[Areia]

I've been counting calories pretty religiously since January 1st. I love math and statistics, so I weigh in every morning when I get up and keep a detailed spreadsheet with daily calorie counts and weights. The spreadsheet lets me track weekly and monthly averages with pretty graphs so that even if I’m up for a day or two I can still see the trend going down.

I’ve noticed something strange. While my weight loss trend generally follows my calorie intake fairly closely, I get two kinds of blips. One comes around once a month (any guesses anyone? , but the second kind happens whenever I drink alcohol. When I’m not counting calories I average about 1-2 drinks a week, so I assumed I still could as long as I counted them and drank enough water to rehydrate.

But although my monthly blips even back out after a few days and are less noticeable when I up my water intake, the alcohol related ones don’t. I track whatever I eat when I drink (and we’re talking a single drink here, so I do remember in the morning) and drink more water, but those single drinks still cause my weight to go up for a day, then drop after that, but never back to the lowest point.

It annoyed me until I figured out what was causing it, and it doesn’t seem to make sense, but then weight loss is hardly an exact science. Anyway – it won’t stop me from having my occasional drink, but I thought it was interesting enough to share with you all.

[luvja]

Whenever I drink alcohol, I'm always down a couple lbs.

[Areia]

Bodies are strange...

Do those couple of pounds stay off, or do they come back over the following days?

[luvja]

Sometimes they stay off, sometimes they come back. It just depends on how my diet is afterwards really!

[clarelou]

my weight is always down after a night out when iv drunk alcohol but iv been told its due to my body being dehydrated. it usually goes back up again the next day .

[kalikat003]

To be honest, I think you go down a couple of lbs because your body gets dehydrated. I have noticed that as well (as long as I didn't eat like a fiend while drinking)

but if I feel extremely dehydrated in the morning, I will be down at least 1 lb guaranteed!

[Areia]

I definitely agree on the hydration levels, they can make several pounds difference in the short term.

What surprised me was that my weight would stay above the point I was at before drinking alcohol, rather than evening out again. During periods where my calorie intake stayed the same, I would to go up after drinking, then over the next few days lose that weight, plus my normal average loss for eating reduced calories. Instead I go up, then drop back to my pre-alcohol weight plus an extra pound, and then have to start from there again.

This isn't a one-off either. In my case it's a trend I see whenever I drink alcohol.

[kimmieone]

I've dropped weight after a night of a couple of drinks, which is quickly erased after I've rehydrated. I don't have any clue about your blip.

[juls64]

Originally Posted by luvja

Whenever I drink alcohol, I'm always down a couple lbs.

same here

[Lori Bell]

I used to be that way until I hit about 35ish...then the weight just PILED on and alcohol was a major contributing factor...though I was drinking entirely too much.

[grneyedmustang]

Drinking definitely causes me to gain too...unless I have a REALLY bad night (I try to keep those to a minimum ).