Drinking on a diet

cmriverside wrote: »

wyattbeaulieu2 wrote: »

I am a bit of a borderline alcoholic, and my girlfriend and I have decided to start tracking our calories and losing weight for the sake of our son. Ive been into high calorie beers for a very long time, so I've been trying to stick to liquor because it's a lot more efficient calorie wise. What do some of you that have lost weight while drinking suggest?

There really isn't a problem with drinking (calorie wise) if you don't have a drinking problem. Two drinks per day max for men, not to exceed 14 drinks per week. That's a couple hundred calories per day and should easily fit into your goals. A single shot of vodka is about 80 calories.

If you're drinking more than that, not much can mitigate the calorie and subsequent weight problem. I found it also used to affect my choices in food when I drank. Lots of greasy heavy meals. Also a problem for health and weight loss.

I quit drinking years ago. It was time. If your first post on a fitness website starts with the words, "I am a bit of a borderline alcoholic," I think you probably need to face that issue and get some help. The part of your post where you say, "It's a lot more efficient calorie wise," you mean, "I get a buzz for fewer calories so I can drink more," right?

@cmriverside - well stated and i couldn't add more to that.

I used to be an alcoholic/alcohol abuser/whatever you want to call it. I'm telling you from experience, you need to fix that first. You say you are losing weight for the sake of your kid? Deal with your drinking issue for the sake of your kid.

I'm not trying to be a *kitten* - I'm coming from a place of experience.

EDIT - I just saw above that you said you're going to abstain for a few weeks, but truth is it needs to be a lot longer than a few weeks. Yes, there are people who can go from abuse to moderate drinking, but there is usually a long period of abstinence between the two if that is the case. We are talking months or years. You will know somewhere deep down if you can actually drink moderately or not when the time comes.

It's the little things that tell the true change, at least in my experience. The things like being able to keep alcohol in the house for an extended period of time, when you legitimately hate having more than 2 or 3 drinks, like being able to get up from a bar/restaurant with 2/3s of a beer in the glass and not even thinking about chugging it. The times where one actually is all you want and a second doesn't cross your mind. The times where you think for a second and remember it's been 10 days since you had a drink, and that it was one when you did, and you didn't even realize the time passed. The times where you're default DD and it's simply because you don't want to drink, not because you drew the short straw. Until all of that can happen without a conscious effort to make it happen, a person who abuses alcohol still has a problem.

I've got experience with this stuff and I actually have a passion for helping others with substance abuse issues due to that experience and my successful turn towards moderation and normalcy. Shoot me a PM if you want, I'd be glad to share more.

youcantflexcardio wrote: »

I used to be an alcoholic/alcohol abuser/whatever you want to call it. I'm telling you from experience, you need to fix that first. You say you are losing weight for the sake of your kid? Deal with your drinking issue for the sake of your kid.

I'm not trying to be a *kitten* - I'm coming from a place of experience.

EDIT - I just saw above that you said you're going to abstain for a few weeks, but truth is it needs to be a lot longer than a few weeks. Yes, there are people who can go from abuse to moderate drinking, but there is usually a long period of abstinence between the two if that is the case. We are talking months or years. You will know somewhere deep down if you can actually drink moderately or not when the time comes.

It's the little things that tell the true change, at least in my experience. The things like being able to keep alcohol in the house for an extended period of time, when you legitimately hate having more than 2 or 3 drinks, like being able to get up from a bar/restaurant with 2/3s of a beer in the glass and not even thinking about chugging it. The times where one actually is all you want and a second doesn't cross your mind. The times where you think for a second and remember it's been 10 days since you had a drink, and that it was one when you did, and you didn't even realize the time passed. The times where you're default DD and it's simply because you don't want to drink, not because you drew the short straw. Until all of that can happen without a conscious effort to make it happen, a person who abuses alcohol still has a problem.

I've got experience with this stuff and I actually have a passion for helping others with substance abuse issues due to that experience and my successful turn towards moderation and normalcy. Shoot me a PM if you want, I'd be glad to share more.

Ya, I can drink moderately now, but that was only after years of abstinence. In the beginning, it was much easier to abstain than to even consider the possibility of drinking moderately.

@wyattbeaulieu2 just a few Smart Recovery and Rational Recovery meetings were all I needed to change my relationship with alcohol. I believe only SR has in-person meetings these days. '

As a bonus, the cognitive behavioral techniques I learned there apply to food issues as well.

Best wishes to you and your family.

youcantflexcardio wrote: »

@kshama2001 @wyattbeaulieu2

I forgot to mention that I had undiagnosed mental health issues when I was abusing alcohol the hardest, and that dealing with those and getting on medication made moderation 100x easier as I was aware of the issue and was not subconsciously self medicating with booze.

I don't necessarily believe in the whole "alcoholics can never moderate" thing AA preaches, not in every case - but I do believe that is true for a lot of alcoholics. I can say with almost certainty that a person could not go from drinking how I used to drink to how I drink now and truly believe that the only reason I am an outlier is because of the MH and medication factor.

Yes, I was definitely self-medicating with alcohol and have since switched to managing stress with regular exercise. I took up yoga about the time I stopped drinking, and that was tremendously helpful.

AA actually has a very low success rate. I encourage those few for whom it works to carry on, and for the rest to try something different like Smart Recovery or cognitive behavioral therapy.

There are many paths up the mountain.