or nothing. I mean, hooray for not being an alcoholic but boo for the unbearable wine cravings. It's hard freaking work but I find I need to distract myself with menial tasks (hello finding healthy recipes in magazines and writing them in a notebook I'll invariably lose next week) and I also need to plan my meals around my drinking days - like, no chance I could go without a nice red when having steak or bolognese so those meals can't happen on 'No Booze Tues' or 'Freaking Awful Fridays'. I've also found sugar free cordial and soda water helps. It's what I put the vodka in at first but now just leave that out because it's pointless for me. I wish it wasn't so stupidly hard, but it can be done with wine - just nowhere near as much as we'd like. I'm back walking next to the wagon for now...I started again a couple of weeks ago and I'm one kg down. Just one. But better than none or plus 8! Best of luck to you my friend!

Don't get me wrong, I love my wine (and as a student pretty much anything else, gin & tonic is my jam), but these posts worry me. I know nothing of your life and I don't want to judge or be out of line here, but both your stories indicate that you show symptoms of alcohol use disorder according to the DSM V.

See https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201506/what-are-the-eleven-symptoms-alcohol-use-disorder (sorry I can't find something a little more scientific/reliable, English is not my native language). What to do with this info is up to you obviously

As for losing weight, alcohol is notorious for halting the digestion of everything else because your body wants to get rid of alcohol (which is toxic) asap. From personal experience, I also snack way more and care less about diet when I drink in large quantities. A glass of wine is around 125 kcal a glass, so a few glasses will easily undo your deficit.

So, drinking large amounts and losing weight? Probably not going to happen.

Personally I drink around 5 days a week. One glass of wine for dinner, or a gin & tonic for special occasions. When I go out for dinner it's usually 2 glasses and when I have a party I party hard and try to drink my bodyweight in alcohol, but that only happens once every like 8-10 weeks. This is the only way I've found that I can drink and maintain my weight. When I was losing I only had a glass of wine with dinner on the weekends. In the end your energy balance matters most for weight, but dropping alcohol consumption and eating healthy/exercising matter most for your health

vanessaaorth717 wrote: »

WinoGelato wrote: »

Are you trying to cut out alcohol because you are concerned you have a problem controlling your intake, or are you cutting it out because you believe you can't successfully lose weight while still continuing to drink in moderation? Because the advice you receive may differ based on your motivation and personal situation.

Hi @WinoGelato Not so much that I have a problem..... Well, I guess I'm not good at control if there's wine in my fridge. But then again, it's the same for pizza
To answer your question, I guess it's a little bit from column A and a little bit from column B.

Fair enough. Ok here's my story, for what it's worth. Alcoholism runs in my family (father and brother) but I love my vino. Before starting MFP, and when my husband was still drinking (he quit for medical reasons not related to alcoholism) we used to drink a bottle of wine or a 6 pack of beer or more every night, more on the weekends. I didn't think I had a drinking problem and still am perfectly fine cutting out alcohol for various reasons at various points in my life but the genes are always in the back of my mind if I go out and really tie one on.

Anyway, when I started MFP like everyone else, I was aggressive with my goal rate of loss and was set at 1200 cals like many petite women who choose lose 1-2 lbs/week. I logged everything faithfully but couldn't fit the wine in without starving! So a few things happened...

1. I started reading the advice on here that many people can lose weight eating more than 1200c so I changed my goal, first to 1400 then 1500.
2. I started exercising more giving me more calories to work with from that
3. I started waiting to pour a glass of wine till after dinner, after the kids were in bed, when I finally would sit down on the couch for maybe one hour of me time. Prior to all this, I would start with a glass of wine after a stressful day at work while cooking dinner, then have one with dinner, then one or two after dinner during that "me time".

So long story short, by focusing on logging and becoming more active, I had room for a glass of wine each day while I was losing, and now that I'm in maintenance I often have 2 glasses each day. On weekends I relax my rule about waiting till the kids are in bed and often have a drink when we go out, but I also bank calories for the weekends so I can eat more too...

Bottom line, if you can moderate your intake of alcohol and not feel out of control, it is entirely possible to continue to partake and still achieve your weight loss goals. However, like anything, whether it be pizza, ice cream or wine, logging the calories is critical to make sure you can fit it in without compromising other foods that contribute to a healthy balanced diet.

Whew that was long. Cheers!

I agree with WinoGelato. Your initial comment/question leaves it in doubt as to your goal. Ultimately, only you know if alcohol is problem for you but the fact you stated that no drop goes unfinished if in the house should tell you something. As to the weight and alcohol perspective, I can speak from experience in this department. The only way to lose weight is to under consume (calorically) your TDEE. If you do that you will lose weight regardless of where those calories came from, so in theory if your calories came only from wine so long as you under consumed your TDEE you would lose weight but that's more theory than reality. The problem with wine or a lot of alcohol is really multi fold depending on how you view it. We know that calories from any liquid beverage (including protein shakes for example) do not satiate appetite like real food does. This creates a situation regardless of what type of caloric drink we are talking about where you are intaking calories but not satisfying your appetite. Make that drink of an alcoholic nature and not only is this typically a higher caloric drink (per volume) but often it is high in sugar/carbs creating a situation where you will be more hungry hormonally and when you have the least amount of willpower (due to your buzz) to make good decisions. I too like to drink occasionally but I found in my weight loss journey limiting the days and type of alcohol (dry red wines or Bacardi and diet no beer). In my experience it really wasn't the calories from the alcohol that caused the problem it was dietary behavior due to the alcohol consumption. The same thing can be said of cookies too (a personal weakness of mine) the calories from them are relatively negligible but the subsequent hunger and ultimately more consumption of food is what did me in. In the end, if you can't under consume your caloric allotment because of the wine it will have to go if you want to lose weight but what works best for me was planning on partaking certain days and accepting that weight loss won't occur but doing the right thing 5 days a week. This really is the two steps forward one back approach but over time you will reach your goal.