Pro Tip: Just Don't Drink
Replies
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Chef_Barbell wrote: »I'll do wut I want. :drinker:
It has not stopped my goals at all.
this is me...
I drink when I want and how much I want...keep in mind I don't want to every night...never got that...exercise does my stress relief.
But to your point yes drinking less alcohol would result in easier weight loss unless you filled those calories with food.2 -
Molson 67 IPA (the non India Pale Ale tastes like carbonated water ) 3% alcohol and only 70 Cal It's kind of like synthahol, when you stop drinking it you get sober right away! LOL! I do agree that the more I drink the less willpower I have to avoid snacking.2
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just where is the "Pro Tip" in this...your a pro? jus curious.2
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Tomk652015 wrote: »just where is the "Pro Tip" in this...your a pro? jus curious.
Would you prefer "Life Hack"? It's just a title.10 -
First, let me just say that if you were feeling like you needed to drink every night, 2-5 drinks (especially if it was often closer to the 5 than the 2), then I think not drinking was a great decision, at least for a while to see what a different it makes for you.
Second, I don't drink (stopped in Jan 2010) and it's certainly something that makes weight loss/maintenance easier, since one source of extra calories is just gone (and yes, bad decisions or extra eating that went along with it or, bigger issue for me back in the day, an absence of motivation for working out or caring about what I ate). Also, when I was drinking I wasn't likely to be all that accurate about what I ate or how much I drank in many cases, which means more calories than I even realized. That said, I don't agree that there's something about drinking that leads to weight gain/interferes with weight loss beyond these (potentially significant) factors.JustinAnimal wrote: »I don't JUST think it's the calories from alcohol (especially craft beer, which must be worse than milkshakes in this regard), but also intangibles or unseen factors, like the inability to process fat. I think there must be some genetic factors, because I have a friend who can drink four or five pints of good, craft beer every day and he has a something akin to a six pack (and I work out A LOT more than he does). So it might be that my body and/or my genetics doesn't do alcohol well.
You will process the fat at another time even though the alcohol gets processed first.
I was actually at my very thinnest when drinking quite heavily (mostly wine, but whatever). This is not because I process it in a special way (at other times, like when I was quitting and relapsing repeatedly for a few years after that), it clearly was leading to weight gain, because I was overconsuming it plus eating poorly.
But at one point I was obsessively tracking what I ate, working out a ton, and drinking a lot. A lot. My personal justification (since I was following a US food guidelines kind of plan) was that alcohol (again, wine, dry) was basically a replacement for grains or maybe fruit, so I was probably low carbing without realizing it, LOL, but the main reason I was able to lose and then maintain at a low weight for me was that I was not eating that much. Drinking to some extent was replacing eating for me, and although it's high cal, it wasn't that high, comparatively.
Not recommending this, it was horribly unhealthy and my nutrients weren't great.
But that it was awful and unhealthy didn't result in me not losing weight or maintaining it.
Ugh, I am so much happier now, though. So even though you probably weren't doing the kind of drinking I was, good for you!6 -
Tomk652015 wrote: »just where is the "Pro Tip" in this...your a pro? jus curious.
Yeah, no need to get accusatory. It was a title. I guess we can agree to call it a bad title. Call it life hacks, as was suggested. Or, every time you read my stupid title, rename it "advice from that non-pro idiot who doesn't know what he's talking about." Thanks for the input...
As I tried to make abundantly clear in my initial post, it's just a recent revelation and something that works well for me. I had no intention of telling anyone else they can't "do wut dey wantz." Honestly... I feel like folks could take offense to a compliment on an internet forum. Oh, well.
Something I did NOT make clear is: since I stopped drinking, I can be a little reckless with my eating (like not counting calories) but still lose weight (or at least waist size, so I presume [read: hope] fat loss).
