People who drink alcohol, how often do you do it

I'm your height, started losing somewhat lighter, but still over the line into class 1 obese.

While losing, I drank quite rarely: Not on a schedule, but on special occasions like a holiday or a restaurant outing with out-of-town friends I didn't see often.

In maintenance (for 7+ years now), I go through phases. Sometimes I have a couple of glasses of wine (4-5 oz, not giant) nearly every evening, sometimes I don't drink at all for weeks at a time, or drink only when I go out to eat (which is probably a couple of times a week on average, but variable).

For me during loss, routine alcohol would've interfered with hitting my nutritional goals (macros and micros). I wanted to preserve health, sustain athletic performance, and keep as much muscle mass as possible while losing fat. Regular alcohol would've limited my ability to accomplish those goals.

Now I have more calories, can fit it in more often and still accomplish other goals. But I'm also pretty old (68) and not as resilient as I was decades ago, so I can't go crazy and thrive.

Everyone's got different goals and different priorities, though, so I'm not implying judgement.

While losing, most of the time I was eating 1400-1600 plus exercise calories, so anywhere from 1600-2000 or so gross intake. In maintenance, it's usually 1850 plus exercise, so most often 2200-ish. That's slightly below my actual maintenance calories because I like to calorie bank and indulge occasionally. Actual maintenance calories are probably around 1950 -2100 plus exercise.

Within reasonable limits of moderation, it seems like alcohol affects my weight as the calories would predict. There are secondary problems, maybe: Harder to accurately keep track of food while drinking, tendency for alcohol to weaken self-control about tempting foods, and that sort of thing.

If so much alcohol were consumed regularly that one couldn't get adequate nutrition at one's calorie goal . . . I think that would be a bad plan, with unpredictable results. (I'm not saying that's what you're proposing doing!)

Hardly ever. On summer vacation I might have a glass of wine with dinner or thereafter most evenings, on other trips I might try something local and artisan. And otherwise... I have a few bottles of artisan gin in my cupboard for 8 years now, and 2-3 bottles of other booze for an equally long time... it just lasts for ages on me.

Infrequently. I have never been a heavy drinker, a beer in the summer after doing some hot and unpleasant job, some whiskey or rum every once in a while, a glass of wine at a special meal, but that was about it. Since going Keto, I find I am drinking far less. I still enjoy a drink, so it isn't like I have lost the taste for it, I just don't have the desire. I never found that having a drink within my calorie goal negatively affected my weight loss when I drank more. My suggestion is keep it within your goals.

I've cut back from being a daily drinker to only drinking alcohol once or twice per week on the weekend. I'm going to do dry January...I have done dry months before and I think this time I might just not go back to having alcohol at all.