Drinking alcohol

I am a beer nut. Used to brew my own, grow my own hops, blah blah blah. I love beer.

Beer is liquid bread. I had to limit my self to only one REALLY GOOD beer to lose any weight, and that may not be enough to keep me from plateauing.

TO quench my beer craving, I drink a lot of carbonated mineral water or club soda with a lime in it. The cold bubbly fluid kinda feels like beer, the satisfying belch is still there, and surprising bonus: no beer farts.

Good luck. The abstinence crowd may be right, but it is no the ONLY option. My personal definition of alcohol as a problem is not the amount consumed but whether it interferes with your relationships and life. The best way to know that is to listen to other people and your body.

Sucks, huh?

If you have a "problem", then see Alcoholics Anonymous.

I think that's like saying if you have a problem with sugar at night, give it up completely, forever.

Put only two beers in the frig, or whatever your allotment is. Put the rest somewhere hard to get to, like your car trunk. Make them rich, filling beers, like Guinness. Make them more expensive than you're used to. Or don't buy any at all until the weekend.

If you're hanging out with people who drink more than that, try some changes. If you sit and watch tv and drink, try less TV. Move your exercise to night time or something.

Or try some alternative 'treat' drinks, like a home made Italian soda or iced coffee.

You do know it's possible to use the word 'problem' in the same sentence as an alcoholic beverage and NOT require counseling or other professional help for alcoholism, right?

Ok - those who are acting like this person has a problem because they can't NOT drink... that's ridiculous and unsupportive and just don't reply. It's called a social life... I completely understand. One of my weaknesses is that during the week I am on a very strict diet and then on the weekends when my boyfriend and I go out to dinner or drinks with friends, music festivals, family bbq's, etc. the drinks add up and the next thing you know, it's Monday and your calorie intake the past 2-3 days has set you back!! I think it is just really important to log those drinks into MFP and really stick to them. If you know ahead of time you are going to a specific restaurant and you will have two glasses of cab - log it and then really stick to it. Also, my friends and I have researched trying to find the lowest calorie drinks... bloody marys, vodka soda with a lemon and lime, bacardi and diet...It is really hard... I know ! You have a goal you want to achieve but you also want to have a good time and live life. Good luck!!

I get SO tired of reading about everyone who says you can't lose weight and still drink. MODERATION people, jeez.

I am a complete beer freak. I am on a personal mission to visit all of the (over 100 breweries) in the state of Michigan. I don't drink crap domestic beers. I drink craft beers - IPAs, bourbon barrel aged and Russian Imperial stouts, Belgian styles, etc etc. When I started on MFP in January of 2011 I was 250 pounds and a size 18. As of this morning I'm 155 and a size 8.

I have a little beer gut. I always will. I don't care, because I love beer. All I do? I don't drink Monday-Thursday. Friday and Saturday are my days to imbibe. Sunday maybe I'll have one good beer or a glass of red wine or a glass of bourbon. But I never go crazy on Sundays. Saturday? Saturday I go C.R.A.Z.Y. I do try to work with a bigger deficit during the weeks... right now, I NET between 1000-1200 Monday-Thursday... I am kind of a work out fiend and will get anywhere from 500-900 calories from that. I still workout on Friday and Saturday, and Sunday is usually a rest day or something low-key like a bike ride or yoga or foam rolling for a super long time. Doing this, I am basically maintaining. But when I say I go crazy, I mean I drink between 5-10 really big amazing beers, eat nachos, ice cream, you name it. I find that is makes me behave better during the week.

To each his own. I just want you to know that you CAN have your beer and lose weight too. It just takes dedication and committment on a very serious level all the other days of the week.

Um, the OP said that they have a beer, then they have another, and another and can't stop themselves. That's actually pretty much the definition of a problem. You don't have to get blind drunk every time you dink to have a dependency. If you require a 6 pack to have a good time, you have a drinking problem.

So I tend to drink a lot of my calories back in beer. Are there other people out there that have that problem? That is probably the main reason I am not losing as much weight as I could be. I try really hard not to drink but then I have a beer, and another, and another....what are other people doing to control this?

smoke weed instead