Weekend drinking

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  • Lean59man
    Lean59man Posts: 714 Member
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    Most of the really dumb things I've done in my life were when I was drunk.

    So I advise against that.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,576 Member
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    Jthanmyfitnesspal wrote: »
    My only tip for not drinking (and I am no saint in this department) is: Be kind to your future selves.

    Picture yourself at various points in the future as a group of your best friends. There is the "Tomorrow-Morning You." What would she want? To get up feeling great? Then there is "You-In-1-Year" (and 5 and 10). Could you give them something fantastic, such as a healthy body and mind?

    Not saying this is bad advice. But I'm several years past the half century mark, still drinking and still healthy.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    Need2Exerc1se wrote: »
    Jthanmyfitnesspal wrote: »
    My only tip for not drinking (and I am no saint in this department) is: Be kind to your future selves.

    Picture yourself at various points in the future as a group of your best friends. There is the "Tomorrow-Morning You." What would she want? To get up feeling great? Then there is "You-In-1-Year" (and 5 and 10). Could you give them something fantastic, such as a healthy body and mind?

    Not saying this is bad advice. But I'm several years past the half century mark, still drinking and still healthy.

    Yes, this is a better argument for moderating drinking (or avoiding problem drinking) than it is for not drinking. I know plenty of healthy and successful people who drink sometimes, they just drink in a way that doesn't compromise their other goals and priorities.

  • Lizakabibbis
    Lizakabibbis Posts: 370 Member
    edited November 2017
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    I get drinking socially - maybe just slow down and do that whole water between drinks thing (it's what I do!) I try to limit myself to 2 drinks when out with friends - one because its expensive and two - I don't want to spend the week undoing what a weekend of drinking did.
  • kq1981
    kq1981 Posts: 1,098 Member
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    I "bank" calories and try to drink low carb beer (pure blondes) or sugar free pre made drinks. I make sure I eat a load of veggies for dinner to keep my meals low cal
  • Nony_Mouse
    Nony_Mouse Posts: 5,646 Member
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    You've had plenty of tips for the drinking bit, so I will give one for the next day: plan your hangover food (making sure it is stuff that hungover you is going to go 'omg, yes!' to, which doesn't have to mean high cal), and have it ready and waiting. That way you're less inclined to order a pizza ;)
  • Jthanmyfitnesspal
    Jthanmyfitnesspal Posts: 3,521 Member
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    Need2Exerc1se wrote: »
    But I'm several years past the half century mark, still drinking and still healthy.

    No question you can do that at strictly moderate levels. For women, that's defined as 1 "drink" and for men, it's 2 per day. A "drink" is 14g or 0.6oz of pure alcohol, equivalent to what's in a 12oz beer or 5oz glass of wine. These are guidelines only. I just note that a single 5oz glass of wine goes by pretty fast!

    https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/faqs.htm

    There is new evidence of a no-threshold linear effect on lifetime breast cancer risk with weekly alcohol consumption level, but the increases for a single glass of wine a day are very low (insignificant WRT other factors?)

    https://nyti.ms/2hQUGP7
  • emmyjaykay
    emmyjaykay Posts: 83 Member
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    When I was on MFP the first time, I was 21/22 and a recent college graduate. That basically meant I was going out all the time, drinking more nights than not, and enjoying whatever mixed drinks I wanted.

    All I did was pre-log where I could, bank a couple hundred calories on days I stayed in, and make up any excess the next day with a little extra on my workout. I didn't try to stay away from the drinks I liked (at that point, I was really into whiskey and ginger/jack and diet/IPAs). I didn't edit my drink preferences—I just made room for them. I still lost weight as long as I was logging honestly and accurately. I only gained weight when I stopped using MFP and stopped paying attention to what I was putting in my body.

