I like alcohol

katetwolf wrote: »

I am not an alcoholic but it totally screws with my progress. I like to indulge on the weekends and if I go out at night or occasionally having a beer relaxing after work. My fiancé he doesn't seem to gain any weight when you throw a few drinks into the mix. Does anyone else find this killing your progress

Yes definitely. Kills my motivation, too. But I have sections of my 20s when I would have met any reasonable definition of alcoholic.

Now I abstain from liquor always (and any alcohol most days) but occasionally budget for a good beer w/ dinner out or glass of wine if it's a weekend social event.

I prefer stouts and porters and they're pretty calorie dense. And none of my friends know how to go out and just have "a" beer, it always turns in to 2 or 3. On a typical night at a local brewery I could easily drink over half of my daily calories in about an hour. I was going over on my calories most Saturday's by about 1000 calories so I just decided to cut way back. I still occasionally have a good beer but always keep it at "a" beer.

Fitwarrior7_Round_2 wrote: »

I think your going to find a lot of us do. It just depends on how hard you want to work at it/what your willing to give up to meet your goals.

This for sure. I am not willing to give it up completely, so I just budget for it. I pre-log my food in the morning to make sure I am getting sufficient nutrition. I usually have about 200 calories left over, which I use for wine or ice cream, a second helping of dinner or whatever I am in the mood for that evening.

Sister lets discuss it over a drink. lmao I totally agree! By monday not only do I know I've totally indulged and probably ruined 4 days of progress in 2 days... but in addition to the added calories, I haven't worked out because my energy sucks.. and I'm bloated (as someone commented about the water retention.) I think eveyrone here is totally bang on in everything they're saying about moderation, and picking your times (extra cardio on fridays or sunday mornings.. ) I've also found a few other little tricks that may or may not be helpful...
1. cycle carbs lower in the days leading up to the weekend so you have some "extras" to help offset a couple of drinks.
2. Extra cardio not only for offsetting of calories but also because the endorphin release may help with cravings
3. Cycle between an alcoholic drink for a none alcoholic one
3. create your own drinks using diet stuff, water, crystal lites or stevia... I love the high cal coolers which does not help anything so I premix using lite cranberry and club soda (or a splash of bar lime) still not great but at least I know whats in there and its lower calorie.
premix. you know you will grab whatever is easiest. if you have to get up and mix something vs just grab a bottle.. chances are.. you'll grab the bottle.
On the last two points: trick yourself. mix a couple without any alcohol... that way no one (maybe even including you) knows if you are drinking or going "virgin" which avoids the whole self conscious explanation or social stuff.

I ride for beer, tequila, whisky, and vodka

You Are Not Alone. I think the biggest reason why I'm struggling so much this year is I've gone back to having drinks not as often but having drinks. Reflecting back over my year and a half a weight-loss I realize that the best time that I had for losing weight was when I cut out alcohol completely. Now I'm trying to have drinks not crazy but normal during parties or when we go out and not to a great extent. I can definitely see though how it's stopping my weight loss progression. But it's so hard to give up completely definitely need to find a happy medium.

I found a wine that is strong with low carbohydrates
so that I can have it on a regular basis. I'm still losing weight just have to practice moderation.

I have the same experience! I love to indulge in a beer or two with my family every now and again, but most of the time when I go out I'll drink Vodka with soda water and lime juice. It gives me something to sip on without adding an awful amount of calories. The other tricky thing is that once you start drinking, it's harder to stop at one.

So I guess I have to stop my weekend binging then. All the hard work and healthy eating during the week is probably going down the drain then huh? Ugh! Even if it's light, low carb beer???

I've given it up for a year. I wasn't abig drinker, but yes, I'd be far more likely to over eat with drink and over eat the following day.

Wine is the hardest thing for me to cut. I switched to white and rose for summer but half a bottle adds a lot of calories. I have to eliminate the sugary snacks from the daytime.