Quit drinking alcohol, not losing weight
Thick_Chickk
Posts: 608 Member
I was drinking about everyday for a year. About 8-9 beers plus a bunch of junk food while intoxicated. I gained 40 pounds. It's been a week since I quit drinking. I've been counting calories but staying about 2000 just because I've just felt really hungry. I haven't lost any weight and I'm a little ticked off. I'm thinking of cutting down to 1200 calories starting tomorrow, having one maintenance days week, and working out 4x a week. Does this seem like a good plan?
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No it doesn't, your body will be healing it's self now that you have stopped drinking. It needs calories and protein to do that.
It's only been a week. Drop by another 100 and see how you get on but don't go to 1200.
Congratulations on stopping drinking.15 -
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You're eating more than you think. Till you accurately measure actual intake, you'll likely be overconsuming calories.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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No. Change nothing. A week isn't any kind of reasonable trial period.
And if you're at 2000 cals, why the desire to go 1200? Rethink. Lots of room to work below 2000 before you cut to 1200. Give it a chance6 -
Beautiful__Ending wrote: »I was drinking about everyday for a year. About 8-9 beers plus a bunch of junk food while intoxicated. I gained 40 pounds. It's been a week since I quit drinking. I've been counting calories but staying about 2000 just because I've just felt really hungry. I haven't lost any weight and I'm a little ticked off. I'm thinking of cutting down to 1200 calories starting tomorrow, having one maintenance days week, and working out 4x a week. Does this seem like a good plan?
Why do you need to cut to 1200?0 -
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Beautiful__Ending wrote: »I was drinking about everyday for a year. About 8-9 beers plus a bunch of junk food while intoxicated. I gained 40 pounds. It's been a week since I quit drinking. I've been counting calories but staying about 2000 just because I've just felt really hungry. I haven't lost any weight and I'm a little ticked off. I'm thinking of cutting down to 1200 calories starting tomorrow, having one maintenance days week, and working out 4x a week. Does this seem like a good plan?
First, did you plug your stats into MFP? What is the calorie target the system gave you? (I would suggest starting with one lb. a week because, as another poster mentioned, your body is healing).
Second, get yourself a food scale. There are good ones you can get for $15 or so at places like Amazon and Walmart. Getting an idea of portion size as well as a good handle on your macro mix through accurate logging will help for the long run.
Lastly, be patient with yourself. The best advice I was given when I first started out was: "you are NOT making a big change in your life, you are making a series of small changes". You have already changed one thing, stopped drinking. Make that a habit and move on to another thing (like weighing and measuring food). When that becomes a habit, then pay more attention to actual calorie and macro counts.6 -
Come down on ur calories slowly about 200 to 500 max. Have patience. Change it up sometimes with making protein higher than carbs or vice versa so ur body when it adapts to having same schedule u have to change something up. U can add in cardio without decreasing ur calories but u would have to do cardio 200 calories per session. Start from 2 days cardio a week and increase the days u do cardio from there when u stop losing about a pound to 2 pounds a week depends on ur body. Good luck3
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Find your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) and eat 500 calories less from it.
http://damnripped.com/tdee-calculator/
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition 1 -
I'd start with picking up an inexpensive digital scale and before you make changes get your portions where you know for sure what you are taking in. Also, you are still probably going to have a little inflammation and sometimes our bodies will hang on to water to help flush the inflammation. Do you drink much water? There are differing opinions, but I have found more is better than less. Hang in there, keep trying you got this!2
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suzannesimmons3 wrote: »Buy a scale and use it....then after a few weeks you can see about slowly cutting calories if loss isn't forthcoming. Your body is still healing itself so be kind.
This is one of the best pieces of advice you can receive during a stall (but a week or even two or three isn't considered a stall). Buy a food scale. Weigh everything you eat and use only measuring cups for liquids. Weigh even prepackaged food.
Not drinking alcohol will only help if it brings you into a calorie deficit.
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Did you put your stats into MFP? Set for 1 lb per week and see how many calories it recommends.
You don't have to measure every little thing you eat forever. Since you're concerned about not losing, measuring & weighing will be good way to get your habits recalibrated. Doing this for awhile will help you learn accurate portion control, which is the key to lifelong maintenance.
Prepackaged foods can vary quite a bit, so that's the reason a lot of people weigh them.2 -
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I aswell have been told not too cut down too 1200 calories. I am at just over 2000 a day. I am going to remain at this for a while1
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By prepackaged what do u mean? Like tins of beans or tins of tuna?0
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Beautiful__Ending wrote: »suzannesimmons3 wrote: »Beautiful__Ending wrote: »suzannesimmons3 wrote: »Honestly scales are not over the top. I will bet you money what you weigh in a cup will be way more than you think....so you "think" you are on 1200 but more than likely you are on 1500+
packages are not allowed to weigh less than stated so to make sure they are not breaking the law they can and do add more to the pack sometimes 10-20% more than stated
Like I said, I lost over 50 pounds doing it the way you say is "incorrect". I don't need everything to be 100% as long as I'm getting around what I'm aiming for. Nothing is 100% either way. An egg for example may say it's 70 calories but it may really be 60 or 80. This is suppose to be a way of life and I won't be measuring every little thing I eat forever.
Btw I never said scales are over the top, I said measuring prepackaged foods is a bit extreme..obsessive imo.
But you aren't losing by guessing now.
