Can I get some opinions on alcohol and dieting?

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!

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.

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 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.

Beer calories will up your carb percentage so you will want to consider that when establishing your targets.

I don't count alcohol calories but I try to stay within 1200

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.

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

Alcohol makes me not give a damn about my calorie targets, even if I can fit it in within them, and as is well documented, it also overrides the brain's signal to stop eating, so alcohol = uncontrolled eating for me. I love booze too, and because one drink usually leads to several, I have to limit myself to having it once a fortnight or so. The first one is by far the easiest to say no to.

When an event like this happens, typically I drink 8 or 9 standard drinks and it takes the best part of a week to get back to my pre-binge weight.

I've got a garage full of home-brewed beer and cider that is going to take me a very long time to drink at the current rate.

khicks137 wrote: »

I keep coming across this word. Macros. Apparently this is different from calories?

Macros are the three categories that all of your food breaks down into: proteins, fats and carbs. You need a good balance of each in order to maintain a healthy diet. A good baseline is 20-35% fats, 45-65% carbs and 10-35% proteins. The distributions vary depending on your goals.

Alcohol falls into the "carbs" category and are referred to as "empty" calories because you're taking in the carbs/calories but aren't getting any real nutritional value from it.

While you can drink on a diet, you have to maintain your macro distribution and remember that every drink (and every calorie) counts towards your daily caloric goals.

Moderate your intake and pay attention to how many calories they add up to

Alcoholic beverages are a diet challenge. First, alcohol has 7kcals per g, second only to fat. Second, alcohol tends to "burn first" causing other nutrients to be stored as fat. Third, alcohol lowers your rational inhibition to overeating and drinking.

If you can master all that, I'm sure it's fine to have a beer or glass of wine every day. I tend do do better to limit the number of days where I drink.

Check the nutrition section of your diary

khicks137 wrote: »

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!

If you're logging your food on MFP your macros are at the bottom of the page - it will give you your calories for the day and each of the macros you're tracking (how much of each you've eaten and what's left)