Alcoholic calories are my downfall!

sryan921
sryan921 Posts: 29 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Just started using this site/app yesterday (even though I've been signed up for 2 years) and while entering my "dinner" from last night, I just realized I drank twice as many calories yesterday than I ate! Alcohol is gonna get me on this weight loss journey!

Anyone know any diet friendly drinks? Feel free to add me too, need as much support as I can get!
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Replies

  • kajpen
    kajpen Posts: 120 Member
    I found the same thing when I started. I actually gave up alcohol during the week and am only allowing myself a glass of wine on Saturday night and one on Sunday night. It made a world of difference!! I'm actually sleeping better at night since stopping too, which I wasn't expecting.

    It was hard for the first week, but watching the weight come off and my bodyfat percentage drop is making it more than worth it!!
  • iWaffle
    iWaffle Posts: 2,208 Member
    Alcohol is gonna get me

    Honestly just give it up except as an occasional treat. I really like a glass of wine but a couple of those and I'm up at 300 calories. I haven't had any since my anniversary in January. I honestly don't miss it that much. You can work it into your calorie goals if you want but that cuts out other food that will make you feel full.
  • sryan921
    sryan921 Posts: 29 Member
    Yeah, looks like I'm going to have to give it up for a while, with a few exceptions, of course. Thank God it's not football season!
  • TequillaLover89
    TequillaLover89 Posts: 260 Member
    I'm in the same boat as you.. I would rather have 4-5 drinks 2 or 3 nights a week than one drink once a week like what others are saying though :) Being in college I have friends who get smashed every night so in my eyes 2-3 times a week is great.
  • Flatliners99
    Flatliners99 Posts: 4
    I said this on another alcohol thread and I think it will help.

    Alcohol slows down your metabolisation of other fat. Most of the alcohol you drink is converted by your liver into something called acetate and this acetate is used as your body's primary source of fuel and energy. It replaces fat consumption. One study showed that fat metabolism dropped by 73% for several hours after two drinks.

    Then, as I and many others have done on way home from a night out, we go to the fast food place and get a ridiculous amount of greasy food to eat on the way home...the fats etc from this along with our now slowed metabolism is where weight gain can occur or weight loss can stall.
  • sryan921
    sryan921 Posts: 29 Member
    I'm actually more of a 3 cold beers after a long days work kind of girl, with the occasional crazy night here and there. Facts & statistics confuse me, yet scare the hell out of me too, so I think cutting back is the way to go!
  • melsal9902
    melsal9902 Posts: 11 Member
    I definitly found cutting back to be the best. Cold turkey may be difficult. I actually started drinking more because of the summer time. I justify it by making sure I get good food and calories in and a good exercise in and then look at my calories for the day. If my diary says I can handle a drink, I may have one without the guilt. You still have to live a little. Just adjust your habits, but make sure you have the majority of your calories as good foods that fill you up and be careful not to snack while your drinking, they add up. Good Luck
  • butterfli7o
    butterfli7o Posts: 1,319 Member
    Join the club...I don't like to give up my wine after a long day, but before I know it I've had half a bottle. It's hard for me because I don't want to feel I'm depriving myself all week either. So for beer, it's Michelob Ultra..and hard liquor with diet soda is a good combo too. A Captain and Diet (Captain Morgan spiced rum and Diet Coke) is about 65 cals if you use one shot.
  • butterfli7o
    butterfli7o Posts: 1,319 Member
    Oh, and I recently discovered Skinny Girl wine @ 100 cals a glass. :smile:
  • janemem
    janemem Posts: 575 Member
    When I first started using MFP I had no idea how many calories I was consuming in alcohol and was really surprised.
    After a while I noticed I was making a conscious effort to reduce the size of my alcoholic drinks and now I think I probably am down by about 50% which is great. I still have a drink every night but now I try to make sure that my calories from food at least equate the calories from alcohol (before it was more like 70/30 to the booze).
    White wine (ABV 9% or below), clear spirits, diet soda is about the best you can do calorie wise.
  • wantstolooseweight
    wantstolooseweight Posts: 166 Member
    My downfall too...... however making an accidental purchase on my shopping list I discovered Banrock Station light chardonnay
    55 cals for a small measure! and its actually quite nice!!!!

