Food Choice

No one can make you!

But: When I want to lose weight, the first thing to go is "da beers." Alcohol presents three challenges

1) Calories. Per gram, alcohol is second only to fat. Also, it is only metabolized in the liver.

2) Lowers inhibition. This is a problem when it lowers your inhibition to eating and drinking more.

3) Habit forming. As you say, once you've gotten in the habit of drinking daily, it's a bit hard to give it up. (Varies strongly person-to-person.)

BUT: so long as you account for the calories, you can probably still lose weight while consuming alcohol daily. It just steals from other sources of calories. So, less is better. (I keep telling myself...)

05gnarledkingdom6314 wrote: »

I try to do the same breakfast and lunch daily…I exercise 5 days a week…I just don’t want to give up my 2 cocktails at night.

You can have the cocktails, and breakfast and lunch plus even dinner . . . as long as the total calories add up to a deficit. It isn't an especially health-forward approach, and has the downsides @Jthanmyfitnesspal noted, but it could be done in theory.

You might need to reduce the calories in your meals. Quite possibly, you'd get inadequate nutrition, and that could also affect cravings, satiety, health, exercise performance and more. But those are tradeoffs you can make personally-appropriate decisions about.

Exercise just lets you eat/drink a little more while losing at the same rate. That might be helpful given the nutritional pressure created by the alcohol, but that, too, would be individual. Exercise for sure doesn't guarantee weight loss: I was training pretty hard 6 days most weeks, and even competing as an athlete (not always unsuccessfully), while staying overweight/obese . . . for around 12 years.

I'm not sure what your aim is in posting, but I don't say that as a cheap shot in any way. (I did drink some alcohol while losing weight, BTW, and a little bit more now in maintenance, since I have more calories to work with. If I go too far down that path, I feel worse, subjectively, though, and I don't have to go all the way or even close to alcoholism to notice that. It happens at the couple of drinks stage.)

If you're looking for us to give you permission to keep your drinks, maybe I just did. It's your decision, though.

If you're telling us you don't want to make the tradeoffs you think are necessary to achieve your weight management goals, that's your decision, too.

If you're trying to shift some of the decision to the peanut gallery here . . . well, sorry, nope.

I wish you success in all senses - weight management goals, plus quality of life now and future. The tradeoffs are all in your bailiwick, though, not ours.

People above are appealing to reason. The human attraction to alcohol is primal. It varies strongly by the individual. Some is OK, but less is always better.

Calories: A "shot" (a puny 1.5 oz. serving) of any liquor is just about 100kcals. If you measure your drinks you could probably get away with 2 shots a day, particularly if you do a little exercise.

Best of luck!

I understand your predicament. I don't have two cocktails daily but I do enjoy cocktails with friends one day weekly at lunch, and a couple on weekends. I don't know what you usually drink, but have you thought about a lower calorie version? The last time I was on a weight loss journey I switched from wine to a spritzer made with club soda and limes. The volume was larger so I had one instead of two glasses of wine. Soda can be added to many things. I shouldn't admit this, but I like alcohol so did not want to give it up completely. Good luck on finding a solution that works for you.