Alcohol and Weight Loss

I don't drink during the week because it is difficult to get in the long workouts to overcome the calories. I do have a few drinks on the weekend, but I exercise for over an hour to get the calorie burn in. What I do not do is exchange my food calories for alcohol calories. You need to make sure you are eating food and not just empty calories. I have tried it both ways and I did not lose eating less and drinking. Some days I just want a glass of wine and 1 is okay, but I mostly keep it to Friday and Saturday in so I can really get in a good calorie burn. Hope that helps. Also I stick to vodka and wine and it is a good wine so I enjoy it.

I drink every weekend, and when I do drink, it's normally at least a bottle of wine. I know that that probably isn't good for me, but it's what I do, and I have lost weight consistently over the last year. So, from a weight loss point of view, it's totally possible to still drink alcohol, as long as you account for the calories.

Treat it like chocolate, its calories that you may enjoy but will do very little good for you.

If you are getting enough goodness and have some left over calories then that is fine assuming you are happy with the rate that you will be losing at and you can control the amount you have.

There is a thought. For all those threads that have someone asking why they are not losing weight and the reply is you are having too few calories,eat more, the answer for them could be to drink more instead.

I posted this in another thread. Just so you can see it's not all about the calories. It's always good to be informed. :flowerforyou:

"Well, according to research carried in the American Journal
of Clinical Nutrition, alcohol puts the brakes on fat
metabolism (your body’s ability to burn fat as energy) in
more ways than one. In the study, eight people were given
two vodka drinks separated by 30 minutes.

Fat metabolism was checked both before and after each drink.
It turns out that even hours after drinking both drinks, fat
metabolism dropped by an incredible 73%. What is happening?

When you drink alcohol, your liver converts it into a
substance called acetate. (The acetate levels in the
subject’s bodies were 2.5 times higher than normal). And it
is the acetates in your body that make losing blubber almost
impossible.

Your body prefers burning acetate to all other sources of
fuel (fat being one of them), and basically shuts down its
normal process of burning off any other source of energy.

In other research, alcohol has been shown to increase
appetite. When you combine alcohol with meals, studies have
shown you tend to eat more. And since the alcohol is going
to serve as your body’s primary source of fuel, all the
calories go directly to your waistline.

And finally, alcohol increases your cortisol levels and
decreases your testosterone levels for about 24 hours after
you imbibe. And this definitely is not good for trimming
down or adding muscle!"

sit back and look at what your drinking. Could u change it up to something less sweet or less cals. I use to drink budweiser and switched to select 55. It has fewer cals and taste just as good. I tried the cuttin it out totally then I thought this is a life time commitment do i honsetly want to cut my beer out all together. NOPE so I just learned how to add it to my diet.

sit back and look at what your drinking. Could u change it up to something less sweet or less cals. I use to drink budweiser and switched to select 55. It has fewer cals and taste just as good. I tried the cuttin it out totally then I thought this is a life time commitment do i honsetly want to cut my beer out all together. NOPE so I just learned how to add it to my diet.

ditto I like my beer, stella yum, but at 250 cals a pint, I need to cut it out / down (i dont like the lower cal beers)

I think you can still lose with drinking. You have to allow yourself to enjoy things in life in moderation. Unless you have some sort of drinking problem. Me personally enjoy my weekend beers, and it normally gets worse in summer with all the BBQ's we go to. Just watch your moderation if you dont want to keep it. Honestly too maybe try a light beer?? if possible?? I only drink bud light or miller lite. so cal wise i have that sorta on my side.

I've found that Beck's Light Beer is only about 65 calories and still tastes like a full beer!

I have my diary set so that only my friends can see it, even that took a while cause I didn't want the flack I thought I would get for my alcohol consumption. I opened it just to them and have not gotten a single criticism. I am living proof that you can drink and have weight loss. I log it all and even plan other calories around the fact that I know I will have a drink in the evening. My husband and I have a cocktail and discuss our day before dinner every evening. Just make sure you acount for it.

This is something I'm slowly conquering on my own as well. I used to have a beer almost every night after work, but now I'm only drinking one night a week. I've been able to lose even drinking a lot on Saturday, but I'm sure to get to where I want to be I'll most likely need to cut that back as well. I love beer so this is going to be tough for me LOL. I have found that when I drink whiskey and water (my fav. drink besides beer) instead I drink less and consume less calories overall. I guess the important thing, like everyone else has said, is to log it. I know, probably not much help, but either way, good luck!!

I still enjoy a drink and I am still losing weight. Like most people have said on here, all you have to do is budget for it. If I know I will be drinking a lot in the evening I will balance my diet acordingly. If I go over my calorie limit for that day, i will try and balance that out later in the week. As long as calorie counter is under my weekly total, i'm happy.