I would like to know if anyone has found that drinking alcohol slows or stops your weight loss. Not, that I drink al the time, but I like to have a cocktail or glass of wine sometimes. Any advice?
i was able to lose 30lb while still drinking alcohol- i like to have a beer (sometimes two) most nights, so i budgeted it into my calories. My only problem was that if i did have more than one beer, my inhibitions were lowered and it was HARD not to snack. So, i think you can drink responsibly and still lose weight.
Me... As part of my weight-control efforts I went from a fairly modest 1 bottle of wine per week to between zero and 2 glasses a week and the difference in my weight could not be explained away by calories. I put it down to a multiple-whammy effect of alcohol ...
- Contains calories but no nourishment. If you use up 200 cals on alcohol it means you miss out on 200 cals of real food
- Perks up the appetite making snacking more likely
- Monkeys around with insulin levels... hence why the carb-laden, fat-laden fry-up is such a popular hangover cure
- Weakens willpower/judgement.... Otherwise no-one in their right mind would ever buy a kebab.
Might not affect you the same way, of course. But, as an experiment, drop booze 100% for 2 weeks and see how you get on.
Full disclosure -- I grow grapes that are made into wine for a living.
That said, I have lost about 25 pounds since January (a little more than 1 pound per week) while still having a glass of wine (about 150 calories worth) most nights with dinner. It is my special treat/reward for controlling my portions and not eating mindless snacks. Sometimes I find at dinner time that I can't "afford" to have a glass of wine because my choices have been a little too extravagent over the course of the day, on those days I skip the wine. That said, I have a lot of weight to lose (it will take more than 2 years at the rate of 1 pound/week), so my calorie allotment per day is 1800. If I were only eating 1200 calories/day, I couldn't "afford" the empty calories of a glass of wine regularly without sacrificing healthy, nutritious foods. As I get closer to goal I may have to reevaluate my wine drinking.
One thing I decided on this weight loss journey is that I would not do anything I couldn't see myself doing for the rest of my life. Abstaining from wine for the rest of my life is not in the cards for me. Portion control, focusing on healthy food choices, and moving more are my plan for losing excess weight -- as well as maintaining once I am at a healthy weight.
Log the calories of the alcholic drink into your daily caloric intake. The reason people gain weight from alcohol is that they don't compensate by eating less later. They still eat the same amount, regardless of whether they had the drink.
When a client is honest with me and tells me they plan on going out that night and have cocktails...I usually have them do some extra cardio. My rule of thumb is every 20 mins of intense cardio equals one glass of iwine!
Cheers! ;)
I usually drink a little on the weekends. My bf loves beer (German gene I guess!) and he is always asking me to drink something with him. Sometimes I completely avoid it because it's just so many empty calories, but sometimes I give in since I want to keep him company too. I think as long as you don't do it too often, it is fine. On special occasions I'm always drinking around 4 drinks and I still have lost weight. You just have to work extra hard the next day, eat less the next day to even it out, or just move on and continue with your plan the day after. I guess I look at it as a "binding" day since at the end I have more calories than I wanted.
Original Post by fitnessgirll:
Log the calories of the alcholic drink into your daily caloric intake. The reason people gain weight from alcohol is that they don't compensate by eating less later. They still eat the same amount, regardless of whether they had the drink.
When a client is honest with me and tells me they plan on going out that night and have cocktails...I usually have them do some extra cardio. My rule of thumb is every 20 mins of intense cardio equals one glass of iwine!
Cheers! ;)
Thanks! This helps alot. I don't drink too often, but want to have the luxury to have a glass now and then.
I lost about 30 pounds, while still drinking a couple drinks per week. I would usually drink a lot on the weekends, but not much during the week. I did log it in my calorie consumption though, and did eat less if I was going to drink that day.
im a binger.
and pretty much i can be binge-free at ALL times. and then i drink, and it ALL goes downhill. its a sad relationship and i feeel so gross after.
so personally, alcohol is my evil friend
Alcohol doesn't affect my weight loss at all. I would just make sure I ate less on they days I knew I'd be drinking a bunch, which was usually once a week.
in my case, yes, but i was a pretty big drinker. stopped and i feel so much healthier (i still drink, but not often--like maybe 4 times a month--and my tolerance is WAY lower which is not only better for my health but also better for my wallet). and yes, it stopped me from losing weight as fast as i wanted, but that's also because drinking makes me hungry... so that could also have been the issue...
A trainer told me (via a friend) that when you drink alcohol your body consumes the calories in the alcohol FIRST and only until it's completely digested does it resume using calories as normal. SO that means that if you eat and drink at the same time, your body is ignoring that pasta or rice in your stomach, storing it as fat, and is burning the calories that you've consumed from alcohol. When they're all finished (asuming you don't have another and yet another drink) THEN your body resumes to burning cals per usual.
But that being said, I feel that life's too short to skip a pleasure as "harmless" (in the grand scheme of things) as a glass of wine or a great craft beer and decide to embibe despite.
Original Post by stayontrack:
A trainer told me (via a friend) that when you drink alcohol your body consumes the calories in the alcohol FIRST and only until it's completely digested does it resume using calories as normal. SO that means that if you eat and drink at the same time, your body is ignoring that pasta or rice in your stomach, storing it as fat, and is burning the calories that you've consumed from alcohol. When they're all finished (asuming you don't have another and yet another drink) THEN your body resumes to burning cals per usual.
But that being said, I feel that life's too short to skip a pleasure as "harmless" (in the grand scheme of things) as a glass of wine or a great craft beer and decide to embibe despite.
Yeah, that was what I have heard too, so I guess it could slow you down. But I guess it still comes down to cals in and cals out.
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