You asked for advice and a scale is what 99% of people here will tell you will get the best results but if you want to carry on assuming go right ahead but know if you carry on in a stall it will be you are not using a scale and eating more than you think
I AM using a scale but only for meat. Anything else I use measuring cups. It's only been a week plus I was basically eating at maintenance this past week. I was wondering why, even at maintenance I wasn't losing because while drinking I was averaging around 4000 calories a day, going from 4000 to 2000 should result in a loss.. but again it's only been a week and I am cutting my calories down starting today. But I will not measure prepackaged foods.. that's just silly to me.
I was eyeballing stuff out for awhile, but like I said previously I'm starting to measure again, just not to the extreme like you say.
This doesn't make sense. You won't lose at maintenance even if your calorie level was higher before you started reaching maintenance. You need to be at a deficit to lose weight.1 -
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Beautiful__Ending wrote: »Beautiful__Ending wrote: »suzannesimmons3 wrote: »Beautiful__Ending wrote: »suzannesimmons3 wrote: »Honestly scales are not over the top. I will bet you money what you weigh in a cup will be way more than you think....so you "think" you are on 1200 but more than likely you are on 1500+
packages are not allowed to weigh less than stated so to make sure they are not breaking the law they can and do add more to the pack sometimes 10-20% more than stated
Like I said, I lost over 50 pounds doing it the way you say is "incorrect". I don't need everything to be 100% as long as I'm getting around what I'm aiming for. Nothing is 100% either way. An egg for example may say it's 70 calories but it may really be 60 or 80. This is suppose to be a way of life and I won't be measuring every little thing I eat forever.
Btw I never said scales are over the top, I said measuring prepackaged foods is a bit extreme..obsessive imo.
But you aren't losing by guessing now.
You asked for advice and a scale is what 99% of people here will tell you will get the best results but if you want to carry on assuming go right ahead but know if you carry on in a stall it will be you are not using a scale and eating more than you think
I AM using a scale but only for meat. Anything else I use measuring cups. It's only been a week plus I was basically eating at maintenance this past week. I was wondering why, even at maintenance I wasn't losing because while drinking I was averaging around 4000 calories a day, going from 4000 to 2000 should result in a loss.. but again it's only been a week and I am cutting my calories down starting today. But I will not measure prepackaged foods.. that's just silly to me.
I was eyeballing stuff out for awhile, but like I said previously I'm starting to measure again, just not to the extreme like you say.
This doesn't make sense. You won't lose at maintenance even if your calorie level was higher before you started reaching maintenance. You need to be at a deficit to lose weight.
I exercised 4 days last week so that would create a deficit.
If you weren't accurate with your logging, and you think you were eating at maintenance then how would you know? You should be eating at a deficit based on your TDEE minus your weekly weight loss goal, and then maybe eating back half of your exercise calories(depending on the type and duration of the exercise).4 -
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Beautiful__Ending wrote: »But I will not measure prepackaged foods.. that's just silly to me.
You know those packages of pre-cooked bacon? I used one in a recipe a while ago, and decided to weigh it just for the sake of accuracy. The box said something like 65g for the entire package. It was 116g - that's a substantial difference!
It's entirely up to you, obviously, but if you get everything else as accurate as you can and you're still not losing as much as you expect then consider weighing those things as well.
Congratulations on quitting drinking, though, that's a great thing you've done for your health and well being right there. Once you get your calorie allowance and everything else figured out - and it can take some time and experimentation, because like you said it's all estimates - then you'll start losing. Consistency and patience are key, but perfection isn't required! 3 -
If you're eating at roughly maintenance, and exercising some, but you are not exactly sure how many exercise calories you have and if you're really eating at maintenance or a little over, you may be "stuck" successfully at maintenance.
It sounds like you were successful before with this system. The problem with jumping down to 1200, unless you're very petite and older, is that most people can lose weight at that, but then eat so much once they're "done" that they over eat and gain the weight back. I'd go to 1500 and take it a little slower. See how much you lose in a month and if it's sustainable, and adjust accordingly. (For me mfp put maintenance at 1340 so I set to 1200. Slow going... )0 -
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Be gentle on yourself. Cutting out alcohol is a huge change, not just in terms of calories. When I stopped drinking, I remember it took several weeks for me to begin to lose weight. Once I had my head back, I did a Whole30. It really helped me feel like I was starting over and it helped me lose weight while eating to fullness. My eating habits totally changed. That was four years ago. Good for you for cutting out alcohol -- whether it's for weight loss/gain or other reasons, it can do nothing but good for you if you were consistently drinking several drinks/beers a day. Sending support!4
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Beautiful__Ending wrote: »fiddletime wrote: »If you're eating at roughly maintenance, and exercising some, but you are not exactly sure how many exercise calories you have and if you're really eating at maintenance or a little over, you may be "stuck" successfully at maintenance.
It sounds like you were successful before with this system. The problem with jumping down to 1200, unless you're very petite and older, is that most people can lose weight at that, but then eat so much once they're "done" that they over eat and gain the weight back. I'd go to 1500 and take it a little slower. See how much you lose in a month and if it's sustainable, and adjust accordingly. (For me mfp put maintenance at 1340 so I set to 1200. Slow going... )
Yes that makes sense! I tend to take a cheat day on Sundays (thats what I've always done) I know a lot of people don't agree with cheat days but it's what works for me, and eating 1200-1300 the rest of the time. Ive tried many other ways, eating 1500 everyday of the week, with no cheat never worked. My body just works differently I guess who knows lol
Then I'd just go back to doing what worked before. When I cut out alcohol I didn't lose weight but it made staying on top of my calories more accurate, even with counting my drinking calories, as I didn't munch as much at night. Give it time, you'll get there.
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