    This site has made me cut back a LOT simply by making me aware how many calories i was drinking
  • cmccorma
    cmccorma Posts: 203 Member
    I drink less. I won't cut it out completely as I plan for it to be a part of my life, but I save it for weekends. My problem is the junk food I crave after a few drinks!
  • selig0730
    selig0730 Posts: 509 Member
    if you want to lose weight you should cut down on your alcohol, maybe 1-2 times a week. put those into your list of calories that you eat for the day. just make sure you eat enough food as well. but if your excersing you get more calories to eat or drink alcohol. hope this helps
  • monicaroozo
    monicaroozo Posts: 200
    if your into margaritas heres a previous post with a delicious low calorie option:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/323651-74-calorie-margaritas-at-our-house-even-the-margaritas-have

    beers:
    IPA lovers might try Bitter American (150 calories)
    Dark beer lovers can grab a 12 oz Guinness Bottle (125 calories)
    If your into the light beers you prob already know which ones to go to

    alternates:
    IBC diet root beer bottles look like beer bottles, it might come in handy for a social or mental fix

    Cutting back is obviously the thing that most of us needed to do during weightloss, but the options above helped me get through!
  • kasebrad
    kasebrad Posts: 61 Member
    Cutting back is best, but you can still drink - just go with lower calorie options. The drinks in your diary are really high-cal not only because of the alcohol, but all the sugary stuff they're mixed with. Go for simple drinks like wine, light beer, or just alcohol + diet soda. For instance, having something like rum + diet coke would only be 70-100 calories (depending on how much booze they add), whereas some fancy cocktail with rum could have 500. You're probably getting the same amount of alcohol, but 5 times the calories because of all the stuff they mix in.
  • rachelbina
    rachelbina Posts: 32 Member
    I love to drink wine, before you know it that glass with dinner followed by a few after dinner really adds up calorie wise. I decided a week or so ago that until i hit the 130lb mark i'm not going to drink. that's about six pounds at this point. then i'll have one night to enjoy a few drinks at which point i'll set the next goal; probably 125lb.
    The funny thing is is it's been only a week and i'm really not missing it.
    i am sleeping better, waking up more rested, and have more energy for working out.
    i also am remembering how the wine seemed to call for chocolate and being a bit tipsy it would be easy to eat not just one chocolate... not just two... not just three ... etc....(or whatever other snack)
    also, up until the time i made this decision my weight loss had kind of stopped, even gone up a bit. so frustrating!!
    now i'm back on track.
    so i know your question was about lower calorie drinks, and i hope someone has offered you some advise with that, but
    i think you'll find with losing weight, at least for now, the best thing is to reduce how many and how often, even to the
    point of cutting out the alcohol altogether.
    good luck with everything!
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
    I said this on another alcohol thread and I think it will help.

    Alcohol slows down your metabolisation of other fat. Most of the alcohol you drink is converted by your liver into something called acetate and this acetate is used as your body's primary source of fuel and energy. It replaces fat consumption. One study showed that fat metabolism dropped by 73% for several hours after two drinks.

    Then, as I and many others have done on way home from a night out, we go to the fast food place and get a ridiculous amount of greasy food to eat on the way home...the fats etc from this along with our now slowed metabolism is where weight gain can occur or weight loss can stall.

    Could you cite a source that's more reliable than wikianswers (the a same text appears verbatim in a number of other blogs, repetition =/= fact)
  • sryan921
    sryan921 Posts: 29 Member
    Wow, thanks everyone, great suggestions/comments! I actually have pre-made plans to go to the same bar tonight that I did last night, so I'll definitely be ordering different and keeping this thread in mind!
  • graysmom2005
    graysmom2005 Posts: 1,882 Member
    I said this on another alcohol thread and I think it will help.

    Alcohol slows down your metabolisation of other fat. Most of the alcohol you drink is converted by your liver into something called acetate and this acetate is used as your body's primary source of fuel and energy. It replaces fat consumption. One study showed that fat metabolism dropped by 73% for several hours after two drinks.

    Then, as I and many others have done on way home from a night out, we go to the fast food place and get a ridiculous amount of greasy food to eat on the way home...the fats etc from this along with our now slowed metabolism is where weight gain can occur or weight loss can stall.
    This ^^^^ after I learned this I just never found alcohol worth the calories and the effects. I'd rather eat dessert with those calories and I don't want to screw with my metabolism. :-)
  • knackarsch
    knackarsch Posts: 53
    ‎"You made me do it. - Reginald Lambert, 22, took a few drinks. Then he decided the liquor nuisance must be abolished. From several police signal boxes he tuned in calls asking for the 'wagon', saying he wanted to raid some speakeasies. Police finally found him but he had forgotten about the raids by that time." From a 1929 Creston, Iowa newspaper mixed in with my great grandmother's crochet pattern collection.