Another thing I need to make really clear: I am by no means done drinking. Christ's sake, I have a tattoo of hops and barley on my shoulder. Beer is life, damnit! This is more like a solid realization that, both for my weight loss and my general health, I need to drink less frequently.
lemurcat, thank yous o much for sharing your personal experience and for the encouragement at the end. This has been hard for me, like when I gave up smoking. Like smoking, I have this constant feeling that I'm missing out on something fun, although I couldn't name or describe what that was. My addiction to alcohol (I'm happy to call it that... I stare at the vodka bottle... I've shut myself in the pantry to take a slug of bourbon... all this, even though I wasn't drinking to get drunk) is probably a mental thing, but it is real. Anyway, I wanted to thank you also for your encouraging words.
Thanks to everyone for chiming in, regardless of how you feel about my post.8 -
I think your post is true for you, and it's true for some other people too. And like most things, mileage may vary. Don't apologize to the post title police.9
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Tomk652015 wrote: »just where is the "Pro Tip" in this...your a pro? jus curious.
It's a common phrase. No need to get panties bunched.
To OP: Couldn't agree more. The main difference between me bulking and me cutting is protein powder and about 3 extra 6-packs per week.8 -
I have to agree with the OP here. It does not matter if I factor in my alcohol calories to my daily goal or not, when I drink alcohol, it temporarily slows my rate of weight loss. I can feel the bloat the next day, a little more sluggishness and I invariably will see the scale edge up for the next couple of days. I can drink a couple of nights a week while in maintenance mode if I am working out five days a week and not see a gain overall, but while trying to lose weight, drinking is a real detriment for me.1
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I don't know all the science behind it - but the group of RD's that I work with has us log alcohol as a combo of carbs and fat because of how your body metabolizes it
so instead of those empty calories) that aren't accounted for by the carbs, convert those calories to fat - it was an eye-opener for me1 -
fenderman9 wrote: »Molson 67 IPA (the non India Pale Ale tastes like carbonated water ) 3% alcohol and only 70 Cal It's kind of like synthahol, when you stop drinking it you get sober right away! LOL! I do agree that the more I drink the less willpower I have to avoid snacking.
Slemans Clear is 70 calories and 4% (I think it has as much as "reg" beer) and could compete with Moosehead light or Coors light for taste.
I like the new Moose light raddlers (watermelon) 112 calories I think.0 -
The laws have recently changed in my state and a growing number of people are turning to a different and non-caloric plant for intoxication. It's sold in retail stores just like any other product. I've heard it makes people hungry for things like Doritos, other people say that's a myth. I don't know. But it's good that people have choices.4
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NorthCascades wrote: »The laws have recently changed in my state and a growing number of people are turning to a different and non-caloric plant for intoxication. It's sold in retail stores just like any other product. I've heard it makes people hungry for things like Doritos, other people say that's a myth. I don't know. But it's good that people have choices.
I've heard people refer to that as a "zero calorie buzz." That's true, until said hunger kicks in. It's funny how much less one might care when they are in that state of mind. Not that I'd know.1 -
Oh geez! I cannot even remember the last time I had a alcoholic beverage. I gave it up.2
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I like a drink at weekends and make it fit my goal no problem.
To each their own1 -
When I no longer have a toddler, I'll stop drinking9
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Pfttt..I don't wanna be ripped and miserable. I wanna be happy. Why can't I be happy6
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This is something everyone needs to decide for themselves and shows what is possible with awareness through logging/tracking calories. I prefer to use ~200 cals/day for a good craft ale, but as long as it fits in my budget - I'm good.
I think it's great that you came to this realization and trading one activity for another.0 -
Scotch, wine and beer every evening. Most mornings I get up at 4:30 AM and run. If I run less than 15 miles a week I gain weight and id I run 25 or more I lose weight. I cut back to just a couple of glasses of wine for a week and didn't lose any weight. I decided screw this and went back to my old routine and have lost about 6 pounds. Go figure. And yes I know if I were to remove all those calories I would lose weight but I enjoy the stress relief of drinking in the evening. I will eventually work on cutting back again.1
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