Can I get some opinions on alcohol and dieting?

khicks137
khicks137 Posts: 12 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I hate to use the word "dieting" because my eating healthier isn't necessarily something I want to stop doing, but it seemed to be the best word for my question.

I enjoy one or two beers after a hard day and maybe a more than one or two on the weekends. I don't drink liquor except maybe once every few months. I don't want to give up my beers. How bad will this hinder my twenty pound weight loss by Thanksgiving goal? I'm talking Bud Light here, nothing fancy.

Would like to hear some thoughts!
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Replies

  • VeganSarahAnne0619
    VeganSarahAnne0619 Posts: 13 Member
    edited July 2017
    As long as it fits in your daily macros, go for it:) I drink wine and vodka water with mio a few times a week and I'm losing!
  • dlkfox
    dlkfox Posts: 463 Member
    edited July 2017
    As long as it fits in your daily macros and calories, enjoy. Just don't go hungry for those empty calories at the end of the day.
  • khicks137
    khicks137 Posts: 12 Member
    I keep coming across this word. Macros. Apparently this is different from calories?
  • VeganSarahAnne0619
    VeganSarahAnne0619 Posts: 13 Member
    Macros is like your calories, sugars, fats, carbs. Just your overall numbers you need to stay within.
  • Rocknut53
    Rocknut53 Posts: 1,795 Member
    Just remember that your body will metabolize alcohol calories first because it has no way to store those calories so it may hinder your loss a bit. If you stay under your allotted calories it shouldn't be a big issue, however when you are trying to lose weight you want your calories to be as nutritious as possible to stay healthy. That's where the macros come in: protein, carbs, and fat by percentage depending on how you set it up on MFP. For me, when I was losing it wasn't worth it to try to fit those beer calories in. Now that I'm at maintenance I sometimes drink a beer or two on days that I've exercised a lot.
  • Rammer123
    Rammer123 Posts: 679 Member
    khicks137 wrote: »
    I keep coming across this word. Macros. Apparently this is different from calories?

    Macros is short for Macronutrients which are carbs, fats, protein and alcohol which have calories. 4 calories per gram of carbs, 4 calories per gram of protein, 9 calories from fat and 7 calories per gram of alcohol.

    So if you're counting macros, you're also counting calories. But just because you are counting calories, doesn't necessarily mean you're counting your macros.

    There are also micronutrients which are vitamins and minerals, which themselves do not contain calories.

    Hope that helps.
  • khicks137
    khicks137 Posts: 12 Member
    RAD_Fitness wrote: »
    khicks137 wrote: »
    I keep coming across this word. Macros. Apparently this is different from calories?

    Macros is short for Macronutrients which are carbs, fats, protein and alcohol which have calories. 4 calories per gram of carbs, 4 calories per gram of protein, 9 calories from fat and 7 calories per gram of alcohol.

    Is there a certain percentage or whatever of macros a person should have in a day? Is it different for everyone?
  • Ws2016
    Ws2016 Posts: 431 Member
    At 99 cals you'd have to put down a lot of Bud Lights to ruin your calorie counting program. Just factor in the cals. You are counting calories, RIGHT?
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    khicks137 wrote: »
    I hate to use the word "dieting" because my eating healthier isn't necessarily something I want to stop doing, but it seemed to be the best word for my question.

    I enjoy one or two beers after a hard day and maybe a more than one or two on the weekends. I don't drink liquor except maybe once every few months. I don't want to give up my beers. How bad will this hinder my twenty pound weight loss by Thanksgiving goal? I'm talking Bud Light here, nothing fancy.

    Would like to hear some thoughts!

    Just make sure you are getting your nutrition in. Alcohol can fit into any weight loss program but can be an issue if you are not getting enough protein, fats, carbs, etc.
  • khicks137
    khicks137 Posts: 12 Member
    Ws2016 wrote: »
    You are counting calories, RIGHT?

    I managed to somehow post this question twice. Some others on the other discussion thread said I need to track macros, too. I currently am tracking calories but have not learned much about macros yet. Will have to do some research on that, but I have the tracking of calories down!
  • Rammer123
    Rammer123 Posts: 679 Member
    khicks137 wrote: »
    RAD_Fitness wrote: »
    khicks137 wrote: »
    I keep coming across this word. Macros. Apparently this is different from calories?

    Macros is short for Macronutrients which are carbs, fats, protein and alcohol which have calories. 4 calories per gram of carbs, 4 calories per gram of protein, 9 calories from fat and 7 calories per gram of alcohol.

    Is there a certain percentage or whatever of macros a person should have in a day? Is it different for everyone?

    There are different sort of macro splits that can be helpful depending on your goals. A lot of people have success with a 40/40/20 split of p/c/f.

    Another way you can set it up is to get 1g of protein per pound of body weight, 0.35g of fat per pound of body weight, and then that allows you to fill the remainder of your calories from carbohydrates or alcohol. For example a 200lb person would eat 200g of protein, 70g of fat and then any remaining calories from any macro nutrient (carbs, fat, protein or alcohol)

    But like someone mentioned above, alcohol does have an effect on how your body metabolizes energy. Alcohol also lowers your testosterone and protein synthesis, increases estrogen, which will in turn make it a bit more difficult to lose the weight. You can definitely do it, just may be a bit more difficult.
  • khicks137
    khicks137 Posts: 12 Member
    Thanks for all of this info!
  • Ws2016
    Ws2016 Posts: 431 Member
    Beer calories will up your carb percentage so you will want to consider that when establishing your targets.
  • tr_absher
    tr_absher Posts: 4 Member
    Alcohol is the hardest part about dieting !! Especially when you have a pretty stressful job ! I am a whiskey drinker and there is no way I could ever completely give it up so I try to pick just 2 days out of the week that I can have a couple drinks and just by cutting back to that I have noticed a big difference !
  • _pi3_
    _pi3_ Posts: 2,311 Member
    I don't count alcohol calories but I try to stay within 1200
  • fishcat123
    fishcat123 Posts: 74 Member
    It's fine if it fits in your calories but might make you retain water. It helps somewhat to drink more water than usual to compensate.

    Also, watch out for tipsy eating... Even a couple drinks definitely lowers my inhibitions about having extra pasta or nachos, wahh :(
  • dlkfox
    dlkfox Posts: 463 Member
    forward0backward wrote: »
    I don't count alcohol calories but I try to stay within 1200

    Why wouldn't you count those calories? That doesn't even begin to make sense.
  • rmgnow
    rmgnow Posts: 375 Member
    I count the beer to my calories and it works fine for me.
    When I drink beers I do not look at macros.

    Anyway my personal stance on beer is that it is good for you. I personally think beer is a probiotic and I actually see some gains if I have 1-2 bottles a night
  • LisaEatSleepRun
    LisaEatSleepRun Posts: 159 Member
    dlkfox wrote: »
    As long as it fits in your daily macros and calories, enjoy. Just don't go hungry for those empty calories at the end of the day.

    Macro breakdown doesn't mean anything in terms of weight loss. You could eat 100% calories from fat one day, 100% calories from carbs the next day & 100% calories from protein the next day & while you would likely feel horrible, it would not affect your weight. Same with alcohol, your could drink 100% of your calories in alcohol & see no true difference in your actual body weight. Calories count, nothing more or less.

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