    As an aside, I love gemstone's water-in-the-beer-can trick. Now that I'm a little older and prefer to stay mostly sober, I'm going to be stealing that!
  • maura_tasi
    maura_tasi Posts: 196 Member
    edited November 2017
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    I don't drink nearly as much since I graduated college since I finally realized how much it was actually impacting my weight. I'm only 22 though so I still enjoy going out and having a good time but I try to stay away from heavy calorie drinks and I limit myself to going out only on the weekends (most weekends I'm only drinking one of the nights unless there is an occasion). I'm a fan of vodka sodas with lime. I also like vodka with sparkling water (or soda water) with a few squirts of that mio flavoring! It tastes like a yummy drink but since the flavoring and sparking water/soda are zero calories you're still only getting the calories from the vodka! It doesn't take much for me to feel the alcohol, but those are my suggestions for lower calorie drinks! I find that I have less of a headache in the morning as well since I'm not drinking things with juice or filling up in cheap beer. My downfall on the weekends is usually the snacks I feel the need to have once im home from a night out :neutral: I've started just bringing a set amount of cash out so I don't have much to spend at the end of the night and I only keep ~somewhat~ healthy snacks at home so when the inevitable munchies hit I'm not completely self sabotaging myself
  • nowine4me
    nowine4me Posts: 3,985 Member
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    I can make a glass of red wine last for an entire meal these days.
  • TonyB0588
    TonyB0588 Posts: 9,520 Member
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    tyrindor wrote: »
    Let's do the math here. A heavy beer is about 150 calories. A light bear is about 100 calories.

    Let's say you drank a 6 pack. That's 900 calories for heavy beer, and 600 calories for light beer. That's not that much in the grand scheme of things. You can just eat less on the day you go out, and still be at a deficient.

    Let's take it a step further. You drink 12 cans, that's enough for most people to get completely trashed. That's 1,800 for heavy beer, and 1,200 calories for light beer. That's... still not that much. You can still easily offset that by eating a little less the day of, and the next day or two.

    You also need to factor in when you go out with friends you will be moving around more, burning a lot more calories than if you stayed home and watched TV. If you go dancing, clubbing, etc.. you can burn most those extra calories that very night.

    I don't see the problem unless you drink multiple times a week and/or aren't offseting for it.

    Sorry. This doesn't make sense. Those calories for a 6 pack of beer, or 12 cans, are just ridiculous. You say it's not much, but that's more than some of my complete meals!!
  • Maxxitt
    Maxxitt Posts: 1,281 Member
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    tyrindor wrote: »
    Let's do the math here. A heavy beer is about 150 calories. A light bear is about 100 calories.

    Let's say you drank a 6 pack. That's 900 calories for heavy beer, and 600 calories for light beer. That's not that much in the grand scheme of things. You can just eat less on the day you go out, and still be at a deficient.

    Let's take it a step further. You drink 12 cans, that's enough for most people to get completely trashed. That's 1,800 for heavy beer, and 1,200 calories for light beer. That's... still not that much. You can still easily offset that by eating a little less the day of, and the next day or two.

    You also need to factor in when you go out with friends you will be moving around more, burning a lot more calories than if you stayed home and watched TV. If you go dancing, clubbing, etc.. you can burn most those extra calories that very night.

    I don't see the problem unless you drink multiple times a week and/or aren't offseting for it.

    FWIW, the last beer I had (a few weeks ago) was Os'o Night Train - craft beer - clocked in at 210 calories. For my daily intake (250 cal daily deficit) of 1340, that's a pretty significant hit. Not so "easy" to offset a bunch of those lol.

  • StatsGuy99
    StatsGuy99 Posts: 35 Member
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    I've mostly switched to whiskey. I can sip at a single shot of whiskey for a full hour.
  • Jthanmyfitnesspal
    Jthanmyfitnesspal Posts: 3,521 Member
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    Most of the points here are good. It comes down to: be aware of how much you're drinking if you want to control your weight (and your health).

    One more factoid: 12oz of beer @ 4%abv has:

    355ml * .04 * 7 = 99kcals

    Meaning that a large fraction of the calories in any beer are from the alcohol. For lite beer, nearly all the calories are from alcohol. Think of alcohol as "liquid fat."
  • MostlyWater
    MostlyWater Posts: 4,294 Member
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    Some alcohol is good for the body.

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