Well if this weight loss thing wasn't hard enough Im realizing that if I cut out alcohol Im sure it would get a little easier. I usually drink vodka only on the weekends but since Ive been on vacation for 2 weeks Ive been drinking more then usual. It makes me really hungry and i probably eat about 500 calories more then I should when I do drink but thats not including the vodka and lite cranberry juice.

Im wondering if anyone has had to cut alcohol all the way out of there diet to lose weight? or if you just cut back? Im thinking that I need to cut alcohol out of my diet period espeically if I want to see good results. Also is there anyone who wants to join me on this alcohol free journey? Any advice is welcome. Thanks

I cut out all alcohol except on special occasions. even then i try only to have one or two drinks. I've noticed when i do drink, even if i'm within my calories, i bloat by 2 or 3 pounds for up to 4 days. it's been easier for me just to not drink.
I don't know if any of that counts as advice, but i hope it shows you're not alone with the alcohol.

It definitely does count as advice I also get bloated from alcohol as well as grouchy the next day. Its inspiring to see that other young people were able to cut way back. It definitely gives me courage to say no to alcohol

I'm working on cutting out alcohol... it bloats me way too much for several days and it slows/stalls my loss. My friends aren't too happy w my decision but I'm sticking to it (mostly). We have a local gym that's open 24 hours and weekdays so we're actually joining it together so we have something to do on weeknights other than drink (and it's only $10/month!).

During the bulk of my losing I didn't drink at all. I think things went much more smoothly because I didn't drink.

Now, my challenge is fending off the drunchies when I do drink.

What I drink is pretty benign. I usually have raspberry vodka and club soda, and only 2-3 drinks at a time at most.

I find that if I take a break from drinking (a lot of studying to do or something) I automatically lose 4-5 lbs within a couple of weeks, and when I start back, it jumps back on. However, boredom might end up getting the better of you and you might substitute those missing alcohol calories and nights out with interesting food.

My four best friends are actually taking a class in Mexico for the winter term (6 weeks), and I opted out, assuming that it would end up being a ton of drinking in a pretty unsafe environment. So this winter I'm going to test out giving up drinking, since I probably will not be drinking as much without them there. It should be interesting and also might give me some extra energy to put into things like exercise.

On drinking, I've found that gimlets or gin and diet tonics are great- low-calorie, tasty, and usually cheap.

Bud light is one of my few unguilty pleasures (I know...beer! <gasp>). I'll have maybe one every other week or so. They're only 110 calories in a bottle, so it can't be much worse than one of those 100-cal snack packs that are so popular now. I keep it in moderation and savor it.

I don't think I've noticed any bloating issues. I had a beer before my weigh in two nights ago and still lost 1.9lbs.

But, I'm not going to lie. I miss drinking possibly more than I miss junk food. Not that I was a raging alcoholic or anything, but every few weeks, catching a buzz with my girl friends or bf was a good time. Lol, this makes me sound like a lush. But, the buzz isn't worth the calories.

So no, I haven't given up drinking entirely, but I no longer do it the way I used to.

My problem is that i would put 3 shots of vodka totaling about 200 calories into a tall glass with a cup of light cranberry juice 40 cals. Just one drink like that makes me ravenous and I notice that its really hard to say no to junk, and on top of that i would have about 2 drinks like that and about 800 cals of junk food. I only drink with my husband when were playing video games and on the weekend. Ive cut out alcohol before the 1st two weeks are hard but I think its necessary in order for me to get healthier. I don't think I can limit myself to 1 drink because it always turns into 2 and then 3 and you see how much alcohol goes into one drink so it really adds up for me. We dont go to social events so we don't have to worry about the pressure there its just we have made this a weekend routine for so long. Its a new year and time for change for me

I had to cut out drinking entirely... mostly because I am terrible at any sort of moderation. I also never had any point to my drinking aside from drinking to get drunk, which I did about four-five times a week up until I lost my job last month. With that job-related stress gone and the new year coming, I resolved to stop drinking. I have a couple of male friends who dropped dramatic weight last year and they were only able to accomplish it by not drinking. I know it really sucks, especially if your friends drink, but for me I know I'm going to drop it at least for the next 6 months and maybe pick it up again during maintenance if I find it's something I can work with at that point.

I hardly ever drink now, I might have 4 glasses of wine a month and if I go out with friends I limit myself to 2-3 drinks and then water the rest of the night.

I have seen a big difference in my weight loss when I cut out alcohol =)

I would love to join you on a quit drinking journey. I eat a ton more when I drink and I usually make Tom Collins which is super high in calories for such a small amount of liquid in my opinion.

Plus the bloating is ridiculous in me.

I find that if I drink when dieting it all goes out the window. Yes, because I want to eat all night when I've had a drink, but mainly I find the alcohol seems to affect my weight loss really severely.

I can have a week of really healthy eating and exercising 3-4 times, but if I have 500 cals worth of alcoholic drinks I won't lose an ounce come weigh-day! It seems to make the calories in vs calories out thing just not work.

So yes, I'm on a 2010 no-drinking rule until I get the first 25 off at least! Going to be hard though as all my friends are postgrad students like me! Hopefully they will just assume my soda water is vodka and lemonade

Since I started my weight loss journey at the end of September I gave up alcohol...I don't enjoy the taste of it anyway, so it hadn't had it....until New Year's Eve.

I was with some of my closest friends and what I planned on being one c/v drink turned into three. It was upsetting when I went to the scale the next day and saw the earlier day's loss back on, but that's life. In the future I'll continue to abstain from alcohol until I'm maintaining, but considering it was a holiday known for drinking....I'll give myself a pass.

I used to drink like a trucker and I KNOW it had something to do with my weight. Now I just drink on special occasions and/or nights out with the peepz (which pretty much turns out to once every other month at the most now). As long as I get right back on plan the next day, the bloating and weight I gain during that day/night of drinking is USUALLY gone with about 1 to 3 days. It's mainly water weight, and maybe a few extra calories from that "I don't give a rat's *ss what I'm eating" thing after you've drank!

Ugh...alcohol has been my worst problem in my weight loss. I *TRY* not to drink as much as I used to...but that generally doesn't work out the way I plan. I drink less frequently, but that has amounted to drinking 1 night a week (usually Saturday nights) compared to drinking both Friday and Saturday nights. I dunno. I don't want to stop drinking entirely...its what we do...we have our friends over, drink some beer, play cards, and just hang out. It's fun. We enjoy it. I don't plan on not doing it for the rest of my life...so I've been trying to do it while losing weight at the same time. It was fine for a while...but now my weight loss has really started to slow down (and by that I mean I'm STUCK)...so I think I am probably going to have to cut back on the drinking a lot more now to get it going again.