    Heh heh heh... Just say no to alcohol!
  • Anna800
    Anna800 Posts: 639 Member
    I still drink wine, but if I know in advance I'm going to have it, I enter it into mfp first thing in the morning. Then I can work the rest of my day's calories around it. I've weighed myself everyday this week, last night had 2 classes of wine, today I stepped on the scale and it went down 2 lbs. An occassional glass of wine if not a problem for me, what is a problem is getting drunk then needing to eat again.
  • Flatliners99
    Flatliners99 Posts: 4

    Could you cite a source that's more reliable than wikianswers (the a same text appears verbatim in a number of other blogs, repetition =/= fact)

    I'll give you this link which is where I first read the information...written by a nutrition expert.

    And yes I did nab it from wikianswers as its the basic information and if people want to research it further they can :

    http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/md19.htm

    Also heres this link - http://general-medicine.jwatch.org/cgi/content/full/1992/421/

    Oh and one more - http://www.delmillers.com/Alcohol.htm

    You're welcome :)
  • sherronh
    sherronh Posts: 119 Member
    rum and diet is my favorite under 100 calories can't beat it!
  • sherronh
    sherronh Posts: 119 Member
    ALSO I try to not waste my calories on drinks that have high calories but little alcohol content if I don't have a lot to spare for the day. If I wanna feel a buzz Ill tend to grab something stronger like rum and diet or red wine with a high % (:
  • sherronh
    sherronh Posts: 119 Member
    I said this on another alcohol thread and I think it will help.

    Alcohol slows down your metabolisation of other fat. Most of the alcohol you drink is converted by your liver into something called acetate and this acetate is used as your body's primary source of fuel and energy. It replaces fat consumption. One study showed that fat metabolism dropped by 73% for several hours after two drinks.

    Then, as I and many others have done on way home from a night out, we go to the fast food place and get a ridiculous amount of greasy food to eat on the way home...the fats etc from this along with our now slowed metabolism is where weight gain can occur or weight loss can stall.
    This ^^^^ after I learned this I just never found alcohol worth the calories and the effects. I'd rather eat dessert with those calories and I don't want to screw with my metabolism. :-)

    There are some studies that actually show that drinking a glass of wine during and after dinner can INCREASE your metabolism. How many skinny alcoholics are out there? lol
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member

    Could you cite a source that's more reliable than wikianswers (the a same text appears verbatim in a number of other blogs, repetition =/= fact)

    I'll give you this link which is where I first read the information...written by a nutrition expert.

    And yes I did nab it from wikianswers as its the basic information and if people want to research it further they can :

    http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/md19.htm

    Also heres this link - http://general-medicine.jwatch.org/cgi/content/full/1992/421/

    Oh and one more - http://www.delmillers.com/Alcohol.htm

    You're welcome :)

    A couple of guys selling books and a broken link, however i did find this:

    "We conclude that alcohol has a fat-sparing effect similar to that of carbohydrate and will only cause fat gain when consumed in excess of normal energy needs. "

    http://www.ajcn.org/content/59/3/619.abstract?sid=547efea5-4e27-41b1-a519-b7574953ec55
    American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

    which one of your sources quoted, but I couldn't find the abstract for the study he referred to.......
  • helenoftroy1
    helenoftroy1 Posts: 638 Member
    I want to reply to this, but I need to think a bit more about it so I am bumping for later
  • dumb_blondes_rock
    dumb_blondes_rock Posts: 1,568 Member
    stick to vodka and a diet drink, like diet soda or chrystal light.....and eat very light for dinner, like a shrimp salad, or a chicken wrapped with lettuce...something around 300 cals or so....sometimes i just skip dinner and drink a few bloody marys and call it my dinner
  • sryan921
    sryan921 Posts: 29 Member
    Hahaha, well if you look at my food diary, my whole dinner last night was alcohol! Not condoning this though, I know I have to do better. Vodka & crystal light sounds like a good mai tai alternative, but I doubt the bar will have that. And do people really mix vodka with pop (soft drink, soda, whatever)?
  • katejkelley
    katejkelley Posts: 839 Member
    Like many others who have posted here, I've pretty much given up alcohol. I will occasionally have a glass of wine - usually if we go out for dinner. My only other "must have" is 2 Bud Lite Lime beers when I play golf on Ladies' Night. I usually plan for those and cut calories somewhere else during the day.

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